No Time to Lift, so Warmup Only

This morning, after training clients, I had a lot to do - and a few of them needed to get done early. I didn't have much time for my usual Wednesday workout. In fact, I really didn't have time to do much of anything.

So all I did was my general purpose warmup and nothing else.

My warmup is critical to my workout. If I can only do one thing, it's warm up. I can't just jump into sled dragging, deadlifting, biking, squatting, pushups, etc. without really feeling the lack of the warmup. I can jump into my warmup, though. My "workout" needs my warmup, but my warmup doesn't need the workout.

Here is what I did:

The Couch Stretch
Some ELDOA stretches (mostly hip-centric stretches)
Cat-Camels / Kneeling Thoracic Extensions / Hip Shifting
Band Terminal Knee Extensions
Step Over walks
Hip Circle walks
A four-way shoulder warmup plus protractions and retractions

Had I had more time, I'd have put in more stretches, my usual foam rolling, and some stretches I do post-workout. Only if I had time enough to do that and more would I have added in my usual lifting in between.

Warmups are that important. Keeping up postural training, hip and shoulder rehab, activation drills, etc. is critical for me, more so than getting in a few sets of reps of "work."

If you don't have time to warm up, you don't have time to work out.