Here you’ll find a variety of movements to warm up your upper body. You’ll prepare your torso, shoulders, arms, back, and chest by moving through a range of motions with increasing engagement. Ideally, you’ll start with the first exercise and work your way down, gradually adding on load to different muscle groups. With a proper upper body warm up, you’ll help prevent injuries, prepare your body and mind for the rigor to come, maximizing your gains with focused energy!
Use the exercises below for a full upper body warm up
Tools that are nice to have:
- Yoga mat or small blanket for your knees
- Theraband or other stretchy band. (don’t fret if you don’t have a resistance band– just skip over these– there are plenty of upper body warm up exercises included that don’t need a band!)
- Small to medium squishy ball (again, not necessary at all!)
1. Shoulder-Elbow-Full Arm Roll
Gradually wake up your shoulders with this warm up sequence. You’ll start by rolling the shoulders forward, up, then back and down. This will graduate to elbow circles, and will finish out with full arm circles. Start with at least 10 rotations in each position: shoulders, elbows, then arms. Then repeat the sequence in the opposite direction, rolling the shoulders from back to front. NOTE: If you feel crunchy or creaky (feeling pops or discomfort), slow down. Aim for slower circles and find the path of least resistance. You’re lubricating the shoulder joint without any additional force from gravity- take it slow and let the body slowly wake up to movement.
2. Over the head with band or stick
Building off the momentum from shoulder rolls, we’ll now add a bit of resistance to engage the shoulder muscles through their full range of motion. Holding a long stick, rod, or resistance band with arms more than shoulder-width apart, bring the band from the front of the body, over your head and then behind you. As your upper body warms up through this exercise, you can bring your hands closer together, actively pulling against each other to complete the motion. You’ll feel your scapula bones snake towards each other, and away. Take it slow and enjoy this movement!
3: Around the head with band or stick
Continuing with the band or stick, circle your arms around your head, sequentially bending and straightening alternating arms. You can increase the tension by pulling your hands away from one another, or stay focused on increasing your shoulder mobility by focusing more on your range of motion. Be mindful to not puff out your chest here! Keep the focus in the shoulder joints.
4. Band Pulls
Grabbing a band with about a foot in between both hands, move your arms out and back in for this enlivening warm up. At this point, we’ve gained mobility in the chest, arms, back, and shoulders and are ready to take it up a notch. The key here is control: the slower the better.
5. Hug with Band
Take a resistance band around your back, holding onto either end with each hand and move your arms towards center and back to the starting position: just slightly forward. You should be able to see your hands from the starting position in your peripheral vision. Take this slow in both directions: you’ll find as the arms come towards center, your chest will contract and warm up. On your way back to a T position, your upper back muscles engage and to keep your body in control.
6. Scapular Circles:
If you have a squishy ball on hand, try these scapula circles with a ball. Otherwise, omit the ball and just focus on the circles. Facing the wall with your arm straight in front of you, lightly hold the ball against the wall and make small circles in both directions. The goal here is to mobilize the scapula while waking up the smaller, less superficial muscles that support the glenohumeral joint.
7. Cat-Cow
Now that the muscles in the upper body are considerably warmer, we’ll change our orientation to gravity and add an active stretch. In this cat-cow variation, bring focus to your fingertips: pushing the floor away and supporting your torso as you move through both positions. In the cat position, notice the scapula detract down and away from one another.
8. Scapular Stabilization
Continuing on all fours with both shins pressed equally into the ground, glide one arm up to nearly 180 degrees. You’ll find immediately that the body wants to shift and compensate to support the movement. Don’t let it! Alternately, you’ll engage and stabilize the rhomboids and then seratus anterior as you retract and then protract the scapula.
9. Scapular Push Up
Building off the previous movement, bring the arm out to the side. From here, do a “scapula push up” with the stabilizing side. You’ll sink your shoulder towards the floor and then engage the front muscle of the scapula: serratus anterior, as you push the floor away.
10. Bent Knee Push Ups
Ok, now we’re bearing weight y’all. Increase the load on your chest and back with these bent-knee push-ups. Even if you’re up for it, try to keep the knees on the floor. Remember, this is a warm up!
11. Dolphin Push Ups
Starting from a downward dog, slowly bring the elbows to the floor, keeping the forearms and elbows parallel to one another. Push back up to a downward dog from this position. This is intense! If you’re finding you don’t have the shoulder mobility for this movement, just go as low as your body is capable of. No need to push it.
12. Side Oblique Push Up
Again, we’re now bearing weight and letting the force of gravity challenge our upper body to warm up. Taking a side plank, let the same foot come in front as the supporting arm. Start by reaching above your head, then contract, bringing the chest, knees, and arms together. Round out the movement by pushing back out to a side plank.
