You Can't Win the Warm-up

"You can't win the warm-up." — Jason Highbarger

My coach said this at the start of class, and it stuck with me all night.

You can't win the warm-up.

There is no best, first, or most in the warm-up.

There is only one goal in the warm-up: to get yourself warmed up. It's a pass/fail grading structure. No A's, no 100's. Done or undone.

How many times have you found yourself trying to do the warm-up better than the next person? Right? BUSTED.

• "My high knees are the best here."

• "Hmm, that squat isn't as good."

• "I came in first on the run."

This stuff goes through your head—admit it. The good news is that it goes through all of us; we just usually don't say it. We are competitive people. Fitness is not easy and it's not always fun. But we do it because we have this crazy idea that it will make us better athletes, and better people. And it does.

Trying to win the warm-up is misplacing your efforts, though.

It's trying to excel in time when you should be preparing in movement. 

You wouldn't take the test before studying, right? The warm-up is study.

Mobility work is study.

The test is the workout. I

f you want optimal results (and we ALL do), then try not to get them confused.

You can't win the warm-up. So simple ... and yet so hard. Think about that next time you're racing through some shoulder pass-throughs or side shuffles or walk-out push-ups.

Slow down. Get it right. Then get it done.

Pass/Fail.