The fastest way to warm up for a workout that includes higher intensity is by ramping up the intensity without fatiguing your muscles. The goal of this type of warm up is to make you more alert, focused, and ready to push yourself. It will increase your heart rate and breathing rate without making you too tired. It is not designed to increase any specific mobility so you will need to add that in separately if needed. This warm up should be the last thing you do before jumping into the work out.
The Breathing Gears can be used both to cool down after workouts or to imitate an aggressive workout itself. To use it in this way you will purposefully “shift” up in gears even when you don’t feel the need.
The Process
- Hop on a bike, rower, or other cardio machine
- Ride for about 1:00 at an easy pace, breathing easy in and out your nose, inhales and exhales taking the same amount of time
- From here begin to change your breathing purposely
- At the 1:00 mark keep taking controlled inhales, but now make your exhales fast and powerful
- Do this for :40 seconds
- At the 1:40 mark switch to powerful inhales and exhales for :30 seconds
- Then at 2:10 begin to breath in your nose and out your mouth powerfully
- Finally at 2:30 use big breaths in and out your mouth, do so for only :10 seconds
At the end of the warm up you should have breathed in each stage for :60/:40/:30/:20/:10 respectively. Throughout ramp up the pace as you go to match your new breath rate. Hop off the machine and bring your breathing rate down while returning to breathing in and out your nose. You should feel very warm and alert. Begin your high intensity workout within 5:00 after finishing this preparation technique.
If the timing laid out takes too makes you overly tired you can adjust the timing. Keep gear 1 for 1:00 but cut the rest in half to 20/15/10/5.
