The Warm-Up Mistake Most Adults Make
- Archie Cunningham
- Dec 18, 2025
- 3 min read
Most adults don’t warm up.Not properly, anyway.
They jog for 30 seconds, swing their arms around like they’re shooing a pigeon, maybe touch their toes once… and then wonder why their knees hurt, their back tightens, or their shoulder “just isn’t what it used to be.”
The truth? Your warm-up is probably the root cause of half the stiffness you blame on age.
Let me tell you when this finally clicked for me.
The Moment It Hit Me
There was a morning a few years ago when I’d rushed into a session — late, stressed, and still half-thinking about school drop-off.
I skipped the warm-up entirely.
First set of squats: hips felt like concrete.
Second set: lower back whispered, “Mate, what are you doing?”
Third set: everything seized.
I hadn’t aged overnight.
I’d just trained like someone who thought they were still 22.
At 35+, you can’t skip the ramp-up.
Your body isn’t resisting you — it just needs a better invitation.
Warm-Ups Aren’t About Warming Up
This is where most adults get it wrong.
A warm-up isn’t about getting sweaty.It’s about teaching your body:
how to move today
which muscles need to switch on
which joints need space
what pattern you’re about to ask it to perform
It’s rehearsal, not busywork.
And when you do it properly, everything changes — your lifts feel smooth, your joints feel younger, and your risk of annoying niggles drops dramatically.
This mirrors what I teach inside The CFC Method. Most adults don’t need 30 minutes of stretching; they need 5–10 minutes of targeted mobility that matches the session they’re about to do.
The Most Common Warm-Up Mistake
Here it is, bluntly:
Most adults warm up for the workout they wish they were doing, not the one they’re actually doing.
Example?
You're about to squat, but you foam-roll your back for 6 minutes and jog on the spot.
You're about to deadlift, but you do shoulder circles.
You're about to press overhead, but you stretch your hamstrings.
Wrong pattern.
Wrong prep.
Wrong priority.
Your warm-up should be a precise message to your body:
“This is what we’re doing today — get ready.”
When you match the warm-up to the movement, the body responds exactly how you want it to.
The Warm-Up That Works for Adults 35+
Inside CrossFit Chichester, we coach a simple, repeatable structure.Three pieces. Ten minutes. No fluff.
1. Open the joints
Think: ankles, hips, T-spine, shoulders. This is your oil change — the stiffness reducer.
2. Activate the right muscles
Glutes, core, upper back. If these areas stay asleep, the wrong muscles take over later — and that’s where problems start.
3. Rehearse the pattern
Light reps of the lift you’re about to do, with control and tempo. This is practice, not performance.
This isn’t random — it’s the exact structure from the Build Your Body Back method.
It works because adults don’t need complexity; they need consistency.
Why This Matters More as You Age
By your mid-thirties, your warm-up is no longer optional.It’s the difference between:
moving well vs. moving stiff
finishing a session strong vs. limping through it
staying consistent vs. collecting injuries
enjoying training vs. fearing it
Most adults think they’re falling apart.They’re not.They’re just skipping the only part of training designed to keep them together.
A Story We See Every Week
One of our members — let’s call him Andy — used to arrive three minutes before class, grab a barbell cold, and hope his knees didn’t explode.
After two weeks of structured warm-ups, he said something brilliant:
“I thought my knees were the problem. Turns out my hips were just angry I ignored them.”
That’s the shift.Warm-ups don’t just prepare you — they fix things you thought were permanent.
The Takeaway
If you take just one thing from this:
Adults don’t get injured because they’re old. They get injured because they’re unprepared.
Treat your warm-up as the negotiation that makes the whole session work.
Get it right, and the training feels good again.
If this resonated and you want help building strength without breaking yourself, you know where we are. But even if you train alone — try this warm-up structure for two weeks and feel the difference.
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