Warming up is an essential component of participating in sports like soccer or any other physical activity. It gets your joints warmed up, your blood circulating better, and it delivers essential nutrients with oxygen to your muscles. Yours muscles will become more flexible and therefore decrease the risk of injury.

Here are some of our favourite Stadium warm-ups that we encourage that you try before engaging in physical activity. It includes all of your major joints and muscles groups and shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to complete.

1. Jumping Jacks

Called “power jacks” by some, try to channel energy through the motions, not flail around like you used to as a kid. Start standing straight with your arms by your side. Raise your arms as you jump and land with your feet more than hip distance apart. Jump again and land in the position you started in. Feel the resistance as you go through the motions, making your jumps high and wide and your arms sweeping powerfully through the air.

2. Walking lunge with a twist

Start with your feet planted together. Step out with your left foot, bending your right leg. Make sure that your left knee does not go past your left toe as it approaches the kneeling position. Now raise your elbows out so that they are level with your shoulders and twist your upper body as far as you can to the left and then to the right. Slowly raise your body and bring your right foot forward to perform the subsequent lunge and repeat the upper body motion.

3. Squats

Plant your feet firmly on the ground hip distance apart. Lower your upper body, being careful to keep your back straight until you find yourself in a semi-sitting position. Mind that your knees do not go past your toes.

4. Jumping lunges

Start in a forward lunge position. Swing your arms in a forward motion and jump up, switching the position of your legs in the air and land in a lunge with the opposite foot in the front. Repeat!

5. Shoulder rolls

Roll your shoulders forwards up towards your ears and down again. After some rolls, reverse the direction so that you are going in.

6. Elephant trunk

Bend your arms at the elbow to attain a 90 angle and raise them so that your elbows are at shoulder level. Join your forearms together in front of your face. Squeeze them together, creating resistance and pulse your arms up. You should feel resistance in your shoulders and your biceps flexing.

7. Alternating Side lunge

Stand in a wide stance with your arms raised to be level with your shoulders. Lunge toward your right knee and then twist your upper body to the right and reach for your right toe with your left hand. Bring your upper body back to its forward facing position and then lunge to the left while twisting your upper body to the left and reaching for your left toe with your right hand.

8. High Kicks

While trying to keep your body straight, kick as high as you can in front of you with your left foot while keeping your right foot planted. Alternate with your right foot kicking and your left foot on the ground.

9. Butt Kicks

Jog in a spot kicking your feet back towards your glutes. This motion stretches out the front of your thighs while finishing up your workout with a raised heart rate!

Come to the Stadium and get moving, whichever way suits you! Just don’t forget to warm up first!