Your client gives you three hours a week. How much of it deserves a warm-up?

The short answer

The warm-up is the most protected ten minutes in training and the least questioned. The evidence for it reducing injury is real in places, thin in others, and highly specific to the injury and the population. A 2023 randomised controlled trial of a judo-specific prevention programme found no significant drop in overall injury, 23% in the trained group against 28% in the control (British Journal of Sports Medicine, von Gerhardt et al., 2023). If some of that ten minutes buys nothing for this client, you just spent their time on habit. Learning to tell the difference is what the Fitness Programming Specialist teaches. It is £1,800, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100.

Key Takeaways

• Warm-up injury prevention is real for some mechanisms and absent for others. The blanket claim does not survive the evidence.
• Static stretching before performance tends to cost you power, not add it.
• Your client gives you three hours a week. Every minute spent on ritual is a minute not spent on what they came for.

Programming is hard when you are only allowed to believe

Programming gets tough when the rule is trust what you were told.

The one-in-ten trainer who ends up in the FASTER community will not accept "this is how we have always done it". Not to be difficult. Because clients pay for it when we are wrong.

Programming is two jobs at once. A long-term volume of movement you want the client to reach, and a short-term respect for the three hours a week they actually hand you. Both have to be true.

So you challenge everything, with decent science and a lot of questions. Start with the most sacred bit. The warm-up.

Does the warm-up prevent injury?

In 2026, a systematic review and meta-analysis of neuromuscular training warm-ups in youth soccer reported injury reductions, yet the specific effect on knee injuries missed significance, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.86 (Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, Alkishnawi et al., 2026). Prevention works, but by mechanism and population, not as a blanket.

Look at where it fails to show up. In Canadian high school girls' rugby, a 2026 study of a neuromuscular training warm-up found no statistically significant difference in match injury rates or concussion rates (JOSPT, Shill et al., 2026).

Athletes and coaches in the judo trial believed the programme worked. It did not move overall injury prevalence. Belief and effect are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where wasted session time hides.

The thing that actually decides it

Here is what the good research keeps landing on. Adherence.

A 2025 analysis of ACL prevention programmes concluded that adherence is the key that turns efficacy into effectiveness (Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, Kayaalp et al., 2025). A protocol only works if the person keeps doing it.

Which reframes your job. A shorter warm-up your client will actually repeat beats a perfect one they quietly skip when you are not watching.

What about warming up for performance?

This one is cleaner, and it cuts against a common habit. Static stretching before you need output tends to reduce it.

In a 2020 study of repeated-sprint performance in female handball players, static stretching decreased average power compared with both dynamic stretching and no stretching at all (Journal of Human Kinetics, Zmijewski et al., 2020). Worse than doing nothing.

For standing long jump in schoolchildren, dynamic stretching added 11 centimetres on average, while static stretching and the control produced no gain or a slight drop (Biology of Sport, Merino-Marban et al., 2020).

So the honest position is not "never warm up". It is know what each part buys. Dynamic preparation before power, yes. A long static hold that costs output, for a client chasing output, no.

How to use this on Tuesday

Take your standard warm-up and put each part on trial.

What is this piece for? Injury, for a mechanism this client is actually exposed to? Or performance, for what they are about to do? Or is it here because the last programme had it?

Keep what buys something. Bin what does not. Give the reclaimed minutes back to the client, who gave you very few of them.

That is not corner-cutting. That is respecting three hours a week instead of spending them on ritual.

Frequently asked questions

Do warm-ups actually prevent injury?

For some mechanisms and populations, yes, but not as a blanket rule. A 2026 review found neuromuscular warm-ups reduced injuries overall while missing significance for knee injuries specifically (Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, Alkishnawi et al., 2026). Effect depends on the injury targeted and whether the client keeps doing it.

Should I stop warming up my clients?

No. You should audit each part of the warm-up for what it buys this client and this session. Keep dynamic preparation before power work. Drop long static stretches before performance, since they tend to reduce power output.

Why does adherence matter more than the protocol?

Because a warm-up only works when it is actually done. A 2025 ACL analysis found adherence was what turned prevention efficacy into real-world effectiveness (Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, Kayaalp et al., 2025). A shorter routine a client repeats beats a longer one they skip.

What does the Fitness Programming Specialist cost?

£1,800 paid in full, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100. It counts as active learning, so your PT Manager access runs while you study.

Start here

The Fitness Programming Specialist is £1,800, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100. It teaches you to research a claim, test it, and design programmes you can defend, warm-up included.

Not sure it is your next step? Ask. John will tell you honestly, including if the answer is not yet. The founder answers the WhatsApp.

Sources

• British Journal of Sports Medicine, "Effectiveness of a judo-specific injury prevention programme," von Gerhardt et al., 2023, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-105869
• Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, "Preventive efficiency of neuromuscular training in reducing lower limb injuries among youth soccer athletes," Alkishnawi et al., 2026, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2026.1853354
• Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, "Is a neuromuscular training warm-up enough for injury and concussion prevention in high school girl rugby players?" Shill et al., 2026, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2026.13373
• Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, "Adherence as the key to anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention programme success," Kayaalp et al., 2025, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.1002/ksa.70256
• Journal of Human Kinetics, "Acute effects of a static vs a dynamic stretching warm-up on repeated-sprint performance in female handball players," Zmijewski et al., 2020, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2019-0043
• Biology of Sport, "Acute effect of a static- and dynamic-based stretching warm-up on standing long jump performance in primary schoolchildren," Merino-Marban et al., 2020, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2021.99703