ow do your athletes warm up before hitting the weight room? For years coaches asked that they perform static stretches -- bending and stretching while sitting and standing. Other Coaches have used a general warm up, with the idea of simply getting the muscles moving.

  But neither approach is truly in your athletes' best interest. Getting ath-letes ready for intense activity is not just about stretching, nor is it just about warming up the body. For your athletes to get the most out of their weight room workout, they need to use a more integrated approach.

  In response, we have developed a group of movements that we call movement preparation (or movement prep) to ready the body for intense activity. In our work with athletes, movement prep has replaced the terms "warm-up" and "stretching," not by deleting them but embracing them and pulling them into an integrated system. for whatever reason that day.

  And what's wrong with static stretching to get ready for weightlifting? Stretching may increase muscle length, but it does not ready the neurological system for intense activity. Isolated stretching works on one simple movement pattern, but lifting a weight involves complicated movement patterns.

  Pre-activity warm-up and stretching are still necessary, but they must be woven into neuromuscular activities that prepare the body on a much higher level for functional activity. The main idea of movement prep is to let go of isolation and embrace integration.