Hey there, Franz & Elliot here from Strong and Mobile

Quick question: Do you do the same warm-up before every training session?

If yes, we need to talk.

Here's the thing most people get wrong about warming up: they treat it like a mandatory checklist. Same mobility flow. Same activation drills. Same duration. Every single time.

But here's what actually matters:

Your warm-up should change based on three things:

You've probably heard things like:

We're not buying it.

Why? Because the mobility restriction you're working through today might not exist next month. The exercise you're preparing for this week might not be in your program next week. Your body on Monday morning after a stressful weekend is completely different from your body on Thursday evening when you're feeling great.

A rigid warm-up can't adapt to these realities.

Think of your warm-up in three parts:

Part 1: Your Staples These are movements that consistently work well for you. Maybe it's a 5-minute flow you've refined. Maybe it's rope skipping. Maybe it's specific joint prep you always benefit from.

But here's the key: everything has to fight to stay in your warm-up. Just because something worked for months doesn't mean it deserves a permanent spot.

Part 2: Session-Specific Prep What are you training today? Sometimes the best warm-up for squats is just... doing squats. Bodyweight variations, gradually adding load, exploring range of motion.

You don't need 10 minutes of random mobility drills. You need to prepare for the actual work ahead.

Part 3: How You Feel Right Now Some days you walk in feeling mobile and ready. 5 minutes and you're good to go.

Other days? You're cold, tight, stressed, and disconnected. You might genuinely need 20-30 minutes to arrive and feel prepared.

Both are correct when matched to your actual state.

“On my last lower body pulling day, I just used a nice flow of 50 reps of different Kettlebell Swings coupled with a nice little animal mobility flow for 2 minutes. I then did a few more back extensions and sidebends on the GHD to warm-up my spine as it was feeling particularly stiff that day. Now it was already time to do a few warm-up sets of RDLs, using extra elevation to get into the deep ranges before starting to load it more for my working sets. So that day I took around 20 mins to warm-up.” ~Franz

“My main lift for today’s lower body session was sumo deadlifts, which demands strong and mobile hips. So what I did was some assisted elevated pigeon pulses, coupled with leg swings to get blood flowing into my lower body. My hips started feeling warm as I did these. Then I sat in a deep squat with an empty barbell on my back and just got comfortable sitting there under some light load… really helps “waken” up my ankles, knees, and hips. Then a couple explosive jumps to prime my nervous system, and I was ready to begin my workup sets for heavy deadlifts. This all took <10 mins.” ~Elliot

Your warm-up isn't just preparation. It's assessment.

As you move through your warm-up, you're scanning: Is anything painful? Tight? Weak? Off?
Take the example above where Franz used the extra GHD work to get some additional spine movement in as he was feeling more tight in the spine than usual.

This information tells you what your session needs to be. Maybe you push hard. Maybe you dial it back. Maybe you spend extra time on a problem area.

A good warm-up gives you this data before you're under a heavy barbell.

Your warm-up can be 3 minutes. It can be 30 minutes.

Short works when:

Long works when:

Stop judging yourself for needing what you need.

At Strong & Mobile Academy, we're teaching you to think like a coach about your own training. That includes understanding how to build warm-ups that actually serve you.

Over the coming weeks and months, you'll see:

We're not giving you another rigid routine to follow blindly. We're giving you the framework to make intelligent decisions.

Your warm-up should:

If it's not doing all three, it's not working optimally.

Most people are wasting time on warm-ups that don't serve their actual needs. Or they're skipping warm-ups entirely because they've never learned how to make them efficient and purposeful.

There's a better way.

We'll show you how inside the Academy.

See you inside,

Franz & Elliot

Strong & Mobile Academy

P.S. Want to dive deeper into this? We have a complete warm-up guide inside the Academy that breaks down the anatomy of effective warm-ups, common myths we reject, and how to build your own protocols.
This is the kind of education that changes how you approach every single training session.