A 10 Minute Guide
For A 10 Minute
Warm Up
Anti-Fragilizing Your Body With 3 Simple Rules
And 4 Easy Exercises
Version 1.0: Fully Updated
By Richard Andoh
www.barbrothersgroningen.com
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The Philosophy Behind The Warm Up
Anti-fragilizing Your Body With 3 Simple Rules
Before you receive complete instructions for your warm up there is something
you need to understand. Something which the fitness industry is completely
overlooking and what you need to know as you embark on this journey.
“Training without a
proper warming up is
asking for trouble,
that’s why you need to
prepare for trouble,
because you can’t
warm up in every
situation.”
It’s an easy philosophy which I stick to and
which has made my wrist –which I brokestronger than it has ever been.
I stumbled upon this idea when I read a
book by Nassim Taleb1 and again was
confronted by it in an interview from
movement guru Ido Portal and mobility
expert Steve Maxwell in which the
question was asked: “What is the opposite
of fragile?”
Take a second to answer this question,
before you continue.
The logical answer would be ‘unbreakable’. At least that’s probably the first
thing that popped into your mind. But is that true?
To find out we need to determine what fragile is, what unbreakable is and then
discover if there is anything else which we have been missing. So let’s take a
look at something which is fragile first.
You might have had an injury in the past or perhaps you have a weak back,
weak wrists or weak ankles.
1
Anti-Fragile: Things that gain from disorder by Nassim Taleb
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And even if you think you don’t, there are certain places on your body which
are more injury prone than others. That’s why it’s important for you to
understand these 3 concepts: fragile, unbreakable anti-fragile.
Fragile: Remember your mom’s favourite glass which you dropped on the
floor? It shattered into a 1000 pieces never to be repaired again. Well that’s
clearly fragile, it breaks and that’s it, it does not have the ability to recover.
Unbreakable: Now let’s look at something which is unbreakable, like the rock
you once collected on the beach. You can throw it as much as you want, but it
does not break. Nor does it become stronger in the process, that’s it. It does
not need to recover, but it doesn’t adapt either.
Anti-fragile: There are however things which
can both recover and adapt into something
stronger. It’s not unbreakable, but it isn’t
fragile either.
It tears or develops cracks and in the process
it becomes stronger. Eventually even being
able to break a rock. It’s the opposite of
fragile, Taleb calls it ‘anti-fragile’. Guess
what’s has these characteristics?
“A good warming up
does
not
only
prevent injuries, it
prepares you for
when they might
occur.”
Your own body.
You and I are actually able to make our bodies stronger by putting it under a
certain amount of stress. We essentially build muscle by breaking it down first.
Now this is exactly what you can use to prevent by preparing yourself for
injuries. Put a controlled amount of stress on your weak spots and make them
stronger in the process in addition to warming them up as a preventive
measure.
Sounds like hocus pocus?
Well, here are 3 practical principles to warm up your body and anti-fragilize
your body.
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1. Start with easy compound moves
Make sure your blood is flowing, your tendons and muscles are in a state of
preparation and that you are mentally in tune for what you are going to do.
This is most effectively done through compound moves, such as:





Rope jumping
Hanging
Crawling
Cycling
Running
By doing compound moves before you start you are preparing your entire
body, you could say ‘you wake it up’. These moves should be easy and
controlled in terms of stress you put on your body, because of exactly that
reason.
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2. Realize that injury situations will always occur
During your warming up or especially when you are thinking of ways to warm
up, this is what you want to remember: ‘It doesn’t matter where you train,
even if it’s in a room filled with pillows. You will find yourself in injury
situations’. That’s why you want to ask yourself:
 Where am I injury prone?
 What are my weaker places?
 Which places on my body do I need to pay special attention to?
Focus specifically on those areas when warming up.
Because your injuries aren’t just going to disappear and in the worst case can
become even worse if neglected.
You need to actively keep anti-fragilizing those parts of your body and instead
of a weakness those parts will become your strength.
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3. Place yourself in injury situations
This is where you actually prepare for injuries.
Sounds counterproductive, but to prevent injuries, the exact thing you want to
do is make the movement that would cause the injury to understand it and be
prepared. This is a preparation oriented approach, which goes one step
beyond just prevention.
Let’s take a vaccine as an example. You get vaccinated, which essentially
means you get injected with a weaker version of the virus, which makes you
sick. But because it’s a weakened version your body develops antibodies and in
the process is prepared for future situations where the virus will infect you.
That’s exactly what you want to do by placing yourself in an injury situation.
Planning to do muscle ups with weak wrists for example? Better start antifragilizing those wrists before you decide to try a single muscle up.
So what warm up routine will help you in preparing for injuries?
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4 Basic Exercises
For A Preparation Oriented Warm Up
3-5 Minutes of Rope Jumping
Primary goal: Coordination, Blood Circulation & Stamina
1.
2.
3.
4.
Keep the rope at hip height with the middle of the rope behind you.
Swing the rope over your head by rotating your wrists.
As the rope swings down jump up.
Continue rotating and jumping up.
Note: You can vary the speed, use one leg, alternating legs and even the
direction you swing the rope in to increase your stamina and coordination.
3-5 Minutes of Crawling
Primary goal: Joint Flexibility & Stamina
1. Take a crawling position, but without your knees on the floor. Lean on
your toes.
2. Arch your back and stay low to the ground.
3. Make a lion like crawling movement as if you are seeking on a prey by
putting one hand in front of the other. Make sure your knees don’t pass
your elbows.
4. Slightly bend your arms and keep the tension, while crawling and arching
your back.
5. Continue this dynamically for 3 minutes in all directions, front, back, left
& right.
Note: You can vary the speed or even closer to the ground to make things more
difficult.
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1 Minute Wrist Mobilization In Alignment
Primary goal: Joint Flexibility & Injury prevention (See appendix for pictures)
1. Either put your knees on the floor or bend your knee to a point at which
you can put your hands flat on the ground (Putting your knees on the
floor is easier)
2. Hold each of the four hand positions for at least 10-20 seconds and try
to slowly shift your weight in a circular motion. So lean a bit to the left,
to the front, to the right and back again.
3. It’s important to feel a slight stretch, but it should not hurt.
Note: This exercise is especially useful when you have injured your wrist.
1 Minute Wrist Mobilization Out Of Alignment
Primary goal: Joint Flexibility & Injury preparation (See appendix for pictures)
1. Either put your knees on the floor or bend your knee to a point at which
you can put your hands flat on the ground (Putting your knees on the
floor is easier)
2. Hold each of the three hand positions for at least 10-20 seconds and try
to slowly shift your weight in a circular motion. So lean a bit to the left,
to the front, to the right and back again.
3. Be especially careful with these exercises. If done correctly they will
prevent a lot of injuries, if done incorrectly they will cause injury. It’s
important to feel a slight stretch, but it should not hurt.
Note: This exercise is especially useful when you have injured your wrist, but
should be applied carefully.
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Final Word
Before You Go And Anti-Fragilize Yourself
This is quite advanced information which has to be applied carefully, especially
when you are a beginner, but which should be applied ‘especially’ when you
are a beginner and still very injury prone or have experienced injuries in the
past.
“If you really want
to get some serious
results with
calisthenics, start
being serious about
how you warm up.”
Stick to the basic exercises in this manual, but
keep the 3 rules in mind if you have ever had
an injury or have a weak spot somewhere in a
part of your body.
Make sure you start anti-fragilizing that part
before it becomes more fragile and ends up
stopping your progress. It doesn’t take a lot
of time, about the same time it took you to
read this short PDF.
Don’t remain as fragile as your mom’s glass and don’t focus on being
unbreakable like that rock you found, because you can be something far
stronger…
Beast Mode ON!
Any questions? Leave a comment here. Want to start working out? Click here
for the full 12-week calisthenics system.
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APPENDIX: Wrist warming up
In alignment
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Out of alignment
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“Most of our fitness exercises are done in a controlled environment.
Isolated moves with static machines to optimize a certain feature.
We think we are becoming stronger, but we’re forgetting that real
strength doesn’t develop in isolation. The real world isn’t a
controlled environment.”
- Rich Andoh
www.barbrothersgroningen.com
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