Flag footballis a demanding sport that places stress on the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. This is why warmups are key to helping your team perform at their best and avoid injuries.

One modern and effective framework used to structure warmups is the Raise, Activate, Mobilize and Potentiate or RAMP protocol. In addition to being used by athletes, RAMP has been extensively peer reviewed.

In this blog, I will discuss how the RAMP method can help flag football players effectively warm up.

Why is a Warmup Required?

A warmup is an activity designed to psychologically and physically prepare you for exercise. It increases the delivery of oxygen to muscles, improves the flexibility of joints and increases mental readiness. It also increases muscle temperature and enzyme activity, which increases the speed of muscle contractions and efficiency.

Better yet, studies have shown that a good warm up decreases sport injuries by 50%.

RAISE: Preparing the Muscles

This step is about creating an ideal metabolic environment to boost muscle performance. This is done by increasing respiration rate, heart rate and temperature. Higher muscle temperature enhances muscle elasticity and velocity of nerve conduction, reducing the chance of injuries.

Some drills that work at this stage are skips, carioca, dynamic footwork, lateral shuffles and light jogging.

ACTIVATE: Get Muscles Firing

This phase is about waking up key muscles such as the core, glutes and stabilizers. These often go unused for long durations due to inactivity. This is because the brain conserves energy by only using the fibers needed for the task at hand.

This activation exercise optimizes motor unit recruitment and reduces reactive movement patterns. Some exercises that will help with this are mini-band lateral walks, dead bugs, planks and glute bridges.

MOBILIZE: Move Your Joints

In this phase, you will focus on dynamic joint flexibility through mobilization. In particular, you will focus on the knees, ankles and hips, which are key for in-game actions like tackling, changing directions and sprinting. This improves movement efficiency without losing power or strength. Additionally, muscle-tendon stiffness is alleviated by stretching, increasing flexibility.

Some exercises that help in this stage are walking lunges with rotation and front to back and side to side leg swings.

POTENTIATE: Prepare for Explosive Output

This step involves preparing players for activities like jumping, sprinting and changes in direction. With this in mind, neuromuscular potentiation is the focus.

Studies show that potentiation leads to movement coordination and higher motor neuron excitability. Additionally, short high-impact exercise stimulates the body’s nervous system to improve immediate performance.

Exercises that can help in this phase include bounds and high knees, sprint drills, plyometric hops and quick-feet cone drills.

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I’m Coach D, a professional flag football coach. I am passionate about helping new flag football coaches flourish. I provide a range of advice, flag football drills, plays, practice schedules and great value bundles that can be accessed through my website to help you get started.