Prime to Perform

by- Josh Bryant

Before we talk performance, let’s talk availability. Availability is what your body can do right now. Cold. Minimal warm up. No ritual. Just you and the task. If you are too beat up to train, compete, deploy, or answer the call, performance is just noise. You cannot win from the sideline.

For the tactical athlete, this is real life. No music. No countdown. If you need forty five minutes of foam rolling before you can suplex a meth head at the gas station, that strength is rented, not owned. That will not cut the mustard. You will not rise to the moment. You will fold like a lawn chair and end up a splattered Allsup’s chimichanga on hot pavement.

Readiness is the standard.

Out there, nobody cares about your mobility flow. Nobody is waiting for you to feel activated. It is go time or it is game over.

For the team sport athlete, you get pregame and dynamic warm ups, but you better be explosive on the first snap, not waiting until the third quarter to feel right.

For the powerlifter, you get the warm up room, attempt timing, ammonia, the whole deal. Use it to optimize. But the warm up should sharpen the blade, not build it.

Today we focus on optimizing performance for the competitive athlete. Availability in its raw form, we will dig deeper in the future.

For now, let’s sharpen the blade and learn how to optimize performance.

Warm-up

Most people treat the warm up like a waiting room. Five minutes on a bike. A few stretches. Doom scrolling on X. That is killing time and does not resemble real preparation in any way, shape, or form.

The right warm up leverages PAPE.

Post Activation Performance Enhancement (PAPE)is about flipping the switch, not chasing fatigue. A smart progression with the right dose of heavy or explosive work wakes up the nervous system. Motor units fire more efficiently. Force is expressed faster. You are not just warm. You are ready to produce.

And the stronger you are, the more this matters.

A bigger engine creates a bigger gap between cold and primed. If you move serious weight, small neural advantages turn into big performance differences. Elite strength amplifies the effect.

The goal is simple. Do not drain the system.

Potentiate it.

A real warm up increases blood flow. That improves oxygen delivery and nutrient transport. Muscle temperature rises, which speeds metabolic reactions and force production. Synovial fluid increases, which reduces joint resistance. The nervous system ramps up, which improves motor unit recruitment and rate coding.That means more force, produced quicker, with better coordination.

In football specifically, studies show teams that perform dynamic warm ups at halftime experience fewer soft tissue injuries, especially hamstring strains. Muscle temperature drops during the break. When players reheat the tissue and reactivate the nervous system, injury rates go down.

That is not just theory. That is data confirmed by traditional science and broscience alike.

Heat restores function. Readiness restores resilience.

The old model was jog, static stretch, then lift. Prolonged excessive static stretching before training can lower performance. Save it for after training or an off day. Before you train, move with intent and  purpose.

Use RAMP.

Doing anything before you train is probably good. Five minutes on a bike, a light jog, or a brisk walk will raise your temperature and get blood moving. 

That is the general warm up, and it works very well.

But let’s look at the best.

In the RAMP model from Ian Jeffreys, RAMP stands for Raise, Activate, Mobilize, Potentiate. What we are talking about here is the Raise phase.

Instead of random heat, you use low to moderate intensity movement to raise tissue temperature while building skill and enhancing movement patterns. You are not conditioning. You are not testing yourself. You are preparing.

For football, that could mean controlled skips, shuffles, backpedal to sprint transitions, and light reactive drills. For a powerlifter, sled drags, bodyweight squats, goblet squats, band pull aparts, and empty bar work.

Raise temperature. Reinforce patterns. Stay fresh.

To summarize the Raise phase, you progress with control. You move from low to moderate intensity activities, from simple patterns to more complex movements, and from low cognitive demand to higher decision making. The goal is not to fatigue the athlete but to layer readiness. Each step builds on the last so the body and brain are prepared to perform when it counts.

Activate and Mobilize

The Activate and Mobilize phase is dynamic stretching with a backbone.

This is where you move through range while owning position. You are integrating mobility, stability, and motor control. Not flopping around. Not chasing sweat. You are preparing for the session and reinforcing patterns you actually use.

For football, think walking lunges with rotation, lateral lunges, controlled single leg hinges, crawl variations, shuffle and plant drills. Multi joint. Multi plane. Clean reps.

For a powerlifter, split squats, Cossack squats, glute bridges, single leg RDLs, controlled hip hinges, light thoracic rotations. Open range while locking in position.

This phase is not about fatigue. It is about control.

You warm up and build movement literacy at the same time.

Do not just move. Move well.

Potentiate 

The Potentiate phase is the bridge between Activate and Mobilize and the main session. This is where intensity climbs. You are no longer just moving well. You are preparing to express speed, strength, and power.

Built off the RAMP model from Ian Jeffreys, this phase requires progressive intensity.

In football, that might start with 10 yards of walking lunges, skips, shuffles, backward skips, toe walks, and heel walks. Then you move to controlled acceleration work, short bursts, position specific drills. Finish with sharper accelerations, change of direction, or controlled tackling progressions. Basic to s

pecific. Slow to fast. General to competitive speed

You are priming the nervous system and sharpening psychological readiness. Done right, this phase can also address long term development. For example, brief top speed exposures before practice if that quality is otherwise neglected.

For powerlifting, the Potentiate phase blends into the specific warm up. If you plan to squat 405, you build toward it with purpose. Bar for two sets of six. 135 for two sets of four. 225 for two. 275 for one. 315 for one. 365 for one. Then 405. Each set increases neural drive without draining you.

The goal is simple. Potentiate, not fatigue. Walk into the main session primed, not tired.

Final Thoughts

Warm ups are not a circle jerk. They are preparation!

The rules still apply. Move from slow to fast. From general to specific. Warm the body. Prime the system.

Raise builds heat. Activate and Mobilize build control. Potentiate builds expression.

Do it with intent and you walk into the session ready, not scrambling.

Now that you know how to warm up…Go next level with a JoshStrength program.

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