Movement Prep: Your Daily Blueprint for Better Athletic Performance
If you’re looking for a sample Movement Prep routine and how we apply it at Precision Performance Concepts, you’re in the right place.
This post is part of our current training block. (Impact your Athletes NOW! click here) If you’re also looking for a Speed Phase or Strength/Hypertrophy Phase, check out the companion pieces below:
✅ [Speed Phase Sample ➝]
✅ [Strength + Hypertrophy Phase ➝]
Why Movement Prep Matters
Let’s be clear. This isn’t a warm-up just to “loosen up.” That kind of thinking belongs in the past.
What we’re doing here is activating the neurological, muscular, and mobility systems that you’ll rely on during the session. If you skip this, you’re not just warming up poorly. You’re leaving performance gains on the table.
The 3 Key Engines: Hip, Shoulder, Ankle
To get the most out of your movement, these three areas need to be firing at full capacity:
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Hips — your primary driver for nearly every athletic motion
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Shoulders — essential for upper-body control and posture
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Ankles — the link between power and precision on the ground
If even one of these areas is underperforming, what we call an energy leak or kinetic bleed-out can and will occur. That’s why this prep needs to happen at every practice, every training session, and every game day.
Speed, power, and strength all depend on how well these three move.
HIP MOBILITY: Open & Close the Gates
Exercise: Forward and backward hip circles
Reps: Build up to 20 total reps per leg
Start by lifting your knee above belt height, rotating it outward to “open the gate,” then reversing to “close the gate.” The goal is full range of motion, not rushed reps.
Can’t hit 20 yet?
Start with 5 per side and alternate until you reach your target. Most athletes go from sets of 5 to clean sets of 15+ within two weeks. If you hit 20 clean, there’s a good chance you’re already moving better.
That’s a big return for a drill that doesn’t even feel like work.
Just one reminder—if these look lazy, they don’t count.
If they look like how you did them in college, they really don’t count.
Too many warm-ups are half effort. These aren’t fluff. These are designed to change your body. Treat them that way.
SHOULDER MOBILITY: Cuban Press or Arm Circles
Options:
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Cuban Press — Can be done with light dumbbells, bands, or even no resistance at all
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Arm Circles — 20 reps forward, 20 reps backward
The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, and full mobility here helps unlock posture, rotation, and throwing power. I often rotate between Cuban Press and old-school arm circles depending on the athlete and session.
If your shoulders are stiff or irritated, work through a pain-free range of motion. You’ll likely find that range expanding with each rep. That’s the point.
ANKLE MOBILITY: Spell the ABCs
Exercise: Slowly spell out the alphabet using your foot
Most athletes rush through this. Tiny, jerky scribbles with their foot. That defeats the entire purpose.
This isn’t a warm-up. This is neurological upregulation.
Think amplify. We’re turning up the brain’s control over the joint.
Move slowly. Make big, clean letters. This teaches precision and control—two things that matter a lot more than people think when it comes to cutting, planting, and accelerating.
Activation: Turn It On
Once you’ve maxed out mobility, it only takes a few seconds to activate each area.
Activation gets misused all the time, but here’s what it really means:
Making sure the brain is communicating with the prime movers in each major joint.
That the right muscles are online and ready to do their job.
We’re not building strength here. We’re creating connection.
Hips
Drill: Glute squeeze
Grab your glute. Kick your leg back. Make it flex.
No back, no hamstring, no quad taking over. Just clean glute activation.
Shoulders
Drill: Trap + scap squeeze
Turn your palms up. Now imagine trying to squeeze a tennis ball between your shoulder blades.
Upper traps, lower traps, full scapular control.
Ankles
Drill: Calf Raise + Soleus Raise
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Calf Raise: Straight legs, rise and control down
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Soleus Raise: Same thing, but knees bent to just past 45°
This primes the lower chain and builds mind-body control in the lower leg.
One set of 10 to 12 reps is usually plenty. Again—this isn’t strength work. It’s control work.
Athlete-Specific Add-Ons (2–3 Minutes Max)
I always give athletes a little time at the end of Movement Prep to handle their personal needs:
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Rehab exercises from the athletic trainer
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Lateral work for change of direction
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Soft-tissue resets or postural corrections
Everyone’s got something. Handle it here—while the brain is focused and the movement system is turned on.
Final Thought
You already have time carved out for “warm-up.”
This time around, let’s not waste it.
Let’s use it to move the dial forward.
Use it to prime the body.
Use it to build patterns that actually make you better.
Do Movement Prep right, and you’ll walk into the training phases—speed, power, strength—sharper, stronger, and already one step ahead.
Movement prep is a foundational conceot in my newest book. Looking for it?
