Four-Phase RAMP Warm-Up

A general warm-up built in four phases: raise temperature and heart rate, activate key muscles, mobilize joints, and potentiate with short efforts. Students learn the logic of a good warm-up so they can run one on their own.

How to play

1. Line the group up in 5 rows along a cone line with 20 yards of open space ahead. Explain the four phases and their order in 1 minute using a sign or the whiteboard.
2. Minutes 1-4, raise: easy jog down and back, side shuffle, backpedal, and carioca. Everyone checks their pulse at the end.
3. Minutes 4-6, activate: in place, 10 squats, 10 glute bridges, a 20-second plank, and 10 alternating lunges.
4. Minutes 6-8, mobilize: down and back with lunge and twist, leg swings, and walking arm circles.
5. Minutes 8-11, potentiate: 4 build-up runs of 15 yards at 70, 80, 90, and 95 percent with a walk back, then 5 vertical jumps.
6. Minutes 11-12: second pulse check and a quick question: what is each phase for?

Rules

• Intensity increases phase by phase; nobody sprints at the start.
• Stay in your own lane on the build-ups and walk back along the side.
• Anyone feeling discomfort says so before the potentiate phase.
• Take the full recovery between build-up runs.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: each phase has a wheelchair version (pushing laps, arm activation with resistance bands, trunk mobility, and light ball throws).
• Autism: post a picture sign of the four phases with the time for each so changes are predictable.
• Lower fitness: in the potentiate phase the student stays at or below 80 percent and takes longer rests.

Learning goals

• Identify the four phases of a warm-up and what each one does.
• Increase effort intensity gradually.
• Use heart rate to check that the body is warmed up.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 10
• stopwatch: 1

Teacher tip

Repeat this structure for several classes and gradually hand control over to students. Teach them to take a pulse at the wrist or neck for 15 seconds and multiply by 4.

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