Daniel Clough skipped his warm-up to do back-rehab exercises, then went straight to front squats and injured his back badly enough to stop squatting for months. After 40, a proper warm-up isn't optional.
Warming up thoroughly before a training session has probably been the most powerful shift for me when it comes to reducing injuries. Back in the day, I would skip or rush through warm-ups. I just didn't enjoy them. However, now it's completely non-negotiable. And I want to give you a quick example just to illustrate how powerful a warm-up can be. So about a year or so ago, I randomly decided one day to not do my normal warm-up and instead substitute it with some back rehab exercises that I, that I just felt like doing at the time. So I did these back rehab exercises and then I went straight into my workout. And the first exercise was front squat. And I kid you not, the first set of the front squat, I think on my 4th or 5th rep, bang! My back completely went. Really painful. And this ended up setting me back probably a couple of months before I was able to feel like I could get back to squatting again.
