RAMP It Up: Building a Pre-Practice Dynamic Warmup That Actually Works

A Warmup Is a System, Not a Stretch Circle

Walk up to a youth practice and the warmup is often whatever the first player feels like doing: a couple of toe-touches, some arm swings, and then everybody grabs a ball. The problem isn't the movements themselves — it's that there's no order, no purpose, and no build toward the explosive work that follows. A warmup should be a system that takes the body from rest to ready in a deliberate sequence.

The most widely taught system for this is the RAMP protocol, developed by strength coach Ian Jeffreys. The acronym lays out exactly what a good warmup should accomplish, in order:

"Raise – Increase muscle temperature, core temperature, blood flow, muscle elasticity and neural activation. Activate – Engage the muscles in preparation for the upcoming session. Mobilize – Focus on movement patterns which will be used during the game. Potentiate – Gradually increasing the stress on the body in preparation for the upcoming competition/session." — on the RAMP warm-up developed by Ian Jeffreys (source)

That order is the whole point. You can't activate cold muscle effectively, you shouldn't mobilize joints that haven't been warmed, and you definitely shouldn't ask the nervous system to fire at full speed until everything underneath it is ready. RAMP stacks each phase on the one before it.

Walking Through the Four Phases

Raise

This is the easy jog, high knees, butt kicks, shuffles, and carioca. The only goal is to literally raise body and muscle temperature and get blood moving. Warm muscle is more elastic and contracts faster, which is why this phase comes first. It should produce a light sweat, not fatigue.

Activate

Now you switch on the specific muscles you're about to lean on. Glute bridges wake up the hips — the engine for throwing, hitting, and sprinting — and scapular push-ups fire the small muscles that stabilize and protect the shoulder. Baseball and softball are shoulder-and-hip sports, so these are the right muscles to prime.

Mobilize

Here you take joints through the ranges of motion the game demands: walking knee-hug-to-lunge, leg swings, arm circles, and the world's greatest stretch. As one sports-medicine clinic explains, dynamic movement is the right tool before activity because it prepares tissue while keeping it active, rather than holding a long static stretch that can temporarily dull power.

"A dynamic warm-up uses movements that mimic the activity you're about to do. It helps increase your range of motion, blood flow and body temperature." — TRIA / HealthPartners (source)

Potentiate

The final phase is the one most youth teams skip — and it's what separates a warmup from a stretch circle. A few A-skips and build-up sprints ramp the intensity right up to game speed, priming the nervous system so the first throw, swing, or sprint of practice is sharp. Coaches sometimes call this effect post-activation potentiation: doing a brief, near-maximal effort primes the body to perform the real thing better.

Why This Beats a Random Stretch Circle

The payoff of a structured warmup is both performance and protection. Research summarized by strength coaches credits well-built dynamic warmups with measurable gains in jump height, sprint speed, and even throwing velocity, alongside a lower injury risk because tissue is gradually prepared for load. None of that happens reliably when the warmup is a loose collection of stretches done cold and in no particular order.

Just as important for a youth team: a fixed sequence is *coachable* and *repeatable*. Players stop asking "what are we doing?" and start running it on autopilot, which means more of practice is spent on actual baseball. We've packaged the full sequence — every block, rep count, and cue, in order — into our Full Pre-Practice Dynamic Warmup drill so a coach or captain can lead it the same way every single day.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• No order. Random stretches don't build on each other. Follow Raise, Activate, Mobilize, Potentiate.
• Static stretching cold. Save long held stretches for after activity; keep the pre-practice work dynamic.
• A throwaway jog. If you never break a light sweat, you never actually raised your temperature.
• Skipping Potentiate. Without the build-up sprints, the nervous system is still half-asleep when the first rep comes.
• Changing it daily. Consistency is what makes the routine automatic and protective.

Make It Age-Appropriate

For 10U-12U players, keep the whole thing light and playful — the movements as written are low-load and safe, and the build-up sprints should stay submaximal. Older and more advanced athletes can crank the tempo and add sprints in the Potentiate phase to match the higher intensity of their practice. The four phases never change; only the dial does.

The Takeaway

A pre-practice warmup isn't wasted time before the real work — it *is* the on-ramp to it. Run RAMP in order, finish with a couple of crisp sprints, and your whole team starts practice loose, fast, and ready to compete. Ten well-spent minutes make every minute after them better.

Sources

• What Is the RAMP Warm-Up? — Human Kinetics
• Understanding and Implementing the RAMP Protocol — TeamBuildr
• Dynamic Warm-Ups and Cool Down in Baseball — TRIA / HealthPartners
• A 4-Step Guide to RAMP Up Your Warm-Ups — Triax Performance
• Warming Up Properly Helps to Prevent Injuries — Little League University