The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that individuals begin every workout with a warm-up before engaging in physical activity (American College of Sports Medicine, 2012). The warm-up prepares the heart, lungs, and muscles for a change in activity level. Participating in gentle stretching exercises prevents the risk of injury by minimizing the stress on joints and ligaments. Warm-ups promote a greater range of motion.
Warm-ups have a place in learning preparation as well, and professional development practitioners and preceptors can use them to engage learners. Warm-ups afford learners the opportunity to stretch, expand their thinking, and foster connections. They allow learners to learn about each other in nonthreatening ways.
Warm-ups are a novel way of conducting a needs assessment in a fun way. Warm-ups require the learners to participate in movement of some kind, positioning themselves in a specific location, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other learners according to specific criteria, and stepping in a circle. The warm-ups begin with statements that are rather impersonal to disclosure of attitudes, feelings, and choices that may be more personal. Social, political, and religious opinions are avoided as the intent of the warm-ups is to foster collegiality and creativity. These topics should be left to group therapy and intense psychodrama programs.
Warm-ups in group learning can be attributed to Jacob Levy Moreno, a psychiatrist, who was the creator of psychodrama and sociometry (Good Therapy, 2015). There are a myriad of warm-ups that can be used. This column will introduce four easily employed warm-ups that can be used by professional nurse development practitioners to get learners moving, engaging, and connecting.
Warm-ups:
* Polarities: Learners are asked to move to one side of the room or the other indicating the statement that best represents them. The directions are, "Stand on the left side of the room if you have had enough caffeine, stand on the right side of the room if you need another cup of coffee." Other polarities examples include identifying different preferences:
[square root] Need a vacation: just returned from a vacation
[square root] e-Book: hardcover
[square root] Punctual: "it's a miracle I made it"
[square root] Introvert: Extravert
* Spectrograms: Learners are asked to position themselves on an imaginary line shoulder-to-shoulder. The directions are, "Place yourself on a line according to who had the longest drive to get to this program today." Other spectrograms include the following:
[square root] How long you have been in your profession?
[square root] What is your birthday month and day?
[square root] How many classes you have participated in on the topic that is being presented?
* Locograms: This warm-up is used when there are more than two choices. Four locations are identified in the room. The location is associated with a preference. The directions for this warm-up are, "Go to the place that is your preference or is true for you." Suggested locograms are the following:
[square root] Preferred superpower: fly versus strength versus invisible versus see the future
[square root] Preferred footwear: boots versus flip flops versus dress shoes versus sneakers
[square root] Preferred movie genre: drama versus science fiction versus romantic comedy versus action
[square root] Preferred learning experience: Montessori versus traditional versus problem based versus simulation
* Step in the Circle: Learners are asked to create a circle and step in the circle if the statement verbalized by the facilitator is true for them. A sample direction is, "Step in the circle if you are wearing matching socks." A few sample steps in the circle warm-ups include the following:
[square root] If you have made an online purchase in the last week
[square root] If you ate desert last night
[square root] If you feel engaged in acquiring new knowledge
[square root] If you have competing time demands which may affect your participation in the class today
After each warm-up is concluded, the class facilitator can seek out a few of the participants to expound on their choices. Asking the learners, the rationale for their choice, encourages additional levels of engagement and promotes additional community building.
Warm-ups can be used throughout the course of the day or program; the longer the program, the more warm-ups should be used. These techniques also are a subtle way to promote physical activity. The American Diabetes Association (2015) has created an initiative called "Get Fit-Don't Sit," which encourages all of us to break up sedentary time every 90 minutes to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Warm-ups provide learners the opportunity to stretch, expand their thinking, and foster connections: clearly essential to fostering critical thinking. Warm-ups allow professional nurse development practitioners and preceptors to expand their teaching repertoire. So let's stretch our skills-line up, step in, warm up!
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