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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

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Mirror me: the warm-up

Get moving and jumping to get those hearts pumping, as we find out how to prepare for a sporting challenge.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Stopwatch or phone
  • Audio device with speakers
  • Internet access, or printouts with details of the five main muscle groups and the warm-up movements

Before you begin

  • The person leading the activity or a young leader should prepare a playlist for an exercise warm-up. Double-check that all the songs are suitable for young people. The playlist needs to be playable on an audio device in the meeting space.

Run the activity

  1. Show everyone the five main muscle groups used in sport, which can be found here. Discuss the muscle groups used in some sports that everyone enjoys. See if anyone can explain why different sports use different muscles.
  2. Explain to the group that they’ll be doing a warm-up, as they might do before taking part in sport. Everyone will lead and take part in the warm-up. Everyone should split into pairs or small groups and find somewhere in the activity space where they have some room to move around. Give each group this information on warm-ups.
  1. Start the music. One person in each small group or pair should decide which muscle group to start warming up. Another person should begin doing a warm-up movement that exercises those muscles, which the rest of their group should copy. Do this several times over.
  1. Groups should continue in this way until all five main muscle groups have been warmed up.

Reflection

It’s important to warm up our bodies and increase our heart rates, and mentally prepare ourselves for the sport we’re about to play. Warming up properly makes it less likely we’ll injure ourselves when being active or playing sports. Take a quick moment to think about your body. How are you feeling? Do you feel warmer than before the warm-up started? Are you feeling mentally pumped-up and ready to go?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Contact games and activities

Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.

Music and films

Make sure music and films are age appropriate for the youngest person present.

If groups find this gentle warm-up routine a bit easy, have them speed up the process. One person in the group could select a muscle group at random and point to another person in the group at random. Without stopping, that person should begin a warm-up movement that exercises the right muscle group. Groups that get it wrong should stop. The last group still moving is the winner.

Make sure those in groups bear in mind the abilities of those they’re warming up with.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Cubs Athletics Activity Badge
Scouts Athletics Activity Badge
Scouts Athletics Plus Activity Badge

If you’re about to do something active and are using this activity as a warm-up, find out which specific muscle groups you need to warm up for your activity. Everyone can then focus on those muscles while they’re doing this.

Young people should have the option of leading everybody in a warm-up. Many young people play sports, do martial arts and keep fit, so the chances are somebody has done plenty of warming-up before.