Waking up to the roll call

Geplaatst op 24-12-2025

Backstory introduction
From May 2014 up and till February 2020, our amazing team presented three international weekend seminars every year at our residence in The Netherlands. In July 2023, we decided to bring our seminars abroad and visit groups, communities and people in different countries, expressing a keen interest in the Soulful Fitness Roller Skate Training system.
The one thing that stood out the most from so many years of interactions and observations, is how people prepared before lacing up their beloved roller skates. From various stretches and short bouts of knee lifts, to occasional pushups to basically absolutely nothing; just lacing up straight away and doing a few laps, a couple of armswings and then jumping right in the training session, party or jam session.
In this article I`m laying out why a proper warmup before lacing up roller skates is essential and should not be neglected.

I. Tuning the orchestra
It is nothing short of poetry in motion, when observing a body gently preparing for action. The subtle crescendo that precedes sprinting, lifting, leaping, running and yes, of course roller skating. The careful sway, the exploratory rotation, the tentative weight shift from foot to foot.
We generally know this to be "warming up," as if the body were some cold engine requiring heat. But actually it is more of a wake-up, a summoning of the nervous system from its quiet hum into full, vibrant conductorship.

I have spent years on roller skates, making crazy hours as a long distance street skater, as well as a rhythm style skating practitioner on smooth wood, rough asphalt and any impossible surface in between.
When I also include many years of experience as a trainer, one of the most important things I have learned is this:
the body is never simply ready. It must be fully woken up before it can properly move. The muscles, yes, need blood flow. The joints, certainly, benefit from synovial circulation. But before any of that matters, the brain must fully know where the body is in space.

Consider this: your nervous system is a vast super high-speed telecommunications network, connecting command centers to distant outposts. When you sleep, when you sit, when you remain still, this network idles. Signals slow. Connections grow fuzzy. The motor cortex, that magnificent maestro of movement, begins to forget the precise address of each muscle fiber, the exact angle of each joint, the particular rhythm of each coordinated action.

A proper wake-up is neuromuscular rehearsal; a dress rehearsal for the performance to come. You are not merely raising your heart rate or loosening up. You are reestablishing communication channels. You are reminding your proprioceptors - those elegant sensory organs embedded in muscles, tendons, and joints - to report back clearly: Here I am. This is my position. This is my tension. This is my readiness.

You are accelerating the recruitment of motor units, those precise points where nerve meets muscle, where intention becomes contraction. You are fine-tuning the timing between your stabilizers - the deep, quiet muscles that anchor you—and your prime movers - the powerful actors that generate force. This is not about heat. This is about precision.
When I hop laterally, when I rotate through my hips, when I rock my weight from the center to the outside edge, I am not doing cardio. I am teaching my nervous system to accept load, to redirect force, to respond with speed and accuracy. These are the same skills that running demands, that lifting requires, that cycling insists upon. They are the fundamental vocabulary of movement itself.

II. Stretch or flex
And here I must address a persistent myth: the notion that stretching prepares the body for action. Stretching has its place - a valuable place - but that place is emphatically NOT before you roll on skates, before you run, before you lift. 

Static stretching, that pulling and holding of lengthened muscle, actually dampens neural drive. It reduces the very motor unit activation you are trying to enhance. It tells the nervous system: Relax. Lengthen. Release.
This is precisely the opposite message you wish to send before demanding explosive power, rapid coordination, or sustained output.

Stretching belongs in recovery, in cool-downs, in dedicated mobility work performed after active performance. Before movement, we want dynamic exploration - controlled motion through ranges we will need, patterns we will use, loads we will encounter.

III. Two Paths, Two Preparations
The wake-up must match the work ahead. Aerobic training and anaerobic training place different demands on the body, and thus require different preparatory strategies.

Aerobic training;
steady-state roller skating, long runs, and sustained cycling, relies on oxygen delivery, metabolic efficiency, and endurance of slow-twitch muscle fibers.
The wake-up for aerobic work should be gradual and progressive: gentle movement building over 10-15 minutes, slowly raising heart rate and respiration, gradually increasing range of motion.
Think: easy roller skating with progressively wider strides, gentle leg swings, flowing arm circles, steady rhythmic movement that coaxes the cardiovascular system into gear without shocking it.

Anaerobic training;
sprints, jumps, heavy lifts, explosive efforts demand maximum motor unit recruitment, rapid force production, and full nervous system activation. The wake-up must include explosive elements: bounds, hops, throws, short accelerations. After initial movement prep, you need to rehearse speed. Brief bursts at 60%, then 70%, then 80% effort. You are teaching the nervous system to fire fast, to coordinate complex patterns under load, to prepare for the violence of maximum effort.

The difference is not trivial. Send an unprepared nervous system into a sprint, and you invite injury. Ask cold motor pathways to generate maximum force, and they will fail or even worse, they will tear.

IV. Movement as Medicine: The Frequency Prescription
People seem to have become obsessed with intensity and duration. How hard? How long? These questions dominate fitness culture, fueled by loud shouting of fitness influencers on social media, tripping over and attacking each other's scientific facts and data. 
But, they miss the deeper truth of reality: frequency and consistency are the real medicine, adapted to the ordinary daily busy life of us simple mortals, who are not sponsored by supplement companies.

The human nervous system thrives on regular input. It learns through repetition, through daily dialogue between intention and action. A body that moves every day- even gently, even briefly - maintains neural pathways that a body moved once weekly with great intensity cannot match. 

Movement is not punishment. It is not something to be "gotten through" or "survived." It is the natural language of the nervous system, the way your brain maintains its map of your body, the method by which coordination is preserved and vitality sustained.

Research in neuroplasticity reveals that motor learning consolidates through distributed practice; frequent, shorter sessions outperform infrequent marathon efforts. A 15-minute daily movement practice will transform your capacity more profoundly than weekly exhaustive workouts. This is not about calories or muscle damage. This is about maintaining the exquisite communication network that allows you to move with grace, power, and resilience.

The wake-up becomes a daily ritual: a conversation with your nervous system, a check-in with your body, a reaffirmation that you are a creature designed for motion.

V. The Peculiar limitation of roller skates.
And now, specifically, to roller skating in general and rhythm roller skating in particular; my domain, my passion, my laboratory for understanding human movement and locomotive behavior under unique constraints.

Roller skating presents a biomechanical challenge unlike any other terrestrial locomotion: you cannot flex your foot. The rigid plate beneath the boot eliminates the natural spring mechanism of the foot's arch, removes the subtle adjustments of toe flexion, and prohibits the ankle's full range of dorsiflexion and plantarflexion.
This truly changes everything.

Your nervous system relies on foot proprioception for balance, for force absorption, for the micro-adjustments that keep you upright. Remove that input, and the entire kinetic chain must compensate. Your ankles, your knees, your hips, all must work differently, harder, with less familiar and natural feedback.

Without a proper wake-up, you are asking your nervous system to navigate this altered biomechanics while simultaneously dealing with speed, instability, and directional changes, sometimes sudden and unexpected. It is a recipe for injury: rolled ankles, strained knees, pulled hip flexors, protesting hamstrings, lower back pain either acute or over time.

The roller skater's wake-up must specifically address this limitation. Before you lace up, you need: ankle circles, standing proprioceptive challenges (single-leg balance with eyes closed), hip mobility work, lateral movement patterns, rotational exercises. Once in skate boots, you need: one-legged exercises, gentle rolling, progressive weight shifts, slow controlled turns, gradual increases in complexity and in speed as well, although to a lesser extent. You are teaching your nervous system to operate in a foreign landscape. Rushing this education invites disaster.

VI. The Evidence Speaks
Science supports what experience teaches. Research on neuromuscular wake-up protocols consistently demonstrates measurable improvements in performance and injury prevention.

Warm-up and Injury Prevention
A comprehensive 2010 meta-analysis by Fradkin, Zazryn, and Smoliga examined 32 studies and concluded that appropriate warm-up routines reduced injury risk by 35-50% across various sports. The protective effect was most pronounced when warm-ups included dynamic movements specific to the subsequent activity. This systematic review, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, provides robust evidence that the wake-up is not optional—it is essential preventive medicine.

Neural Mechanisms of Preparation
Studies using electromyography (EMG) show that motor unit recruitment speed increases progressively during the first 10-15 minutes of dynamic movement. Research by Bishop (2003) in Sports Medicine demonstrated that muscle temperature alone accounts for only a portion of performance enhancement—neural factors, including improved motor unit synchronization and reduced pre-synaptic inhibition, contribute significantly to the benefits of warming up.
This finding is crucial: the wake-up works not merely by making muscles warmer, but by making the nervous system sharper. The brain becomes more effective at recruiting the precise motor units needed for coordinated movement. The communication between nerve and muscle becomes faster and more accurate.

Neuromuscular Training and Injury Prevention
Research on proprioceptive and neuromuscular training reveals its profound impact on injury prevention. A landmark 2007 study by Emery and colleagues in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine found that neuromuscular training programs reduced injury rates by 3.5-fold in adolescent basketball players. These programs focused not on strength or endurance, but on coordination, balance, and movement pattern quality; precisely what a proper wake-up addresses.
The implications are clear: when you take time to wake up your nervous system properly, you are not just preparing for performance, you are actively preventing injury by teaching your body to move with better control and awareness.

The Problem with Static Stretching
Regarding static stretching: a comprehensive 2011 review by Behm and Chaouachi found that static stretching longer than 60 seconds per muscle group consistently impaired subsequent force production and power performance, with effects lasting up to two hours. The neurological dampening effect was measurable through decreased motor neuron excitability.
This is not to say stretching is harmful, only that it is inappropriately timed before explosive or coordinated activity. The nervous system, when stretched statically, receives signals to relax and lengthen. This is wonderful for recovery and mobility work, but counterproductive when you need that same nervous system to fire rapidly and powerfully.

Movement Patterns and Skill Retention
The principle of specificity in training - that the body adapts most effectively to the exact movements and patterns it practices - has been well-established across decades of exercise science research. The nervous system learns through repetition and refines coordination through consistent practice. This means that rehearsal movements, movements that closely mimic the intended activity, create stronger and more refined neural pathways than general cardiovascular work alone.
When you practice the patterns you will use - the weight shifts, the rotations, the accelerations - you are literally strengthening the neural circuits that control those movements. This is why sport-specific warm-ups outperform generic routines: they prepare not just muscles, but motor programs.

The Frequency Factor
Research in motor learning consistently demonstrates that distributed practice - frequent, shorter sessions - produces superior skill retention and development compared to massed practice. The nervous system consolidates learning between sessions, and regular stimulation maintains the clarity and precision of motor pathways. This principle extends beyond skill acquisition to basic movement competency: a body that moves daily maintains coordination and proprioceptive awareness that cannot be replicated with infrequent intense sessions.
The implications for daily practice are profound. You don't need to exhaust yourself to maintain neural health. You need to remind your nervous system regularly that it is a system designed for movement.

VII. The Daily Neural Conversation
We return, then, to where we began: the body must be invited into movement, not thrust into it. The wake-up is not a chore or a box to check. It is a conversation between your conscious intention and your neuromuscular reality. It is the moment when you remind your nervous system of its extraordinary capabilities, when you reconnect the command center with the instruments it conducts.
Whether you have eight wheels or two feet, whether you seek aerobic endurance or anaerobic power, whether you move for joy or performance or simple daily vitality, begin with the wake-up.
Make it frequent. Make it consistent. Make it appropriate to the work ahead. Movement is not merely physical. It is neurological. It is the brain in dialogue with the body, and that conversation begins with a gentle question:
Are you awake and ready to jam?

VIII. Trainer advice
With the utmost sincerity, I share the following notes to hopefully support you, in making the most of each and every effort - mentally and physically - you will challenge yourself with from this moment forward.

1. Consistency in physical activity and proper warm up routines, will wake you up faster and better for the activity ahead. This will manifest the notion of always feeling and being ready to rock'n roll! No matter what life throws at you.
2. Frequency in movement is far more important than intensity and duration. Especially considering how daily life has become so full, sedentary and demanding.
3. The inability of foot flexion requires greater compensatory activation of hip and core stabilizers. This shows the need for specific preparatory work in these regions before lacing up roller skates and regular smart maintenance work off wheels.
4. Celebrate every moment, every session, every effort and involve your support system as much as you can in those celebrations!

Waking up your mind, body and soul is important. Having a good wake up routine is everything. It will have you roll safe for a very long time and navigate you healthier into your later decades. 

In the course of 2025, I have observed a major shift in our training center in The Netherlands in how a group of trainees has changed routines and habits, before lacing up their roller skates. And that group is slowly growing.
A lot of trainees are already fully warmed up, when they arrive for their roller skate practice: they commute by bicycle.
With the introduction in 2026 of skate-related warm up and maintenance exercises, I`m very much looking forward to how this will impact motivation, dedication and skill progression for all our community members.

So, warm up to fully wake up for your next effort!
Your nervous system will thank you. Your joints will thank you. And most importantly, your future self - still moving and rolling rhythmic and gracefully years from now - will thank you most of all.

Brian B. Kanhai, Soulful Fitness Roller Skate Trainer.

References
1.Fradkin, A. J., Zazryn, T. R., & Smoliga, J. M. (2010). Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(1), 140-148.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19996770/
2. Bishop, D. (2003). Warm up I: Potential mechanisms and the effects of passive warm up on exercise performance. Sports Medicine, 33(6), 439-454.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12744717/
3.Emery, C. A., Rose, M. S., McAllister, J. R., & Meeuwisse, W. H. (2007). A prevention strategy to reduce the incidence of injury in high school basketball: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 17(1), 17-24.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17304002/
4.Behm, D. G., & Chaouachi, A. (2011). A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 111(11), 2633-2651.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21373870