warm up — prepare the body
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
To do gentle exercises before a sport or activity to get your body ready and help prevent injury.
Say it like a native
Textbook Athletes should perform preparatory exercises before competing.
Native You should warm up before you exercise.
'Warm up' is the everyday verb for limbering up; the formal version is textbook.
Pattern: warm up (before/for something)
In use
- It's important to warm up before you go for a run.health
- Before my PE class, I always warm up to avoid getting hurt during exercise.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ I always warm up myself before running.
✓ I always warm up before running.
Intransitive here — don't add 'myself'.
Common collocations
warm up + before— before a game, properly, your muscles, first
Don't confuse it
Not about increasing temperature in a room or food.
Related
- warm up (become friendlier) — Another meaning of 'warm up' is 'become friendlier'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.