Seven Habits to Create Your Own Warm-up

As an actor I would warm up everyday. I did it in school halls, prisons, broom cupboards, old people’s homes, church halls, leisure centres – wherever I was performing and could find a space. Now and again people would walk in and I would have to explain (as I hummed and thrust my hips around). But it always paid off. It made me really good at my job and made sure my audience could hear me. When I started coaching I learnt that when we present, 55% of what we present is body language, 38% tonality and 7% content. That is a HUGE percentage on how you use your body and voice. Here are seven ways to warm up that 93%.

1. Stand. Every time we sit down we lose good posture. We always need to re-set. This takes 30 seconds to do and can be done anywhere where there is a floor! This is what I want you to do: stand up with your feet planted on the floor, like they are tree trunks rooted to the ground. Point your feet forwards, like they are on tram tracks. Make sure they are shoulder width apart – not too wide like a cowboy or together like you are standing to attention. 
   
2. Breathe. Now take a gentle breath in through your nose, then a gentle breath out through your mouth. You will immediately feel grounded. This is resetting your body. Do this a few times and notice where the tension is. As you breathe in and out your body will become less tense and you will be standing tall. 
   
3. Now imagine you are a puppet and a piece of string is resting on top of your head. I want you to take that string and pull it up, nice and tight above your head with your left arm or right arm. As you do this you will pull yourself up onto your tiptoes. Drop the arm and stay on those tiptoes, slowly lowering down back onto your heels. The slower you do it, the better. The aim is to stand as tall as you can. Your shoulders remain relaxed, your neck and your stomach are stretched.
   
4. Sometimes people's shoulders are very tense during this moment because they feel they can’t move them. You really can. Allow them to loosen up by shaking them out. Practice makes permanent so do the exercise again, but this time lower down to the count of five.
   
5. Breath is the powerhouse of the voice and once the posture is in a good place, then you can breathe. You are now standing tall, revealing your 55% posture. Place your hands gently on your belly button, forming an upside down triangle with your hands pointing to the floor. This will enable you to feel the breathing you are about to do. Now breathe out through your mouth, then close your mouth and allow the breath to come in through your nose. As you do this, your stomach will naturally fill up like a balloon. This is a very good thing! Do this for one minute as you are about to get to your 38% tonality.
   
6. We are now going to warm up the voice, which requires using it. Now comes the wierd bit. All you need to do to complete this warm-up is to hum, for a minute. Breathe in through your nose and then as you breathe out, hum. Keep the lips closed and make an “mmm” sound. Imagine it is buzzing around your nose and it will be in the front of your mouth. If you can feel like you are doing a sit-up, like you are using your stomach muscles, you have truly connected your breath to your voice. In the acting world this is called speaking “on support”. This enabled me to project in front of an audience of 1,500, and speak calmly and full of presence in front of 10 people. This is what you want to be able to do.
   
7. The final exercise to do will give you 100% excellent communication. You are going to hum again but this time, halfway through your hum you will open your mouth and say your name. It will sound like this “MmmmmmY name is Stew”. Except say your own name. Do it three times. Each time take a gentle breath in through your mouth, hum for 10 seconds then let out your name. On the third time smile and use your arms as you speak and see how loud you can be!

If you do this a lot, this will very quickly become a one-minute warm-up that you can do anywhere. It will create a habit that means when you are in a high stakes meeting, your body will remember and kick into presentation mode, as opposed to coping mode. And we all know that the person who tells the best story wins!

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