This is an Instagram exchange between an acquaintance and me last Friday night:

A: (comments on my post about a basketball warm-up manual I'm releasing soon) "Wish I had this 2 weeks ago"

I comment and then he sends me a DM (direct message) in my inbox showing his lower leg in a cast as a result of tearing his Achilles Tendon.

Me: "Damn, bro :-( I assume it happened playing basketball?"

A: "Yea man - improper warm up. I know better, but humility is 20/20. Arrived to a game 1m 30s before it started (insert facepalm emoji)

Now, this is no ordinary rec league basketball player. This dude is an absolute STUD of a basketball player. He played Division 1 basketball and is still his schools all-time leading scorer. He played in the NBA Summer League. He's a big time player and in his mid-30's he's still in tremendous shape.

Despite all of this, he still had a major injury (in fact, this is the number 1 most difficult injury for NBA players to comeback from along with a microfracture knee surgery).

The point of sharing this story?

Even those who are in great shape and workout regularly, eat right, get adequate amounts of sleep.... basically, those who do nearly everything right to prepare their body for whatever type of task they might face still have one major component that contributes to how their body tolerates the stressors that they encounter.

That one piece?

Properly warming up.

No matter if you're working out at the gym, playing recreational sports, or going outside to chop wood for an hour...understand that if you don't warm-up properly you're essentially taking your body from 0 to 100 in a very short amount of time and the result may be something that puts you on the sideline for longer than you care for.