The Art of Warming Up

[FitnessFan76]

All Pro's Beginner Routine calls for only two warm up sets - is that wrong?

[XNibiru]

I must agree that tons of warmups sound like a waste of time. If you're fully warmed up with the first exercise, there's not much sense warming up for EACH of the succeeding exercises.

Yeah, you're right!

[raholloway]

I will go ahead and completely agree with you!

[SMKillerBody]

Man, your second warm-up is my working set haha no fun.

[CaraG73]

The art of warming up includes dynamic stretching a.k.a. moving at the joints to warm them up.

[JonathanCSmith]

My warm ups consists of a short, 5 minutes cardio routine that I break down into 1, 2, 1, 1.

1.min. swift jog
2.min. jog
1.min. run
1.min. sprint

Followed by a full body stretch, that isn't overly deep, but it prepares me for my workout.

[y2zipper]

I use dynamic stretching, then shoulder dislocations and bodyweight squats to warm up. I don't use any cardio to warm up, though.

I use 5/3/1, which calculates the warm up sets for me...

[IskaDev]

No mention of different warmup styles depending on the reps you're pushing w/ your working sets.

[flexnhard]

warming up for 5-10 min won't hurt you

[Hardekec]

Warming up is a huge deal for a productive work out! I just spent the last 3 months in Anaheim, California working with the Men's and Women's National Volleyball Teams and warming up is something they take very seriously, and they would consider to be an "art." Warming up shouldn't just be walking up to the barbell and doing lighter weights of the same exercise that you will be doing for working sets in the next 5-10 minutes. Athletes/weight lifters need to "wake up" the entire body before performing any closed chain free weight exercise. This should be done by lightly stressing on the joints in their full ranges of motion in all planes of motion. That's why arm circles are great as a warm up for the should and front and side lunges wake up the all the muscles in the lower body. "Activating" your muscles in all ranges and planes of motion prior to working sets of your selected exercise will increase the power output and stability of the joints used in that exercise. This is a piece to many athletes/lifters are missing in their warm ups! For more exercise tips please follow my blog at EricHardekFitness.Weebly.com

[kdumph]

Does a lion warm up before taking down a gazelle?
On a serious note i'm a guilty party of not warming up correctly all the time. I also don't think that simply warming up for that one specific exercise is very smart either. If you look at most professional athletes, trainers and so on they typically use an active warmup in their training. In short this means warming up the entire body, utilizing a full body approach. I'm a firm believer in this and wish I did it more often. Either way as the OP said the guy who walks into the gym does a single warmup set and then goes heavy is playing with fire in terms of injury and even progression.

[Mrloseit]

great article the days I dont warm up at all, i normally dont get into a groove until 2 exercise. But when i do I do a light weight 30 reps and feel great.

[palufitness]

Yep.sounds like a vegetarian would do. **** load of warm ups and drink decafe coffee

[61customrebuild]

The topic say the art of warming up, but I don't see much here about the art of it. Where I am coming from on this is that the art of something is a bit more esoteric and sublime, not able to be deconstructed into a list of steps or things that progress in a logical way. What that would be is the "science" of it. In terms of warming up, we should first be clear on the purpose. Our bodies are obviously composed of skeletal and soft tissue; the former being rigid like steel and the latter being somewhat pliable like rubber. The rubber-like stuff can tear, not easily, but it can and does under extreme forces or when in some time of weakened condition. Thus we must be careful when putting loads on the soft tissue. And even when you think the bones are supporting the weight, there are soft tissue points getting a lot of that load, particular where individual bones connect together (by soft tissue). But the main reason you don't want to rush into any load bearing exercise, which you want to slowly ease into it, has more to do with establishing a fresh mind/body connection that will allow you to familiarize yourself with the feel of those muscles being worked under load/tension, stretched, compressed, pumped, etc. You really want to feel the load or the tension in the muscles in a minor way before you challenge those muscles in a more major way. You want to have a lot of movement dynamics in the warmup, covering full range of motion, from max extension stretch to max compression squeeze. This is kick up the vascular function, dilating the blood vessels and feeding the cells with what they need to be fully functional in an explosive way. So, this is sort of the art of it.

[Aaron645]

Great post OP

[24-7-365]

It is easy to overcomplicate things in bodybuilding in an attempt at improvement. No one is immune to this subtle and persuasive motivation. But that's exactly what is going on here.

^^^what this man so eloquently said^^^^

[FakeOnez]

**** the warm up, always used to do it before, no need anymore, i walk to the gym anyway

[Morlly]

nice topic,it is helpful,thanks for sharing.
I'd often feel my hands and feet going cold.

[myangle]

I always jog for 20 mins to warm up.

[CrystalB2011]

Yes, in my experience if you focus too much on before work out warmups - it will only cause pain afterwards.

[BruthaGV]

OP I personally would leave out about half of those, especially the warm up set at about 95% of your workout weight. Otherwise your warm up sets cut into the actual strength you will need for your working sets. They would in my case anyway.

Then again, I am working with lower weights than most of you so maybe I am a bit biased. If I am going to bench 75 kg for 3x8 for my work, then anything more than 2 or three warm up sets would be pointless (for me 8 x 40%, 4x 60% and if I am feeling really frisky then a 1x 80% work weight would do it) .

Of course, when you increase the weights like you guys I could also see the merit in wanting some extra warm up to start the furnace - but not at 95% or more of the work weight.

[michaelmendyka]

I always do one warm up set with every exercise just to see how tired I am already and what weight Ill be able to use

[PaulWesley]

yep, is really a good suggestion for us. and i will have a try

[mikenorwood961]

Warming up a squat with the BAR, really?
The bar does not give enough resistance to get any type of balance down. you cannot "prime" yourself for working sets without requiring the muscles to balance something.

Agreed. after stationary bike/stretching I do a couple of 'practice' squats with empty because I have bad ankle/hip mobility and a really limited range of stance width too wide or too narrow and I can't squat properly. But I don't consider bar-only squats a warm up.

Empty bar on the bench is good to make sure you can clear the pins but not be so far out that it's hard to unrack. Hitting the pins suuuuucks.

[IronKrazy]

Warming up a squat with the BAR, really?
The bar does not give enough resistance to get any type of balance down. you cannot "prime" yourself for working sets without requiring the muscles to balance something. All you are doing is a light stretch.

I start with just the bar on everything except deadlifts and BOR's. I don't know, I guess it just feels right to start a lift with the bar and to practice my form and tech and to "hit my marks" before I start adding any weight. I guess I could start with a 5'er or a 10 on each side but it's just the way I've done it since I started. And I'm sure he knows that an empty bar won't do anything pre work sets, it's just a thing some people do to get ready for a certain lift. For you or anyone else that's a beast I'm sure starting with the bar seems trivial but for others and even those who lift big they start with the bar too.

The best article I've ever read for warming up: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi51.htm

Great link, thanks. The warming up for me was starting to become overwhelming. I wasn't doing a chit load of sets or anything but it was like if I didn't warm up with a certain amount of weight/sets/reps working toward starting my working sets I wouldn't be at my optimum readiness or sum chit lol. We know we can do that working weight but it's like if we don't do our warm up right we won't be able to do a single set with it lol. It really shouldn't be taking ahold of us this bad.

Only thing about this article is the stretching. I don't do a bunch, I stand and touch my toes (actually touch the floor). I do body weight squats extremely low and sit there in that position for about 10-15 seconds and then I stand up, rotate my arms forward and back and kind of jog in place to get my blood flowing. Just things to get me warm, loose and ready.

Seems to stretch or not to stretch is a touchy subject around here. Though I say if it's been working for you keep doing it.