Exercise Bike For Squat Warm Up

[T-Rage]

Years ago when I used to squat regularly I would always do 5 - 7 minutes of walking on a treadmill followed by 5 - 7 minutes on the exercise bike increasing the tension throughout to thoroughly warm up my knees. After a layoff I'm happy to be squatting again in my basement gym. However, I don't have an exercise bike. It seems no matter how much light jogging, dancing around, bag work, etc. I do, I can't seem to warm my knees up. Granted its been cold here in the North East, however I'm definitely trolling Craig's list for an exercise bike ASAP.

That being said I'm really curious if others religiously hit the exercise bike prior to doing squats.

[benjobb]

I don't really like cardio for warming up, try dynamic stretching, foam rolling and really light warm-up sets. I could sometimes go for 3 sets of 5 with just the bar just to get my body/knees ready.

[lee__d]

Some dynamic stretches, mostly just light warm up sets. I personally feel nothing is more effective than warm up sets of the actual exercise (for the big compounds. I.e. once you've squatting, you should be sufficiently warmed up for quad/hamstring isolation work).

[Xuaxace]

Eliptical or rowing machine are extremely good for warming up.

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When it comes to warm ups, it is all about the needs of a lifter and no warm up will be the same for two people.

I love the eliptical warm up because it really helps me stretch my back (thanks to the criss cross movement) and starts to lubricate certain joints. Then I move to dynamic drills for hips/ and rotator cuffs, as well as some myofacial release and foam rolling to losen some specific tight muscles. After that I start the movement of the day with the bar, and work my way up. A set of squats with 3 plates would take me 7 warm up sets to get there. The first sets will be high rep, to really get the blood going into the muscles worked and as the weight go up, the reps go down and the warm up becomes a CNS warm up.

[gs425e]

an empty bar..and 5 sets of the exercise that you want to perform..works for me

[T-Rage]

I don't really like cardio for warming up, try dynamic stretching, foam rolling and really light warm-up sets. I could sometimes go for 3 sets of 5 with just the bar just to get my body/knees ready.

I'm doing all those things but it just doesn't seem to be enough. I miss the the way the bike would make my knees feel warm, lubricated and filled with blood.

[ironwill2008]

Years ago when I used to squat regularly I would always do 5 - 7 minutes of walking on a treadmill followed by 5 - 7 minutes on the exercise bike increasing the tension throughout to thoroughly warm up my knees. After a layoff I'm happy to be squatting again in my basement gym. However, I don't have an exercise bike. It seems no matter how much light jogging, dancing around, bag work, etc. I do, I can't seem to warm my knees up. Granted its been cold here in the North East, however I'm definitely trolling Craig's list for an exercise bike ASAP.

That being said I'm really curious if others religiously hit the exercise bike prior to doing squats.

I do a couple of minutes on a bike before every training session, followed by 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps of very light Clean & Press. Then I start my session with specific warmups dependent on the exercise I'm starting with.

[T-Rage]

Thanks all for the suggestions!

[pyaarawala]

I agree with everyone. Nothing like doing warmup sets of squats before squatting. I use the SS warmup calculator which would be something like this for a 240 lb squat:

2x5 45 lbs (just the bar)
1x5 95 lbs
1x3 140 lbs
1x2 190 lbs
3x5 240 lbs (working sets)

I just recently incorporated some foam rolling and dynamic stretches pre-squat.