Warm up cardio necessary?

[john930331]

Hey guys,

I've been sick and stayed home for about 3 years with no exercise at all so I'm very weak

I've just started working out and I really lack energy to work my muscles enough(I get tired to do more reps before I really feel my muscles)

So I wanted to ask you guys if I should skip warm up cardio so I can have a little more energy to use for my workouts?

I walk to the gym for 15 mins if that counts as a warm up.

If I should still do warm up cardio, then how long? 3 mins? 8 mins? Intensity?

Can you guys help me decide? Thanks!

[DJAuto]

Absolutely - "warmup cardio" is largely useless for someone who's goals are weightlifting oriented.

[koweanguy]

I personally prefer a 5-10 minute walk at a 2-3mph pace. Slow walk to help warm my body up.
Howeverm if you are already walking to the gym for 15 minutes, then I would consider warming up with the weights
For example, if you are Squatting.. then Squat witha very light weight (slow reps). Same principle for Bench, Shoulder Press, etc...

[djlank9]

I personally prefer a 5-10 minute walk at a 2-3mph pace. Slow walk to help warm my body up.
Howeverm if you are already walking to the gym for 15 minutes, then I would consider warming up with the weights
For example, if you are Squatting.. then Squat witha very light weight (slow reps). Same principle for Bench, Shoulder Press, etc...

I also prefer a 5 min warm up, mine being on a stationary bike. But the 15 min walk would definitely suffice IMO. Definitely a good idea to warm up with the weights for the compound lifts as well.

[r3dt4get]

Can't post the link yet, but this is a BB article on warming up for strength training. Only a small quote related to the subject:

Mistake #4: General Warm Ups - The nervous system picks up patterns, and running on the treadmill, or pedal pushing for 5-10min to "get the blood flowing" or whatever rationale you use does nothing to prepare the C.N.S. for a highly specific task like benching, squatting, rows or any other exercise for that matter (other than running or biking).

So do your body a favor and don't waste your glycogen (stored energy) on something that isn't going to help your body complete the task at hand.

If you're going to squat, warm up by squatting, stay away from the treadmill. In fact, walk a wide path around it as I've seen those things leach glycogen from people's livers osmoticaly from three feet away. You wouldn't warm up your car for a trip to the grocery store by hopping on the highway would you?

[djlank9]

Can't post the link yet, but this is a BB article on warming up for strength training. Only a small quote related to the subject:

The portion about warming up not preparing the CNS for weightlifting exercises makes perfect sense to me. I'm not sure that's the purpose of most people doing it though. I think it also depends on the intensity of the warm up. I don't feel I waste any real level of stored energy with a light warm up of 5 min, plus I have a vulnerable knee that feels more stable after I've given it a number of full rotations (especially before jumping into squats). I do a light cycle for 5 min and he walks 15 min to the gym. Now if either of us jogged at a moderately fast pace then I would question it a bit more. But to each is own. I like to stretch prior to and after lifting, and the only way for me to stretch loosened muscles is by tossing in the warmup. However, many don't like to stretch until only after lifting.