When lifting weights, there is no arguing that warming up is essential. The question is, how do I warm-up? There are a million ways to warm-up, and they all have their pros and cons, but regardless of how you warm-up, you should be doing the movement that you will be training the majority of the time.

“But Paul, who has time for that? I feel good, so why can’t I just throw 300 lbs on the bar and go?” Not quite. We don’t want to spend any unnecessary time warming-up, but it is still something we must do. We want to make our warm-up as efficient as possible to be able to spend as much time actually training and driving adaptation. Our end goal is to be able to go right to the first exercise and have our warm-up take about 5 minutes to 10 minutes, max. We want to try and eliminate any non-specific work and make everything we do in our warm-up serve a purpose. If the warm-up is not allowing you to perform at a higher level during your actual workout, then it is wasting time. Be sure to be critical of what you do in your warm-up and have a why for everything you do.

Because of this, the best way to warm-up for an activity is by doing that very activity, starting light, and slowly working your way up to the prescribed weight for that day. The best warm-up for squats are squats, for deadlifts are deadlifts, for bench are benches, etc.… and you should be spending a majority of your warm-up time in this phase! You will be warming-up the exact movement, range of motions, and muscles that you will be using in your workout!

First, by starting with the bar, you can make sure all the j-hooks and safety pins are in the right place. You can make sure nothing hurts, and all the equipment is working the way it should be. You wouldn’t want to throw 300 lbs on the bar and go to squat only to find your safety pins are set too high, or maybe that hamstring you strained last week is acting up. By starting with the bar, we can make sure everything is good and ready to go at a light, non-threatening weight.

Second, you can be sure you are warming up the proper muscles because you are doing the exact movement to warm-up that you are doing to train. By performing the movement you are about to do for your warm-up, you will be sure to work the specific muscles and movement that you are about to load up. The muscles you need to use will start to work, and the joints that need to move will be able to move the exact way they will need to under higher stress.

Next, you will be working through the exact movement pattern that you will be loading up. This will allow you to increase mobility in the places needed and prime your nervous system for the task at hand.

By using tempos and isometrics at specific positions in the movement, you can work specifically on any areas that feel off. The first set you perform usually feels stiff and choppy, but by the 5th set, everything starts to loosen up and move the way you would like.

For example, I have trouble getting into a low bar position, but each set I work on placing the bar a little lower on my back, and by the time I get to my working sets, I am not even thinking about how “tight” my shoulders feel. I was able to work on the exact shoulder motion I needed to be successful in my squat.

When you first start warming up, your reps often feel choppy and a little off. By slowly ramping up towards your working set, you will allow your nervous system to master the movement pattern and start to get used to producing force in the positions you are asking it to.

This warm-up process also lets the body know the positions it is getting into are safe. By starting with light and non-threatening weights, your body can gain confidence in the movement you are about to do and not perceive it as a threat. This is crucial when handling heavy weights, any sense of fear or doubt could end up in a missed lift. As the weights get heavier and heavier, your body will have a chance to adjust to the heavier weights. Again, letting your body feel safe with each jump

Probably the most important thing you will get out of this warm-up process is practice. By performing more warm-up set, you will get a chance to practice your technique with lighter weights. You can focus in on areas that you have trouble in and make sure you get them right. Lighter weights are easier to make adjustments with, and if you do enough perfect warm-up sets, you won’t have to think as much when the weight gets heavier. You will have done the movement so many times; it is ingrained in your mind.

This will also give you a chance to create a routine that you perform every time you approach the bar, a routine that always ends up in a completed lift. This creates a habit of never missing a lift which comes in handy when trying to set PRS.

Lastly, it allows you to adjust your training intensity for the day. Properly warming up allows you to judge your RPE each day more accurately, you can adjust the weights to hit the proper intensity on the go (see our Daily Minimum article). If things are feeling good as you warm-up, you know you can push it a little, whereas if things are feeling crappy during the warm-up, you can pull back. This warm-up process is essential in being able to auto-regulate your training

So how do I warm up?

I usually start people with the bar and do five sets of 5 reps every minute on the minute. As people get more confident and efficient, I will cut that down to just 2-3 sets with the empty bar. The first set is never perfect. Slow down the eccentric, and maybe even add in some pauses or a slow concentric, and use the weight to help you get into the proper positions. As I mentioned earlier, using tempos and pauses in places you have trouble with at lighter weights will build confidence in these positions. If someone is a low bar squatter, the first set might be more high bar as the athlete works the bar down lower on their back each warm-up set. If any portion of the lift feels off, slow the tempo down, and as the warm-up progresses, progress the tempo. Each set you are working on your mobility and movement pattern to work towards the movement feeling and looking exactly the way you want.

Once the movement pattern feels the way, it should you start to make slow jumps up. You will want to start with bigger jumps in weights from set to set, and the size of these jumps should get smaller as the weight gets heavier.

You will want to warm-up to your top set over about 3-6 sets. If you are performing a movement that you do not use a lot of weight on, you can perform some of your warm-up sets twice to make sure you are falling in that 3-6 set range.

No two days’ warm-up looks exactly the same. Go by how you feel on that particular day and use the RPE of each set to guide the next set. A good general rule of thumb is to go 30%, 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% of the target weight for the day then start making smaller jumps based on RPE.

The number of reps you do will depend on how many reps you have to do for your working set. A good rule of thumb is to do the same amount of reps you have for your working set all along. If you find this method fatigues you, try doing fewer reps as the weights get heavier.

How do I know if I warmed up properly?

Your first working set should feel the best. If you are always finding that your second set feels better than your first, then you didn’t warm-up enough. If you feel fatigued by your first set and that your weights are suffering, then you probably warmed up too much.

So, you are ready to warm-up! But if you are still a little confused on how to do so, check out below for a few examples that should help.

Why I Always Start With The Bar