Wait, wait, now just wait a second I know what your thinking, but just stay with me.
There are many different ways to warm-up. There are long warm-ups and short warm-ups, and there are even people who just skip the warm-up all together (I am guilty of this myself, please father forgive me of this most egregious sin).
Warm-ups are just as important as starting your car early on a cold winters day, like today when it is negative one degree outside. If I were to just start my car and drive off I would be cold and uncomfortable for a good period of time and my drive would not be as enjoyable as it could have been if I took the time to start my car.
You can also start your car and just have it idle for 30 minutes and be warmed and ready to go, but you only really needed it to run for 5 to 10 minutes. There is a point when you are just wasting energy that could be used for your actual travel or, in this case, workout.
We all on the same page here? Your body is the car in this analogy; there, I gave it away.
Looking for a great warm-up idea to get your metaphorical car red hot and ready to roll? Read this: https://joshwilliamsfitness.com/the-warm-up-the-why-and-how-you-know-the-when/
Doing a little warm-up is great for those who are going to do a little workout, but we aren’t here to waste our time with little wussy workouts. Since that is obviously the case, then you need to incorporate two more things, pre-work and warm-up sets into your program.
Pre-Work
Pre-work has three big benefits for you. 1. It helps groove the movement you are about to perform. 2. It helps you work on a problem area with that lift (squat, bench, deadlift) and, 3. Gets the muscles and nervous system ready to react quickly, to get you ready to be explosive with your lifts.
Pre-work will take place after your regular warm-up, just before your first main lift. It will look like this.
Squat Day:
Warm-Up
Pre-Work: 2×5 Box Jumps, 2×8 Back to wall slides
Bench Day:
Warm-Up
Pre-Work: 2×10 Med Ball Chest Press, 2x(2x5sec) Dumbbell Batwings
Deadlift Day:
Warm-Up
Pre-Work: 2×10 Kettlebell Swings, 2×4 Seated 90/90 Hip Shifts
Now that the warm-up and pre-work are behind us, let’s talk a little bit more about warm-ups, because we have already traveled so far down this rabbit hole, why would we stop now?
Warm-Up Sets
At this point, most of you are thinking, “Holy shit how many more warm-ups are we expected to do?” Well, just one more.
Warm-up sets are extremely important to your well-being and to you crushing your personal best in your main lifts. If you are going right from zero weight to throwing 315lbs on the Trap bar, well to be frank, you are an idiot.
The warm-up warms up the general body holistically, the pre-work grooves and gets the nervous system ready to move explosively, and warm-up sets let your body prepare to lift heavy, sexy ass weights.
The old rule is for every 100lbs you lift, you should do one warm-up set. I would say this is a good rule for most.
An even better way to warm-up is by percentages; this is the method I like to use. Let’s say today is my squat day and I am doing 4×6. I know that I can do 255lbs for 6. That will be my working weight.
My warm-up would look like this:
50%: 127×8 (but since I am lazy and don’t want to put 35lbs plates on each side and it is impossible to get 127 on the bar I will, in reality, just throw 135lbs on the bar)
75%: 195×5
90%: 230×1
105%: 270×1
In this example, you may notice I did more than just two set and I also did one set that was more than the weight I was planning to work at for the day. Using a percentage based warm-up will gradually get your body used to lifting the weight.
What the last warm-up set of 105% does is essentially get the body thinking you will be lifting 270lbs, so when you turn around and lift 255lbs for your first set, your body will be all like, “Woah, I thought I was about to lift 270lbs but this feels lighter.” You are over priming the body to make the first lift working set easier.
What it will all look like:
Warm-Up
Pre-Work: 2×5 Box Jumps, 2×8 Back to wall slides
Warm-Up Sets
50%: 127×8
75%: 195×5
90%: 230×1
105%: 270×1
Working Sets
255×6
255×6
265×6
260×6
The Wrap Up
All three parts of the warm-up are important to you staying healthy and getting your body optimally ready for lifting weight. The warm-up should not take you a half hour to do. From the start of your warm-up to the first set of warm-ups sets it should, on average, be 10 minutes. If you are over 12-15 minutes you’re doing too much. Scale it back and try again.
Giving you the tools to succeed,
Josh W
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