The process of warming up before a weight training session involves 3 different phases:

• Mild cardio – 5 to 10 minutes of non-taxing cardio.
• Stretching – Controversial and optional step.
• Working warm up sets – Prepare your body and mind for heavy lifting.

Step 1 – Mild cardio. It is not uncommon to feel stiff, tight, or sore when heading into a workout. The goal of this stage is to raise your body’s core temperature. You will get the blood flowing, and warm up your stiff joints and muscles.

Perform 5 to 10 minutes of very mild low impact cardio, such as walking on a treadmill. This warm up period should not tax your body in any way. Save your energy for the lifting session to come.

Step 2 – Mild stretching. This is a controversial and OPTIONAL step. For years it was assumed that stretching prior to exercise was a requirement. Recently, there have been strong indications that stretching may temporarily weaken a muscle.

A muscle that has been warmed up via cardio will be harder to injure than a cold muscle. Stretching does not reduce the possibility of injury, and therefore, adds nothing to the warm up process. After 5-10 minutes of mild cardio you can feel completely comfortable jumping to step 3 in the warm up process.

If you do stretch, please keep your session brief and moderate. Lifting heavy weight with weakened muscles can be a recipe for injury.

Step 3 – Working warm up sets. Most exercises require anywhere from a single working warm up set, to multiple warm up sets. Use the following guidelines when trying to determine how many warm up sets are required.

Heavy Compound Exercises

Heavy compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench press and overhead press place a great strain on the body. For these lifts it is recommended that you perform several working warm up sets. These sets will prepare your body in several ways:

• CNS. Warm ups sets will prepare your CNS, or central nervous system. CNS recruitment is a vital step in the warm up process. When your CNS is engaged and properly stimulated, you are able to recruit a larger number of muscle fibers. This, of course, will make a weight feel lighter. Maximal muscle fiber recruitment also makes for a safer lift.
• Feel and form. Warm up sets allow your mind and body to mentally connect with the feel and form of an exercise. Heavy compound exercises require the practice of precise form. By performing several warm up sets you give yourself a chance to practice form, and to remember specific form queues that can easily slip your mind during a vigorous training session.
• Blood flow. Non-taxing warm up sets will drive blood into pumping muscles, keeping their core temperature up and helping to reduce the chance of injury.
• Joints. Warm up sets also allow you to loosen up stiff joints and connective tissue.

Note: Warm up sets should not tax the body or leave you feeling fatigued. Once again, the point of warm up sets is to prepare your mind, muscles, joints, tendons and central nervous system for the heavier sets to come.

If you fatigue a muscle during your warm up sets, you will handicap your performance during your working sets. This is not an effective method of maximizing strength and muscle gains.

Sample warm up. What follows is a sample warm up session for the bench press. In this example, the first working set will be performed using 225 pounds.

• Warm up set 1 – Bar x 10-15 reps.
• Warm up set 2 – 135 pounds x 5-8 reps.
• Warm up set 3 – 185 x 3-5 reps.
• Warm up set 4 – 205 pounds x 1 reps.

Very heavy weight. The heavier the weight, the more warm up sets you should perform. Very heavy loads will require you to build slowly with single rep warm up sets. This method of warming up allows for maximal CNS stimulation without overly fatiguing a muscle.

Here is an example of a warm up structure for a lifter who is about to perform squats with 405 pounds:

• Warm up set 1 – Bar x 10-15 reps.
• Warm up set 2 – 135 pounds x 5-8 reps.
• Warm up set 3 – 225 x 3-5 reps.
• Warm up set 4 – 275 x 3 reps.
• Warm up set 5 – 315 x 1 rep.
• Warm up set 6 – 345 x 1 rep.
• Warm up set 7 – 375 x 1 rep.

Compound Exercises

Some compound exercises will not require an excessive number of warm up sets. In some cases you may need to perform only one warm up set to get the “feel” for these exercises.

In addition, bodyweight exercises such as dips and pull ups can’t be warmed up using the same ramping structure as bench press and squats, unless you are using a weighted belt and quite a bit of resistance.

Isolation Exercises

Most isolation exercises require at most one warm up set. Some isolation exercises, such as weighted sit ups, can be performed without the use of any warm up sets.

Use Your Best Judgment

The examples in this guide are just that – examples. Always listen to your body. If you feel extremely stiff or tight, add a few more warm up sets.

In cases where the weight seems unusually heavy, use caution. When a weight feels heavy it is a sign that your central nervous system is not performing up to speed. You have two options at this time:

1. Use a slightly lighter training weight for the day.
2. Perform a few more single warm up sets in hopes that your CNS will “wake up”.