How to Warm Up

I’m always surprised how often I get asked about the warm up process when working up to various workloads. I guess after 18 years lifting weights “how to warm up” was just one of those things I never thought about and therefore assumed everyone else kind of knew how to do it as well. However, in the past several years of hosting the Starting Strength Programming forum and doing an increased volume of online programs, my experience has shown me otherwise. Lots of people are confused about how to warm up.

To start with, I’m not a huge believer in the necessity of any type of “general warm up.” A general warm up basically being any activity of about 5-15 minutes that gets your circulation going and loosens up sore muscles and stiff joints. Common activities would be things like a stationary bike, elliptical, rowing machine, etc. I’m not saying that a general warm up is bad, detrimental, or a waste of time. In fact, it’s probably better that you do do some type of general warm up if you have the time. But I don’t believe that it is absolutely necessary. For me and the majority of clients that I work with, our warm up simply consists of several light sets (usually an empty bar) with whatever exercise we intend to start with that day. We may do as little as one set of 5 reps or as many as 20-30 total reps if we are feeling particularly stiff or sore. Areas that have been affected by injury in the past will likely need additional warm up. In my own training for instance, I will do as many as 2 x 30 with an empty bar on the bench press. Having had 2 fairly significant tears right in the pec/delt tie in area, it takes me a while to get this area warm and trainable.

For squats and presses I generally do 1×10 with an empty bar, and with deadlifts I will generally do 1-2 x 10 with 135 lbs (assuming it is the first lift of the day). Good advice on warm ups is to go by feel. There is no set protocol one must follow. Do enough work with the empty bar so that you start to get loose and pliable, and that exact workload may vary from workout to workout based on how you feel.

The general warm up is not the place where people get confused though. Most people mess things up when they start to add weight to the bar. Mistakes on the warm up generally arise from 3 places:
1) Too many warm up sets. Or too many warm up sets too close to work weight
2) Too many reps per warm up set. Or too many reps on the sets closest to work weight
3) No enough warm up sets or too big of a jump in last warm up set(s) to work weight

Mistake #1: Too Many Warm Up Sets, Too Many Warm Up Sets Too Close to Work Weight
This is a fairly common mistake, often caused by a lack of confidence in the lifter. The lack of confidence can come from 2 sources. First, the lifter is just timid under the bar. There are other words for timid, but we’ll be nice in this instance and refrain. Second, he may lack confidence based on a lack of knowledge (ie. not sure what is going to happen at a given weight). Perhaps the lifter is in un-charted poundage territory, is coming back from an injury or layoff, or is starting a new type of training program and working in an unfamiliar rep range. So in other words, the lifter is “testing the waters” with sets at weights just underneath his working weights.

A flawed example progression may look like this:
10 x bar
5 x 135
3 x 185
1 x 225
1 x 275
1 x 315
1 x 365
1 x 375
1 x 385
1 x 395
405 x Rep Max

So in this instance, the hypothetical lifter was either unsure of what he wanted to work up to that day or was unsure of his ability to do what he had planned. Both of these are often symptoms of poor record keeping, poor planning, or no plan at all. A lifter with a good training plan and meticulous records shouldn’t really be unsure of what he can do on a particular day. If you are following a proven formula then the outcomes become fairly predictable.
In the above example, the sets at 375 and 395 should have been eliminated. 365 to 385 to 405 would have been the right balance.

Mistake #2: Too Many Reps Per Set, Too Many Reps Too Close to Working Weight
Unless you are purposefully doing Ascending Sets of multiple reps for the purposes of volume accumulation, then there is really no reason to do more than a single for your last several warm up sets. In fact, any set done after the 3rd warm up set, isn’t a warm up as much as it is a “neural stimulation” set. Now I just made up that term, but it’s essentially accurate. The sets we do with the bar and the first one or two sets we do with added weight are the warm ups. After those 3 sets, the tissue should be warm, joints loose, etc. Any warm ups done in between those and our work set weights are simply done to prime the central nervous system for what is to come. And this must be done incrementally, but it is not necessary to do multiple reps per set and accumulate excessive fatigue.
For instance, if I am working up to a 500 lb squat, my first three warm ups will be about 10 reps with the bar, 5 reps with 135, and 3 reps with 225. After this I am warm, BUT I obviously can’t just make the jump from 225 to 500. Most of the time I will go 275, 315, 365, 405, 455, and maybe 475 – all of which will be done for a single. It’s a waste of energy to do more than that. All I’m trying to do at this point is acclimate my brain to increasingly heavier load and that can easily be done with just a single rep.

Mistake #3: Not Enough Warm Up Sets, Jumps Too Big

This is essentially the opposite of #2. This happens mostly to inexperienced and overzealous (and often younger) lifters who haven’t already made this mistake. Usually what happens here is that the lifter is “fooled” by his own body after the intial warm ups are completed. Because he feels so great, he mistakenly and impatiently jumps from 135 to 315 for his 5RM attempt and subsequently gets buried. Unfortunately for him he doesn’t know that 315 could have easily been established as a new PR had he gone through the proper warm up.

Is there a proper formula for Warm Ups?

My experience has been that there is not anything concrete that can be applied to every single lift, every single time. I have a general template that looks like this:
1) Establish last warm up set first. This will be for a single approximately 5-10% below the target workset weight.
2) Plan the warm up progression backwards from here using somewhat even increments until you arrive at the empty bar.*
3) Do as many sets with the bar as it takes to start to feel loose and pliable. This will vary day to day and lift to lift.
4) The first warm up set with weight is done for 5
5) The second warm up set is done for a triple
6) All other warm up sets done for singles

*Notice on step two I used the term “somewhat” even increments.  It is common for the jumps to be a little bit smaller (20-30 lbs) as we get closer to working weight and anywhere from 50-90 lbs for the first few warm up sets.  So the size of the jumps will start large, and narrow as we get closer to our target.

Can this be individualized?
YES! And in fact, it must be. Every lifter is different, and each day for each lifter is different, and this will influence how we warm up. Sometimes extra sets at the bottom end for sore and stiff joints are warranted, and sometimes an extra set at the top end is warranted if the groove just doesn’t feel right on a particular day. (Earmuffs for all Engineers) Don’t lock yourself into a rigid Excel Spreadsheet blueprint for warm ups. Have a loose protocol, but learn to go by feel as well. Review the common mistakes I outlined here and see if they apply to you. As usual, if you have any questions hit me up on the programming forum at StartingStrength.com or ask in the comments section here.