“Warming up?
I don’t need that, man.
I can just jump right in and lift weights – warming up’s a waste of time.”
The above is what I hear in the gym day after day, and I’m ashamed to admit, I used to have the same ideas too …
… until I got injured.
Far too many people think that they don’t need to warm up, and that they can just walk right into the gym and crush heavy weights without any mobility work, stretching, lighter sets, or activity to raise heart rate.
This is great – until you hurt yourself.
For the sake of an extra 5 to 10 minutes, it’s well worth doing a proper warm up before you get into the meat and nuts of your session.
You’ll perform better, lift heavier and prevent injuries.
The Triple Threat
A warm up should be broken down into 3 components –
- Mobility
- A pulse raiser/ activation
- Accumulation
The mobility part of the warm up is pretty straightforward.
This isn’t “stretching” per se (although you may do some stretching) but the idea is to get tight muscles a little looser so you can lift with better form.
The pulse raiser/ activation gets your hear rate and blood flow up to deliver nutrients to the muscles, and also causes a release of synovial fluid to lubricate the joints.
You’ll also activate muscles here, which will make you stronger and more explosive during your workout.
Finally, “accumulation” is a fancy way of saying “light sets.”
You simply can’t go straight into lifting heavy right out of the gate – that’s a sure fire way to screw yourself up, tweak a muscle or tendon, sprain a ligament, or just look stupid as you get crushed on your first rep of bench presses.
Part 1: Mobility
I like every client to start off with a general mobility warm up.
For me, that means foam rolling and SMR (Self-Myofascial Release.)
Get yourself a foam roller (these are cylindrical tubes of dense foam, designed to iron out any knots and trigger points in your muscles.) These come in various densities, from the softer ones that are entirely foam based, to harder ones, which are more like PVC pipes. You can even get rumble rollers that have bumps on them to get even deeper.
If you’ve never foam rolled before, get a light one to start and work your way up.
Spend 2 to 3 minutes going over your whole body, focusing on your quads, hamstrings, upper-back, lats, adductors and abductors.
After this, you’ll need a ball – either a tennis ball or a hockey ball. (Newbies go with tennis, experienced folks with a hockey or lacrosse ball.)
This works the same way as a foam roller, but gets into smaller muscle groups.
Work the ball around your calves, glutes, pecs and shoulders for 2 to 3 minutes.
Part 2: Pulse Raiser/ Activation
Notice how we didn’t start the warm up how most people do – with cardio?
That’s because when it comes to lifting weights, a cardio warm up doesn’t do much good, as it isn’t specific to what you’ll be doing in the main session.
Instead, we’ll use different drills to get your heart rate going.
This is also where we’ll activate those weak, lazy muscles, which will help you lift heavier.
If you’re training lower body, go for a short circuit of –
- Bodyweight squats x 10 reps
- Deep lunges – x 10 reps per side
- Backward roll into reach (sit on the floor, roll back so you almost do a backward roll, then sit up, spread your legs and try to touch your toes) – x 10 reps
- Groiners (Assume a push-up position, step your right foot outside your right hand until you get a stretch in your groin, then step back and do the same with the left) – x 10 reps per side.
- Hip flexor stretch – x 10 seconds per side
Do this 3 times, then perform –
- 5 box jumps or standing long jumps
- 10 heavy kettlebell swings
- 10 steps each way of X-band walks (loop a short resistance band around your knees and step sideways)
Do this 3 times also.
For your upper-body, go for –
- 10 pushups
- 5 pullups
- 20 band pull-aparts
- 10 external rotations each side using a cable machine or a dumbbell
Do this 4 times.
Part 3: Accumulation
This is the easy part.
You’ve done with the “warm up” and now it’s time to hit the weights for real.
All you’ll do here is lighter sets of your main lift.
When starting with a compound exercise (squats, deadlifts, bench presses etc.) you may need 4 or 5 warm up sets before your working weights.
Start at around 50% of what you intend to lift, and add 5-20% each time.
So if you intend to squat 120kg for 5 sets of 5 you may go –
- 40kg for 10 reps (optional)
- 60kg x10
- 80kg x5
- 100kg x3
- 110kg x2
- 115kg x1
- Working sets
For isolation exercises, or those that come later in the session, you don’t need as many warm ups. One set at 50-75% should suffice.
Don’t Turn the Cold Shoulder to Warming Up
Warm ups may not be “hardcore” but being injured and unable to train isn’t too hardcore either.
Don’t neglect the warm up – not only will a warm up make you stronger for your session there and then, it will improve your health and training longevity, allowing you to lift pain-free for years to come.
Remember – if you’re injured, you can’t train, and if you can’t train, you won’t be gaining any muscle.