Polling the room: Warm-ups

[TaurusAir16]

Hi there folks, question about weight room warm-ups.

What, if anything, do you do to warm up in the weight room? Warming up for HIC/E is usually straightforward enough-few disagree about running light sprints before 600m resets or light calisthenics before a brig rat-but I have heard diverging opinions on what you do before your barbell sessions.

At different times in my training career, I have been both the guy who rides the bike for 10 min, does rotator cuff exercises, foam rolls the hips and hamstrings, and then does 5 warm up sets prior to the first set of back squats, AND I’ve been the guy who does a set of the empty bar, a set of 135, maybe a quad stretch, and hits that first work set within 5 min.

What has worked for you?

[VenomousCoffee]

I'm currently doing back squat, flat bench, and weighted pull-ups, in that order. So my warm-ups for back squat will be 5 reps w an empty bar, then 3 reps with 135, 1 rep with 225, generally all done asap. Then I'll probably do like a 30 second stretch, bodyweight ass-to-grass style. What I do next depends on what week it is. If it's week 1 on Operator, I'm using 295 so I'll probably jump into my work sets. If it's week 3, I'm doing 385 so next I'll do a single with 315, then I'll put 435 on (385 with an extra 25 on each side) and just unrack it and count to 15. This gets my back warmed up and my mind focused. Then my work sets. Adjust accordingly based on what week it is.

Then with bench and pull-ups I'll just jump in with no extra warm-ups. I figure the squats have the blood flowing just fine.

[Maxrip13]

I generally do a quick 3-5 mins on the assault bike and see how I am feeling before going into a few rounds of similar, but slightly different exercises that cover what I am working that day. The Assault bike work gets dropped based on time and access at the gym.

My current cluster is Bulgarians, bench-press and weighted pullups. I use Cossack squats, push ups and pullups for 2-3 rounds and a hip or upper back focused stretch(pigeon, lizard, ring hang) to warm up before taking -3 sets to work up to my training weight. I have to admit the longer I warm up the better I actually feel. My week 1-2 sets I warm up less and it takes a few sets to feel good compared to my week 3-4 sets where I take some extra time. I usually do my conditioning post strength training so I am already pretty warm for that. If not a couple easy sprints or a 10-15 fast paced walk and some practice reps is all I do.

I take a good half hour to warm up properly for BJJ as we regularly start the class with a few warm up rounds. I noticed my training improve in leaps and bounds due to taking the extra time to be ready to go prior to class. My injury rate dropped massively also.

[grouchyjarhead]

I typically do my usual warm-up of about 10 minutes (join rotations, mobility, some light stretching) and then do a few warm up sets before hitting my work sets. If you’re using 200 for your sets of six for the bench press, I would start off by using 100 (50%) of that weight for 5 reps. I ‘d then use 130 (65%) for a set of 3, and then finally 160 (80%) for a single. I typically only rest long enough between warm-up sets to change the plates and get settled for the next lift. Once I finish that final single is when I will rest the full rest period (e.g. typically 3 minutes for me).

[JimV]

I'm not as knowledgeable as most of the people here, but here's what I do: I'm in the over-60 crowd with some joint injuries. So I take my time with warmups. I do some general warmup with bands to get muscles (shoulders, hips and core) firing and then some jump rope.

Then, for each lift, I use something between the 5/3/1 warmup and the more extensive "beyond 5/3/1" warmup. It's just gradually increasing the weight on the bar until I get to the work set. Currently, my first exercise is squat and I do 5 warmup sets followed by 4 work sets. For the other exercises I do just 3 warmup sets. Just like VenomousCoffee, I figure the squats got the whole body warmed up some. I will say that taking my time with this, my shoulder problems in particular are quieting down.

[Shrek2hulk]

I like to use a very simple warm-up:

4x8 bag spins/bag squats/dive bombers/ring rows

Is this appropriate for mass template?

[jzt]

Some light band work for the shoulders
A few minutes stretching my hips, hamstrings and hip flexors (static stretching)
Then a few sets with light weights (1-3 sets)

After that I'm good to go.