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Hey guys,

Just curious what you are doing for a general warm-up and/or warm-up sets? Here's what I am currently doing for the complete warm-up set.

5 minutes or so of lower body foam rolling
5 minutes or so of some jump rope, jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, and other dynamic stretches
For each exercise I then do warm-up sets of 5 reps, 3 reps, and 2 reps with ramping weights up to my working weight. I also like to work up to 5 working sets when I have time.
After my Op I/A work, I do about 5-7 minutes of core work 2xper 8-day week.

The reason that I ask what you guys are doing is that my workout is running up to an hour and 15 minutes or so. I'd like to get it back down a little bit but I'm trying to figure out how to do that. I know that I can drop some work sets to 3 sets per session and/or I can drop the 5 minutes of dynamic work and/or I can adjust the warm-up sets and/or I can drop the core work at the end and do it at a different time. Just trying to manage my time as best I can. Thanks for any thoughts on what you do.

I have had success with just doing the following:
5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 Bodyweight squats, instep stretch for 2-5 rounds.
I then do a set or two at a lighter weight of my lifts for the day with only enough time to change the weight between rounds.
Takes 10 mins if that and is specific to the cluster I generally use.

Another option is to use the prying goblet squats, hip bridges and haloes warm up from Simple and sinister. I just circuit my way through that at a low weight and I am ready to go. You can throw in some foam rolling if needed also. I keep my warm up to no longer than 10 mins.

I have never been a fan of taking 20 mins to warm up slowly. Do some specific exercises that match you cluster with bw or a lighter weight and get a little sweat on. Then it's time to get to work.

General warm-up:
- 5 min of foam rolling following by 5-6min of mobility drills.

Warm-up sets:
- Usually 3 sets -> starting with the bar (or +10lb-15lb depending one working ##) and going up to 70%sh of my working ##.

This may be heresy, feel free to kick me out of the tribe if so.

I don't warm up or down doing anything but the lifts.

The easiest is the OHP. I start there. Every lift is the same sequence:

Empty bar, 5-10 reps.

Pick 2-4 intermediate weights between empty bar and work sets, do 1-3 reps with 1 minute rest.

Work sets. Depends on the program and the week. Rest interval depends on the week, 2-4 minutes.

Since I'm in the rack for OHP, on to back squats. This also gives the upper body time to recover before bench.

65 minutes is typical with 5 sets of OHP, 3 sets of back squats, and 5 sets of bench. In op weeks 3 and 6, less sets and reps but longer rest intervals ends up in about the same time.

Add deads occasionally and you're up to about 80 minutes but only once a week at max.

Lift with a buddy and add maybe 10 minutes, just because that seems to be the way it goes.

Maybe I'm lucky, but I've never had a problem doing things this way.

WallBilly wrote:This may be heresy, feel free to kick me out of the tribe if so.

I don't warm up or down doing anything but the lifts.

The easiest is the OHP. I start there. Every lift is the same sequence:

Empty bar, 5-10 reps.

Pick 2-4 intermediate weights between empty bar and work sets, do 1-3 reps with 1 minute rest.

Work sets. Depends on the program and the week. Rest interval depends on the week, 2-4 minutes.

Since I'm in the rack for OHP, on to back squats. This also gives the upper body time to recover before bench.

65 minutes is typical with 5 sets of OHP, 3 sets of back squats, and 5 sets of bench. In op weeks 3 and 6, less sets and reps but longer rest intervals ends up in about the same time.

Add deads occasionally and you're up to about 80 minutes but only once a week at max.

Lift with a buddy and add maybe 10 minutes, just because that seems to be the way it goes.

Maybe I'm lucky, but I've never had a problem doing things this way.

I don't warm up like this to keep the time of the workout down. Looking at how you have that set up with warm up sets and rest, you are not really doing any real work for over half the training time. I am not saying you are wrong, but I just find it very inefficient.

I am of the belief that the warm up should be a mini workout in itself, but some people are scared of that. A warm up should be hard and get you breathing heavy as well as a good sweat up. Don't worry, you will not wear yourself out to the point that it effects your lifts or session. If you do then this approach to a warm up will build up your work capacity and everything will improve.

You know how you feel tight and struggle at the start of a run and after a couple mins or kms it starts to feel easier ? That is the idea behind the warm up. You want to get that effect prior to the actual training starting. Before running tests in the military, I would run a few kms myself to warm up. If I did this I would run the test much faster.

What works best for me is a quick 5-10 min circuit of body weight/Kettlebell exercises similar to the barbell exercises to be done. I would throw a mobility exercise on the end and use it as active rest. Repeat this for 3-5 rounds in a circuit fashion. After this if it was an extremely heavy week I would do 1-2 sets of the barbell movement with a lighter weight with only enough rest to change the plates between rounds. I always found this was more than enough and cut my workout time down by ages.

I usually get my TB MS sessions, with a 3 lift cluster ,in between 30 -40 mins including the warm up. I do run these in a circuit fashion and stick to the 2 min rest periods were possible between each exercise. This maximizes my rest to 6 mins between each repeat of an exercise.

You aren't wrong. I just find this way more time effective after doing it how you mentioned for a long time.

mikhou wrote:5 minutes or so of lower body foam rolling
5 minutes or so of some jump rope, jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, and other dynamic stretches
For each exercise I then do warm-up sets of 5 reps, 3 reps, and 2 reps with ramping weights up to my working weight. I also like to work up to 5 working sets when I have time.
After my Op I/A work, I do about 5-7 minutes of core work 2xper 8-day week.

Hmm, I think the thing to remember is that everyone's warm up might not necessarily be the same. I've read and watched a few people talk a bout their warmups, and there are 3 key themes which ring through:

1. Address personal problem (stiff, cold or stubborn body parts)
2. Get your heart and body generally ready for whatever you're doing
3. Short practices of the up coming movement patterns.

Some people might have stiffer quads and hamstrings and focus more on that, people that don't move their upper bodies much may need more work there.

So, the question is, what are you trying to achieve with each of those 5 minutes of foam rolling, BW work, then warm-up sets? Do you need all of them? If so, keep them.

If not ditch them, you're expending more energy on your warm-up and fatiguing yourself before your work sets.

Maxrip13 wrote:
I don't warm up like this to keep the time of the workout down. Looking at how you have that set up with warm up sets and rest, you are not really doing any real work for over half the training time. I am not saying you are wrong, but I just find it very inefficient.

I am in agreement that this is not an "efficient" use of time.

I would probably try to do a circuit if I could, but I work out in a busy university gym, and even at 6:30 am, there is no way I would be permitted to monopolize a squat rack and a bench for 30-40 minutes. The bros would have some 'splainin' to do for me . . . .

At the end of the day, I get in my conditioning from HIC, E and sports, and I have just accepted the fact that my MS workouts are going to be a little long, with a lot of standing around and checking out the scenery.

I don't do much warming up at all on my strength days.

5-10 minutes of jogging or skipping.
1-3 empty bar sets/light weight.
Get right into it during my 70-85% loads.
90% week I sometimes work up with a few heavier sets.

There are times when I do a pretty extensive warm-up, but that is usually when it's writing into the program I'm following. For example, when I'm using one of Defranco's schemes. When I'm on my own, I just do some goblet squats and/or "Third World" squats and some band pull-aparts for the shoulders, and then I get under the bar. If its cold an early in the morning, I might do five min of jogging or even some burpees to get things going. Here's the unscientifically selected warm-up sets I used for my squats yesterday:

90 x 10
135 x 5
180 x 3
225 x 2
270 x 1
300 x 5 (first work set)

Next week, when my first work set will be 320, I'll add 300x1 as the final warm-up set.

For the WPU, I mostly don't do a warm-up when I'm only adding 10-15 pounds. When I'm going heavier, I'll add a couple sets of 2-3 BW pull-ups, and then maybe a single or two working up to the first work set. Here's what I did for the OHP:

Bar x 10
90 x 3
110 x 2
135 x 5 (first work set)

Next week, when I'm working with 155, 135x1 will be the last warm-up.

WallBilly wrote:

Maxrip13 wrote:
I don't warm up like this to keep the time of the workout down. Looking at how you have that set up with warm up sets and rest, you are not really doing any real work for over half the training time. I am not saying you are wrong, but I just find it very inefficient.

I am in agreement that this is not an "efficient" use of time.

I would probably try to do a circuit if I could, but I work out in a busy university gym, and even at 6:30 am, there is no way I would be permitted to monopolize a squat rack and a bench for 30-40 minutes. The bros would have some 'splainin' to do for me . . . .

At the end of the day, I get in my conditioning from HIC, E and sports, and I have just accepted the fact that my MS workouts are going to be a little long, with a lot of standing around and checking out the scenery.

Completely understand. I love having a home gym for convenience and a work gym that always seems to be empty when I use it.
Have you considered a circuit of dumbell versions of the exercises ? You can usually steal a dumbell or kettle bell for 10 mins without to many being worried. I just chuck my head phones in and steal the squat rack and a bench now. I am happy for people to work in if they ask, but squats takes precedence over old matey doing curls or pullups in a power rack, provided they can do them some where else.