No More Wimpy Warm-ups

The $5 warm up solution

Warming up. Not the most exciting topic, right?

Well, let’s see if this gets your heart racing. If you start warming up properly, you can instantly make yourself stronger and make your workouts EASIER.
And to top it off, I estimate 95% of all guys don’t warm up right.

Here’s the 3 parts to a proper warm up for a weight training workout:

Step #1: Medium Intensity Cardio

The first step in a warm-up is to raise the temperature of the body, get your joints lose and start to break a sweat.
Biking or running are both good choices for your cardio warm-up. Or if you’re short on space, just get yourself a jump rope.

The key here is “medium intensity.” You want to warm up for about 5 -10 minutes. And you want to push the pace pretty hard so that you break a sweat by the end.
Many guys don’t warm-up hard enough here. A brisk walk is not enough. Your body can handle a tougher warm up.

In fact, I once heard a story about an old-school trainer who had a last minute emergency on his workout day. His car broke down, so he was forced to bike 12 miles to the gym.
He set brand new PR’s on the squat and said the weights felt lighter than ever.

On the flip side, some guys push the cardio way to hard. Remember, this is just a warm-up. You should not be running or biking a marathon before your training session.
So strive to find that middle ground — a good, medium cardio warm-up. No more, no less.

#2) Stretching & Foam Rolling

There are plenty of scientific studies that show how stretching can actually make you weaker before a training session. So many guys will use that to blow off stretching. Look, stretching can make you temporarily weaker — for about 4 seconds after your stretch. But it can also save your joints and keep you injury free. So take a couple minutes to knock out a few quick stretches before you jump under the iron.

Older guys may also want to explore the idea of foam rolling before your workouts to loosen up the joints and tight muscles.

#3) Hit 90 -95% of your work weights in your warm-ups.

A lot of guys will just bench 135lbs a few times, call that a warm-up and then jump right into their work sets.

Dumb.

If you’re benching 245 pounds for your work set, here’s a proper weight training warm up.

45 lbs (the bar) x 20.
135lbs x 5.
185lbs x 3
205lbs x 1
225lb x 1

Knocking out plenty of reps with the empty bar helps to practice proper bar path and make sure your joints are plenty warmed up. Then we want to increase the weight WITHOUT doing anything that taxes the muscles. Often times you’ll see guys try to get a “pump” from their warm up sets — but all this does is reduce the amount of weight you can use on your work sets.

Finally, you’ll want to hit a single with 90 -95% of your work set weights. In this case, 225 pounds is 91% of 245 pounds. This helps get the nervous system and your mind ready for the feel of the work set weights.
If you don’t do a single with 90-95% of your weight set weights, it can make your work set weights feel extremely heavy and this can cause you to alter your form.

There you have it: No more wimpy warm-ups. Try this strategy before your next training session and I’ll bet you are instantly stronger.

Matt Marshall
Tried & True Fitness

P.S. Your pre-workout warm up is important. But your post-workout nutrition is also a crucial piece of the muscle-building puzzle. Here’s what old time trainers did to make sure they got important muscle building nutrients.
Secret of Old Time Trainers.