Warming Up For Weight Training Sessions

Warming up before exercise is import. Many beginners may know that warming up is important, but they may think it is just a matter of hopping on the treadmill or stationary bike for 5-10 minutes. Sure, this will raise your body temperature, but it does little in terms of preparing your muscles for what's ahead.

A proper warmup lowers your risk of injury, increases your strength by preparing the nervous system for the stress it is about to be under, and helps you reach your fitness goals faster. An appropriate warmup should build up tension by performing progressively heavier warm up sets. You might think that a progressive warmup will cause fatigue, before completing your workout. To avoid this, the weight should be increased on each warmup set, while decreasing the number of reps.

What does an appropriate warmup look like?

Let's assume we are going to perform an exercise involving a barbell, so maybe bench press or barbell row.

Warmup set 1: 8 reps with just the bar

Warmup set 2: 5 reps at 50% of the weight of your first working set

Warmup set 3: 3 reps at 70% of the weight of your first working set

Allow a one minute rest between sets.

If you plan to lift heavy, you could include a 4^th warmup set.

Warmup set 4: 1 rep at 90% of the weight of your first working set.

Take a 1 minute rest between warmup sets and 3 minutes between the last warmup and first working set.

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