How To Warm Up

After stretching it’s important to warm up with weights before you start to use your working weight.

Working weight is the weight that you chose to do your 3x12 . For example, if you decide to use 60 pounds for your 3x12 your warm-up weight may range from 15-40lbs with incremental increases.

I like to make sure that I am nice and warmed up before I use heavy weight to best avoid injury. For example if I’m going to bench 225 pounds my very first set will only include the bar. Then I’ll add weight little by little until I feel comfortable. The same goes for nearly every body part. After your first exercise you do not need to do a full warm up. Do an acclimation set instead to get used to the motion and then move on.

My recommendation when doing compound moves like bench or squat: Do at least two sets warming up with only the bar. This is important to get everything nice and loose. This is actually rare to see because most people lift with their ego’s. Don’t be fooled by the lifters who warm up with 135lbs and increase rapidly.

Be smart, go slow.