Lifting warm up... I think I'm doing it wrong.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Is my first set supposed to feel this heavy?

Last night I seriously thought I was going to miss my last couple reps of my first bench set. The second set was pretty smooth though. The third and final set was challenging, but smooth challenging, like I could feel the muscles really working to get the bar up. The first set felt more like I could feel the muscles about to spasm and fail.

I wasn't lifting cold, although maybe I should be doing more warm up. It's also not isolated to last night. I've been noticing that my first set is pretty tough on my squats and presses the last few workouts. I do deads or cleans last, and those are always alright, but I'm doing them last so I'm obviously pretty warmed up by then.

I start my workout by doing some jumping jacks or a few minutes on the heavy bag. Just something to get the blood flowing. Then I start doing warm up sets for my squats. I'll do one set of five with 20% of the work set weight. Then one set of four with 40%. One set of 3 with 60%. One set of two with 80%. No rest between these sets, except the time it takes to change plates. When I get the work set loaded and get under it, it feels heavy as balls and it takes more to get my five reps done than it usually does on my second work set.

Should I up the number of warm up sets, or up the reps on the higher weight warm up sets? How do you guys warm up for lifting?

[thyme4change]

I snuck into your garage and filled your bar with heavy concrete.

[pig]

I can only speak for myself, I think you're a little younger than I Dark right? When I was younger I never warmed up. As I got older I found it necessary. I never liked "general" warm ups, however. Warm up what you're working. If you're doing squats do 20 - 30 deep knee bends and wait until you feel the blood enter the area.

Unless you're doing circuit or fat burning workouts I would rest more between sets if your goal is to build muscle. Studies have shown that rest periods (within reason, say up to 2-2.5 minutes) have little to no bearing on building muscle.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Oh, I rest a few minutes between my work sets. During the warm ups though I just change the plates and get back under the bar for the next set. I think the problem is that the general warm up isn't doing much for me, and I'm not doing enough specific warm up to really make a difference. I'll do more specific warm up tonight and see how it feels.

[Artemis Windsong]

Is it necessary to step your weights up like that? Can you go to one warm up of 5 reps then to the max weight? Would a change in the line up of lifts help? Do the second exercise you lift first. Or you last exercises first.

Best wishes. At least you are in the gym doing something .

[Formerly SK]

I hesitate to post as I'm a novice lifter, but I do five minutes of cardio on the elliptical for my warmup and then head straight to lifting. I start with my regular weight (ie I don't do warm up lifts) and I do three sets of ten reps. I rest 1-2 minutes between sets.

Could your muscles be tired? Have you tried taking off a week so they can get a good rest? Or maybe your warmup is too vigorous and you need more rest between it and your true lifts?

Sorry I'm not more of a help.

[Artemis Windsong]

I am not a power lifter. I do the old high school warm up of arm circles small and large, forward/back while side, front, back stepping. Circle the hips to circle the knees and ankles clockwise and counter clockwise. A few lunges. I have breathing problems if I don't for warn my body before starting on the aerobics.

I warm up with body weight or minimum weight for 5 reps then go to my regular weight/reps.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Friday's workout felt a lot better. I skipped the few minutes of cardio up front. Added a few extra sets with just an empty bar, then ramped up to my work sets in 20% intervals like I normally do. The first set was still a bit tough, but it felt a lot smoother, and I was setting a personal record on the exercise so it's going to feel heavy.

[pig]

That's the way to do it Dark. A few guys raz me at the gym when they see me warming up with just the bar but it works wonders.

[Deleted]

My heavy weight lifting is just the bar.

[whiskmav]

I prefer to work up a good lather before hitting the weights. That's just me.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Is it necessary to step your weights up like that? Can you go to one warm up of 5 reps then to the max weight?

I don't know about necessary, but the way it was explained to me is that you want to get the specific muscles and tendons used in the lift warmed up and stretched out, and you also want give them a feel for having a heavy bar on them. If you warm up with an empty bar, or just some time on a treadmill and then get under a 200 lb bar to squat it'll feel a lot heavier than it would if you slowly ramp up to the 200 lbs. I don't know if it's true or not, but it made sense to me, so that's how I lift.

It probably depends a bit on what you're doing. For guys on a weekly increase routine, where they have one light day, one moderate day, and one heavy day, they might not need to ramp up to the work sets on the light or moderate day, since it shouldn't feel super heavy anyway. My current routine has me putting more weight on the bar for every exercise every time I hit the gym, so it always feels frickin heavy, and I like ramping up to it. It also gives me a few sets with at least some somewhat heavy weights to concentrate on my form before I load up the bigger weights and all I can think about when lifting is, "Holy crap that's heavy" and "Please god, don't let this barbell squash me like a bug!".

[Formerly SK]

It also gives me a few sets with at least some somewhat heavy weights to concentrate on my form before I load up the bigger weights and all I can think about when lifting is, "Holy crap that's heavy" and "Please god, don't let this barbell squash me like a bug!"

This is a good point. I may try warming up with just the bar (about 50% of my max weight) so I can remind my body of form before going full throttle.

[RoadToRiches]

On my chest day, I usually start with light for me weight flat benches...say.. quick 15 reps of 125. Enough to get things pumping.
Then I move on to heavier weight and go 10 reps..take some weight off, 10 again, take some weight off 8 reps.

I always do "warm up" set at first though.

[pig]

That's called a descending set indebt.

[RoadToRiches]

I know lol...

I switch things around a lot in my program.