Why warm up?
Your body works better when it is warm. Your heart rate and breathing go up, your muscles warm up and movements feel smoother. You usually notice it in your first heavy sets: they feel easier and your technique feels more settled.
The warm-up is also a rehearsal. The light sets let you practise the exact movement you are about to do with a heavy weight, and you get a sense of how your body feels today. If something feels stiff or unfamiliar, you find out with a light weight rather than a heavy one.
Treat the warm-up as part of the session. It is there to make the sets that count better.
General warm-up: 5 to 10 minutes
Start with something easy that gets your whole body going. At the gym, the rowing machine, an exercise bike, the cross-trainer or a brisk walk on an incline on the treadmill all work well. At home, a skipping rope, bodyweight squats and a few knee push-ups do the job just as well.
Keep the pace easy. You should get warm and slightly out of breath, but still be able to talk. Five minutes is enough for most people, a little longer on a cold day.
Ramp-up sets
This is the most important part. Instead of going straight to your working weight on the first exercise, you do a few sets where the weight goes up and the reps come down. Each set is a little heavier than the last, but none of them is hard.
An example with the squat
Say you are doing the squat with 80 kg for three sets of 5. Your warm-up could look like this:
- Empty bar (usually 20 kg): 10 reps, slow and focused on depth and position.
- 40 kg: 5 reps.
- 60 kg: 3 reps.
- 70 kg: 2 reps.
- 80 kg: your first working set.
Rest between warm-up sets can be short, about as long as it takes to load the plates. Rest a little longer before your first working set.
The same idea on the bench press
If you are doing the bench press with 60 kg, you need fewer steps: the empty bar for 10, 40 kg for 5, 50 kg for 3 and then 60 kg. The lighter your working weight, the fewer warm-up sets you need. The heavier it is, the more.
Rules of thumb for ramp-up sets
- Fewer reps as the weight goes up. These sets should prepare you, not tire you out.
- Smaller steps near your working weight. The last steps are what make the working weight feel familiar.
- Warm-up sets do not count. They are not working sets and should not be hard work. Read more in the guide to sets and reps.
The next exercise
After the first exercise you are already warm. Before the next one, one or two lighter sets are usually enough, especially when it trains different muscles, such as moving from squats to the barbell row. Smaller exercises like lateral raises rarely need more than one light first set.
Mobility in moderation
Mobility work is useful when it helps you get into the right position, such as depth in the squat or your arms straight overhead in the overhead press. Pick two or three movements that suit the day's session and do them calmly for a few minutes. Bodyweight lunges, deep squats without weight and band face pulls fit before many sessions.
Short stretches are fine if something feels stiff. Long, static stretches right before heavy lifts, on the other hand, are rarely the best choice. They take time, and they do not prepare you for the lift as well as light sets of the exercise itself. If you want to stretch for longer, it fits better after your session or on another day.
How long does a warm-up need to be?
For most people, 10 to 15 minutes in total is enough: around five minutes of general warm-up, a few minutes of mobility if you need it, then your ramp-up sets, which are already part of the first exercise.
Add a little time when:
- it is early in the morning or cold
- you are lifting heavier than usual
- a part of your body feels stiff today
Cut it shorter when the session is light, or when you train with bodyweight at home.
Common mistakes
- Too little. If you go straight to your working weight, your first set is often your worst. Ramp-up sets only take a few minutes.
- Too much. Lots of exercises and half an hour of cardio before you lift turn into a workout of their own. You want to be warm and ready, not finished.
- Tiring yourself out. Warm-up sets with lots of reps or close to failure take energy away from your working sets. Keep the reps low as you approach your working weight.
- Pushing through pain. Stiffness usually eases as you warm up. If something hurts, rather than just feeling stiff or heavy, stop the exercise and have it looked at by a doctor or physiotherapist.
How BIP helps
The sessions BIP builds start with a short warm-up for the day's exercises. During the session you log the weight and reps for every working set, so you know what weight to warm up towards next time. The log and your own sessions are free in the training log. If you want a ready-made weekly programme, you can build your first programme, and the first week is free.
Frequently asked questions
Should you stretch before strength training?
You do not need to. Short stretches are fine if something feels stiff, but save longer static stretching for after your session.
Do warm-up sets count as training?
Not as working sets. They prepare you for the heavy sets but are too light to count. It still helps to use the same steps every time, so you know how your warm-up usually feels.
Can you skip the warm-up when you are short on time?
Cut the general part rather than the ramp-up sets. Two or three minutes of easy movement and a few warm-up sets on your first exercise do not take long and often make your working sets go better.