How to Warm Up for Heavy Strength Training Sets

Want to know how to warm up for heavy strength training sets? See my answer to the reader submitted question below:

P. J.,

As a "real world" adult professional, I've really benefited from your blog, and I've really taken to strength training in the last few months. My question for you is how to warm up for heavy strength training sets, and, how many warm up sets should I do for each of my exercises in general? Thanks!

-JC from Austin, TX

There are two mistakes most people make when it comes to strength training warm up sets:

1. They don't do any at all

OR

2. They do far too many warm up sets which hinders their performance on the real strength and muscle building sets (work sets as I like to call them)

Here is how I would approach warm up sets-

On your first major exercise of the day, perform the following warm up set protocol:

Warm up Set #1: 50% of the goal work set(s) weight for 5-6 reps
Warm up Set #2: 75% of the goal work set(s) weight for 2-3 reps
Warm up Set #3: 80% of the goal work set(s) weight for 1 rep
Warm up Set #4: 90% of the goal work set(s) weight for 1 rep

At this point, you are as "warm" and as primed as you are going to be, especially if you performed a general dynamic warm up (which you should have) prior to your first exercise of the day. Furthermore, I don't think you need to do any warm up sets for the exercises which follow this first exercise, especially if the exercise was a multiple joint movement.

So, for a real world example, lets say your goal is to perform 200 lbs. for 4 sets of 5 reps in the barbell squat (these are your work sets, those which actually do something productive in terms of getting stronger and/or larger):

Warm up Set #1: 100 lbs. x 6 reps
Warm up Set #2: 150 lbs. x 2 reps
Warm up Set #3: 170 lbs. x 1 rep
Warm up Set #4: 185 lbs. x 1 rep

At this point, you are ready to start your first work set of 200 lbs. for 5 reps. How long should you rest between your warm up sets?? It's up to you, but 30-90 seconds would be a decent guideline. I would suggest resting completely for 2 or 3 minutes after your last warm up and prior to your first work set.

If you contrast the approach above to what you normally see in the gym, it's far different and more productive. I always laugh when I see guys bench press in this manner: 135x10; 185x8; 205x6; 225x4 (or something similar). If they would have warmed up more prudently-and not worn themselves out with useless sets and reps which were far below their capacity-that last set of 225x4 could have been more like 225x8, which, obviously, is going to overload the muscles involved to a far greater extent.

I hope this answered your question regarding "how to warm up for heavy strength training sets", and thanks for reading.


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