Warming Up To The Bar
Warming up for a strength session under the bar is simple; there is no better way to warm up than by doing the movement you’re warming up for. If you’re warming up for a heavy squat, start with an empty bar and then work up to your heavy sets. Like many “trends” in the gym, some like to overcomplicate every aspect of it, but as we all know, “trends” never seem to last very long. There is a lot of noise around warm ups, but it’s important to know what your body really needs to prepare. Cardio before a heavy session is counterintuitive, as the cardio can fatigue your body before you’ve done any work. So let’s scrap the treadmills and stick to the movement patterns we know best.
Now that we’ve established that the best warm up is doing the movement pattern for the lift that we’re preparing for, we can look at the most effective way to warm up. Too many warm up sets, and you will be fatigued before you’ve got to your working sets. It’s also important to not have your later warm up sets too close in weight to your working sets, with your last warm up set being roughly 90% of your working weight. The main trend when getting a good warm up is not fatiguing yourself for your main lifts, as this is where you’re getting the most out of the movement and putting in the most work.
Preparation is both muscular and neuromuscular. It elevates the temperature of the muscles and associated with tissues, making them more flexible and less prone to injury. It also improves muscular contractile properties while at the same time, allowing the movement pattern to be practised. Therefore, when you get to your working weight it is familiar and comfortable, feeling more fluid when working at your top sets [1].
It’s important to consider the environment you’re working in when considering warm ups. If the temperature is cold, then you may need to spend some extra time with your warm ups. Contrary to this, in a hot environment you may need slightly fewer warm up sets. Over time, you develop a feel for when you’re “warm”; you build up an awareness of when you’re warm enough to get into your heavy lifts and start to build a warm-up routine.
What This Can Look Like
Warm-ups should be done based on your working weight, for example, if you were performing 3 sets of 5 reps at 50KG, your warm up should look something like this. Making sure your last warm up set is roughly 90% of your working weight.
| Warm Up Set | Weight | Number of Reps |
| 1 | Body Weight | 5 |
| 2 | 20KG | 5 |
| 3 | 30KG | 3 |
| 4 | 40KG | 2 |
| 5 | 45KG | 1 |
Cool Downs
Many people believe that a cool down is a vital part of an exercise program and recovery, but research says the complete opposite. It’s been proven that cool downs do not help in reducing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS); they play no part in injury prevention and do not aid in any strength gain or muscle hypertrophy. One study concluded that when trying to reduce DOMS, warm ups performed immediately before exercise produces small reductions in DOMS. However, cool downs had no effect on DOMS at all [2].
Harshly put, there is a very strong argument that cool downs are a waste of time, but I get that it is a part of some people’s routines and it’s what some people have done for years, but just keep in mind you could save yourself 5 minutes every session leaving out a cool down.
References
- Practical Programming for Strength Training 3rd Edition – Mark Rippetoe & Andy Baker
- Warm-up reduces delayed onset muscle soreness but cool-down does not: a randomised controlled trial – Roberta Y W Law, Robert D Herbert
