dooby

Proper warm up as we all know by now is essential in helping prevent injury, upping core temperature and getting the old gel turning into blood and actually moving through the veins.

But what actually is a good warm up? I myself at the minute do 5mins on the treadmill then do 2x10x50% of rep weight for "each" exercise. Too much? or not enough, I have just recently ( today ) finished my latest in a long line reading material that suggest a 5 set warm up along the lines of 10,8,6,4,2 @ 50,60,70,80,90% of rep weight, so simple question is this a ridiculous amount of a warm up or not?

oops forgot to mention this is only on your main compound ex either bench squat or deadlift.

I have tried a search but came up empty on warm up so plz forgive me if i am just repeating something again.

cheers

cellaratt

Trick question...It depends if your doing a bodybuilding routine or powerlifting...I'm gonna guess bodybuilding so I don't believe that is to much overkill. When I first stsrted learning a while back I was instructed to ride a stationary bike for 5 or 10 minutes before a workout and again at the end for a cool down but have done it with very little warm-up in my latter years, only consisting of very light weight strecthes mosty in the shoulder and back or legs according to the exercise. I never really got the gains I was after at a younger age so I'm sticking with what I've seen my best gains on...No bike ride ...minimal stretching...But I don't see what your doing to be to much...I due one maybe two warm-up sets on the first exercise of the day and then nothing after that...Cheers

wait I just realized your doing five warm-up sets and definatley along the lines of powerlifting...so you have to choose which way to train...

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wogihao

Well HIT guys will say that cardio warmups are BS, and to be honest Im inclined to agree with them I never do them and not once have I had a injury (touch wood).

Why sap the energy that you have doing some crappy cardio before the weights? Wouldnt it be more productive to just do a proper warmup that was spesific to the exerise that you were about to do?

You only have a certain amount of energy for your workout, so whats more productive?

20% of total energy invested in crappy cardio...
80% of total energy invested in weights...

or 100% total energy invested in weights.

Seyyed

dynamic stretches followed by static stretches, thats what I do, a hell of alot better then cardio, and warm up sets are benificial i.e just squat with the bar or bench with the bar two 20 reps quick good form, dynamic stretches in between would do alot of good ro injury prevention as well.

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dooby

Thanks for the response guys, I understand where you are both coming from(i think lol) I used to do just 5-10 mins treadmill as a warm up changed to 5mins then 2 x 50% warm up for each exercise i did/do be it compound or isolation, and i definately felt this gave me more energy for the next 3x8-10s of the same exercise, i do except that this may of just been my oats raging in my blood still, or even just being more "up for it"

But when doing cardio on the treadmill pre workout i feel like "yawn ! pass the pillow" and prefer to be on the bench "grr have that you bas$"£d"

But after my current block of training i was thinking of giving it a go but as you said celleratt it appears to be more strength, 5 x warm up sets only followed by compounds x2 of 5-7 and isolations of 1 of 6-8/10-12 depending on muscle worked.

wogihao i get what your saying about 100% "have it" attitude but I have to try and find something that fits me for best gains hence the reading reading reading not really understanding it all yet lmao but getting there hopefully, my problem is that at 6'8' my muscles are long so it takes more effort (it seems) to work them as well as a smaller guy i may be totally wrong here of course, it has been known :p

Also i tend to go off on one as you may of gathered from the above hope it makes sense.

cheers for the response though guys.;)

pauly7582

A lot of old school methods still being used here it appears.


First consider the point of a warm up.

Redistribute blood flow to skeletal muscle (increased fuel supply and waste clearance).
Increase temperature of skeletal muscle (low muscle temp reduces maximal force output an extreme example is trying to move your hands quickly in the winter).
Prepare motor division of the nervous system (to coordinate contraction most precisely=maximal force output and fibre recruitment).
Stimulate a sympathetic response (adrenalin release etc. augments all of the above)

First point. Stretching whilst not warmed up i.e. before any sort of training serves no purpose in preparing the body for exercise. If you are not actively seeking to drastically increase flexibility (ie you are a gymnast) do not do this.

Second. All functional trainers/elite athletes (at the top of thier sport) be those rugby players or strength athletes will warm up by performing CV for a very short period of time before ANY type of training.

Bodybuilders it seems are behind on this and I see it every day in my gym. E.g. guy walks into the gym cold and performs a few 'warm up sets' then straight into his working sets. None of the above points have been achieved and he is not performing optimally.

The most effective way of warming up correctly and to achieve the above points, is to perform some light CV before weights. The body stores enough glycogen to see you through this AND your weights comfortably so dont worry about 'wasting energy'..

Try 5 mins of light CV before your lifting (or until your temp is raised and notice that you are stronger). I personally could not deadlift with the intensity I do without 5 mins of incline walking before hand.

If you need a role model to follow to make it 'ok' to do this, note that Mariuzs Pudzianowski warms up with 15 mins of rope skipping. I don't think that alone is an activity many people could perform in itself.

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Robsta

I'm guilty of not warming up properly. Just do one light set with more reps then straight onto maximum

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wogihao

I dont understand how doing a non-spesific cardio activity that expends energy within the muscles helps in the performance of a weight training exerise.

Wouldnt it be better to do a light warmup of high repititions that prepaired the body for the exersise that you were about to do? wouldnt that triger the same responce with adreniline/hormones that you get with the cardio warmup but also help reinforce the nerological pathways conected with the exersise?

If Mentzer was wrong about the carido warmups then do you dissagree with his other clames?

I apreciate that many top sportsman do cardio as warmup but then in the past they also purged themselves and took enimea's before a big match.

pauly7582

The warm up of light reps would expend far more localised glycogen than light CV mate. e.g. those light warm up sets on bench press will directly use glycogen in the pecs. Glycogen is the specific fuel for weights. Other fuels will be burned during a CV/whole body warm up and will not be derived from pecs. Only long duration CV will compromise energy available for your weights.

Tell you what is outdated and ineffective is the 3 warm up sets of light weight theory. This does pre fatigue the muscle and reduces strength during working sets. It only has an application in pre exhaust type training.

Proper warm up=
Short, light cardio to bring about shunting of blood to all skeletal muscles (you dont have to work the ones being trained to increase flow to them) and increase temp in general.
At this point muscles are ready but the nervous system needs a little prep to get it ready to bring about maximal contractions.
Warm up sets with low reps (not endless high reps) to prepare nervous activity and maxmise fibre recruitment (eg I do 3 sets of 2-3 reps building to my max weight).

Talk to the powerlifters and low rep warm ups is what they'll do.

I used to be guilty just as everyone of not warming up. I'd walk into the gym do one warm up set of 20 reps with little to no weight then get bang into my heavy sets. I noticed it took a while however for everything to feel smooth and fluid. Big sign that I wasnt warmed up right. The diffference is really noticable when your warmed up properly.

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pauly7582

Appreciate your points mate but just cos something one person does is right doesnt mean everything they do is right you know?

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Future

Warmups are relative to each person, lift and goal at the moment. Warm ups should not cause you to be fatigued or the muscle to burn. You are slowly getting blood flow primarily to the connective tissue which is not as vascular as the muscle itself.

Squats
135x20
225x10
315x5
405x3
495x1

If you notice on this warm up sequence I simply cut the reps in half for the most part. Again nice and easy. Warm up...but dont burn out.

want2getstrong

its good to get advice from a ex powerlifter (the guy with the big legs) as a powerlifter myself, I do quite a bit of warm up sets, eg 20kg bar, 60kg, 90kg, 130kg, 140kg, 150kg, as i get heavier I take smaller jumps and do no more than 5 reps.

want2getstrong

on a leg day, do 10 minute light cardio to get the blood flowing, then warm up efficiently on the squats, cardio is fine, andy bolton does it all the time before training, its only 10 minutes! stop overanalyzing

Future

EXACTLY. You will be fine man.

pauly7582

gotta love his red trunks though

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