Warming up

[Scott Stevenson]

Con just basically asked this same question (in another thread).

Here's my response:

FT Questions....

I'm for warming up in whatever way you feel gets you read to rock n' roll. This seems to be very individual and can depend on the day for many folk, too.

I think what you're doing is fine, Con. Smile

I think what you've kind of included in this question is to what degree making gains in the program includes the stimulus brought on by the preceding warm-up sets. (As you know, this is a topic brought up wrt DC training and plans like Dorians, etc. where someone might only do one all out "working set" but there could be multiple "warm-up" sets that are not far from failure that add a high quality stimulus and volume to the workout.)

The above is part of why I created the volume Tiers, too - so that is someone does tend to do a lot warm-ups that create a substantial stimulus, the would work with a lower volume Tier (and vice versa).

I think in your case, for the reasons you cite and the fact that you train REALLY hard, Volume Tier I with warm-up like you do them makes perfect sense.

I generally warm-up in the way you're talking about, too. This comes from my days of DC training, when making sure not to cause any fatigue that would cut into performance of the working sets was a priority. Keeping the warm-ups to a minimum was a way to standardize that part of the program so the progression was based on working set performance per se and no diluted by variable amount of warm-ups (or perhaps if someone interrupted a warm-up regimen and thus reduced fatigue on that day).

The only caveat would be if one finds that they tend to get injured in this way and in retrospect, should have warmed up more. Sometimes a nagging or untested injury (something was tweaked on a previous workout) might mean it's a good time to do a warm-up that's closer to your working weight.

ALso, too, I've found now n' again (on squats in particular) that doing a warm-up that's pretty close to my working weight seems to really do a nice job of waking up the nervous system. I might even do a set of 1-3 with the actual working weight to do the same (and test the weight if it's an exercise I've not used before). I still would keep these sets to a minimum in terms of reps, though.

That being said, if you noticed when doing multiple sets (when using higher volume Tiers) that zig-zagging back to a compound exercise you felt (literally felt, even if the fatigue was there and reps were lower) a bit stronger, this might tell you that a little more warm-up could be warranted. This is just another piece that might fit into your personal decision to warm-up in one particular way vs. another.

--------

On a related note, when I was training with Dave Henry, we'd sometimes not be able to train together regularly (his shift would change at the Air Force). We got back together to shoot one if his videos so he had fallen into his own preferred pattern of warming up (vs. mine). We were doing a HS chest press and were both using several plates / side (Dave was always stronger than me on chest presses, but it was may.be 4 vs. 5 plates or something like that.)

While were juggling the photo-shoot, I do my regular warm-up, which is 1, 2, and then 3 for like 10, 8, and 4 reps (Something like that) with stretching, shoulder rotations, etc. but Dave just goes right to two plates, does like 20 reps in a row and he's ready to roll with 5 plates.

I'd not suggest that kind of approach, but that's kind of what he'd settled into when going it alone and had been doing that for a few months, I recall.

-S