Warm up: How-to guide

So what about warming up before strength training? Is it really helpful if you go on the elliptical for 10 minutes before the workout? What about mobility training: that is, static or dynamic stretching or foam rolling or anything at all? And what about warm-up sets before the exercise? Do you need them?

Today, we're going to take a close look at whether these warm-up strategies are really performance-enhancing and injury-preventing when it comes to strength training, or if it's all just a waste of time.

General warm up

Let's start with the general warm up. This means light, steady-state cardio done before strength training.

Fradkin et al. (2010) concluded in a meta-study that general warm up does indeed increase performance.

The study participants consisted of athletes from all kinds of disciplines. Strength athletes were not included, but since the performance of football players, runners, handball players, soldiers, etc. increased in the study, then it stands to reason that the performance of strength athletes would also increase as a result of the general warm up.

The underlying mechanism that leads to more strength is probably the following: The general warm up increases your core body temperature so that nerve signals can be transmitted more quickly. That is, the muscles can be controlled faster and with a higher intensity.

In addition, blood flow increases so that the muscles can be better supplied with nutrients. And of course, this is especially important in MUSCLE building training.

A 2006 literature review by Fradkin also showed that general warming up actually decreases the risk of injury. Again, this is because your core body temperature increases, but it also produces more joint fluid, which results in less friction in the joints.

On the one hand, this means that you will be injured less often, and on the other hand, it has the nice effect of increasing your range of motion.

This is good because if you can train with a greater range of motion, it usually means you can work your muscles harder and therefore better stimulate muscle hypertrophy.

Apart from the direct increase in performance and the reduced risk of injury, the general warm-up also has a mental advantage for many people. For example, many go to training directly after the end of the work day and start their training while they're still in their headspace from work.

By spending a few minutes on the treadmill, they come down, gradually directing their senses more to the workout, and once they do the first real exercise, they are fully focused and can concentrate on performing each exercise with perfect form and lots of power.

Of course, this is not the case for everyone, but if you have observed this for yourself, then this positive mental element is of course one more reason for you not to skip the general warm up.

What is the best way to design your general warm up routine? The goal is to work as many and as large of your body's muscle groups as possible at a low intensity. You can use the treadmill, the elliptical, the Stairmaster, the bicycle, or the rowing machine. 5-10 minutes at a heart rate of 100-120 is perfectly sufficient.

By the end of this time, you should have worked up a LIGHT sweat. But please don't overdo it with the duration or intensity, because fat loss and improving your endurance are not the point here.

You should be able to talk without discomfort while warming up. If you need to pause in the middle of a set to breathe, then you should row or ride a little slower.

Maybe you've also been told that you should stretch statically or dynamically before strength training and that you should roll around on a good foam roller for 10 minutes.

All these things fall into the category of mobility training. Is it really necessary? Is it worth the effort? Let's go through each of these things in detail.

Static stretching

Static stretching: It's probably something all of you know. You move one or more joints into a position in which your muscles are stretched and experience a slight ache. You then hold this position for about 30 seconds, take a short break, and then do the whole thing 2-3 more times.

In the past, many thought that static stretching before training was necessary to increase performance and prevent injury in the subsequent workout. However, this does not seem to be the case at all.

In a study by Junior (2017), it was even found that static stretching just before strength training decreases performance. This is probably because static stretching tells your muscles "sooo, now relax" and gives them the complete opposite signal of what is actually necessary.

In strength training, you want the muscles to tighten firmly and not to relax at all. Incidentally, these negative effects on performance have not been observed when static stretching was done first, followed by dynamic stretching and then training.

That said, static stretching does of course have its benefits.

Assume that you cannot use the full range of motion of the target muscles in an exercise because other muscle groups are too stiff and therefore represent the limit. In that case, you can probably increase the range of motion of the target muscles by statically stretching these limiting muscle groups.

For example, many people have the issue that they cannot use a full range of motion of the quadriceps when squatting because they cannot get down low without the lower back rounding in. They have what is called "butt wink."

This may be because the ankle joint is not mobile enough, due to shortened calf muscles. This means that the knees cannot be brought far enough forward without the heels lifting up. This is necessary, however, so that the upper body does not have to bend so far forward to prevent falling over.

In such a case, it can be worthwhile to stretch the calf muscles statically (to be precise, the soleus muscle). Then you come down lower with an upright upper body and can better work the target muscles - namely the quadriceps - by taking them through a greater range of motion.

However, if you can already move the target muscles through their full range of motion during all exercises, then there is no reason to stretch. Too much mobility work can actually lead to injury because it makes the joints less stable.

By the way, strength training in and of itself is also good mobility training if you always use the full range of motion. This is shown in a study by Morton et al. (2011).

That's kind of logical, because you're stretching your muscles briefly every time you're in the end position of an exercise. So it's a myth that strength training with the full range of motion will shorten your muscles.

Maybe now you're thinking: "Huh, but bodybuilders are often totally immobile and can't even scratch themselves on the back!". Yes, but this is not due to shortened muscles; rather, it is simply because the muscles of professional bodybuilders are so large that they are in the way when those bodybuilders move.

If they want to scratch their backs, then the giant lat is simply in the way. But that's a problem that very few people have, and if you do... then just don't scratch your back!

So much for static stretching. Let's move on to the next stretching method.

Dynamic stretching

Dynamic stretching: This involves moving the muscles in a controlled manner through their full range of motion without holding them in one position for long. If you let your arms circle forward or backward with a maximal arc, you are stretching your shoulder muscles dynamically.

The advantage of dynamic stretching is that the range of motion of the muscles can be increased WITHOUT having a negative effect on your performance during the subsequent strength training. So dynamic stretching is probably better for most people.

Foam rolling

Now that we've explored stretching, what about foam rolling?

In foam rolling, you lie down on the foam roller with the muscles you want to massage and roll out these muscles slowly and in a controlled manner.

A study by Abaïdia et al. (2017) shows that this can increase the range of motion without having a negative effect on performance. If you want to foam roll, it's best to do it before dynamic stretching.

Example: Mobility training

What could mobility training look like after the general warm up?

If you can use the full range of motion for the target muscles in every exercise, then you don't need mobility training at all.

If this is not the case, then you should perform targeted mobility training for the limiting muscle groups. First try dynamic stretching prior to strength training.

If you've been doing this for a few weeks and it's not helping, work the limiting muscle groups with the foam roller first and then stretch dynamically.

If that has no effect either, then stretch statically after the workout or on a separate day, and if that doesn't work either, then stretch statically before dynamic stretching on the day of the workout. This final option should definitely work.

Specific warm up

Let's move on to the last point, which is the specific warm up.

As the name implies, you warm up as specifically as you can for the exercise ahead. The best way to do this is to do a few easy sets of this exercise before moving on to your hard working sets. These warm-up sets should not tire you out.

The purpose of the specific warm up is to get you comfortable with the motion of the exercise and thus increase your neuromuscular efficiency. This allows you to move more weight in the upcoming working sets. In addition, you warm up the specific muscles used in the exercise again and thus help prevent injuries.

The specific warm up is especially important for working sets with few reps (e.g., under 6 reps), since the weight you will be using is very high.

For sets with many reps (e.g., over 12 reps), the specific warm up is no longer as important because the first reps of a working set are already a small specific warm up in their own right.

In addition, we also need to look at how technically demanding the exercise is and how many joints are involved. The more technically demanding the exercise is and the more joints are involved, the more warm-up sets you should do.

For example, you should do more warm-up sets for the squat than for the leg press. Although both exercises are multi-joint, the squat is much more demanding in terms of technique than the leg press.

With single-joint isolation exercises such as curls, you need even fewer warm-up sets than with the leg press (or even none at all) because the exercise is single-joint and not at all technically demanding.

Additionally, if you do two exercises for the same muscle group in a row, you won't need to warm up as meticulously for the second exercise as you did for the first.

Your level of advancement in training is also relevant: The more advanced you are, the more warm-up sets you will need, since you will be able to move more weight in your working sets.

Now let's be specific:

For single-joint exercises (such as curls), it is sufficient if you do no warm-up sets at all or just do one.

For multi-joint compound exercises you should plan on doing 1-4 warm-up sets. One warm-up set is fine if the exercise is not technically demanding (e.g. the leg press), you are not yet that strong, you have already trained the same muscle group in the same session, and/or you want to do more than 12 reps per working set.

When none of these things is true, however, you should err on the side of doing 4 working sets. And if you need more than 4 sets to feel fully prepared for the exercise, then of course do more than 4!

Very, very strong lifters also definitely need more than 4 warm-up sets for the big compound exercises. Someone who can do 700 lbs deadlifts will laugh at you if you tell them to only do 4 warm-up sets.

Let's go through the exact structure of the specific warm up with an example. Imagine a lifter who has squats as the first exercise on the schedule for the day and aims to perform 6 reps of 245 lbs in his first working set.

Based on his strength values, we can say that he is advanced. The exercise is technically demanding, involves few reps, and is the 1st exercise he performs for the target musculature - the quads - that day. Everything points to the fact that he should do a lot of warm-up sets.

Accordingly, he decides to do 4 warm-up sets. In the first warm-up set he does 10 x 55 lbs, in the second 8 x 100 lbs, in the third 6 x 145 lbs, in the fourth 4 x 205 lbs, and then he starts with the first working set with 6 x 245 lbs. Between each warm-up set he takes a break of 1-2 minutes.

That should be enough, because of course the warm-up sets are not very strenuous for him.

The second exercise on his schedule is the leg press with 12 x 335 lbs for the first working set. The exercise is not very technically demanding, and he has already performed an exercise for the same target muscles before (namely the quad-focused squat). In addition to this, the exercise involves a relatively high number of reps.

Thus, he decides to do only one warm-up set. He does 8 x 185 lbs for warm up and then moves on to his first working set and does 12 hard reps of 335 lbs.

So you see that the general warm up, mobility training, and the specific warm up each serve a purpose.