One of the more flattering aspects of my work is that I often get asked for my opinions on exercise and training by people that feel that I can help them. This was part of an email that “Y.K.,” a new and eager trainer, sent to me. I thought that it was an excellent question, one that I’m sure many of you have wondered about in your own workouts (or those of your clients) too:
What's the best way to utilize warm up sets in a program? How many do you do and do you need to do them at the start of each exercise or just for the bigger movements or just for the initial exercises/movement patterns? Also, how do you account for time when working them in? I've read a lot of stuff on program design and almost all of it seems to totally ignore the time required for warm up sets and just focus on filling up the hour with working sets. So drawing from your experience, what is the best way to implement warm up sets in a program and especially in a program with tight time restrictions?
-Y.K.
Honestly, warm-ups can be fairly specific to the program as well as the individual. Normally, I'll write in anywhere between 3-6 mobility/activation warm-ups to start a workout (stuff like scap pushups, glute bridges, etc), depending on the client's needs. Which exercises I use, and how many exercises I chose will depend on what I find in the evaluation (for online/distance clients, I will have to rely more heavily on postural assessment, and understanding what muscles will normally be weak or imbalanced to cause the posture or as a result of the posture itself). It’s almost *certain* that your client will have an issue with scapular positioning and proprioception, as well as hip mobility, so those are usually good places to start.
For the specific warm-ups themselves, I'll usually look at 3 specific warm-up sets for workouts that are 6 reps or fewer/set (possibly one more warm-up set for 1-2 RM loads, but that also depends on the client: some need more warming up than others), 1-2 warm-ups for sets of 8-10, and possibly a single quick warm-up for higher rep sets.
When you write specific warm-ups, you should be steadily increasing the loading while decreasing the number of reps, so that you slowly get to (or close to) the weight desired, but not so slowly or with so much volume that you become tired before your first set. For example, if I’m warming up a client to a 5 rep set using 100 pounds, I might write the warm-up this way:
1x4@75 lbs
1x3@85 lbs
1x2@95 lbs
If it's a full-body workout, I warm to every unique primary movement, but if it's a push/pull routine (all pushing motions one day, all pulling motions the next day), for instance, where I might have them do an upper body push (heavy) in the beginning of their workout followed by an upper body push (light) at the end, I don't always warm to the light sets (they will already be warmed from the previous, heavy lifts)...but of course, that's just a general rule: everyone has the *potential* to be different and I'll tweak the approach to suit their needs.
Remember that specific warm-ups not only prepare the actual joints and muscles for the exercise (by increasing synovial fluid saturation and blood flow/agonist blood vessel dilation, respectively), specific warm-ups also “activate” our Central Nervous System (CNS) in preparation for the movement and weight. In the “real world,” our bodies would become activated through the “fight or flight” response to danger, and all of the goals of the warm-up (increased blood flow, neural activation, heightened sensitivity, etc) would be produced by a hormonal response to an outside stimulus which represented a threat to our well-being (after all, if you’re Barney Rubble and you see a T-Rex running towards you, you want your CNS to be fully “activated” so that it can “turn on” all of your muscle fibers, allowing you to run at top speed so that you can escape from becoming someone’s dinner…or something like that…). In the gym, we don’t have this occurring (probably a good thing!), and so we have to artificially recreate that response with gradual and specific preparation.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the specific warm-up by how your client feels afterwards. If they feel strong and ready for their work sets, then change nothing. If they feel stronger after their first or second work set, then you may want to add in an additional warm-up set (they probably needed more time/warming up in order to be prepared). Conversely, if they felt weak, either remove a warm-up set, or decrease the reps in each warm-up (they became overworked). It can sometimes be a little trial and error, but a good warm-up is worth the effort!
As far as time concerns, I would never want to skip out on the warm-ups. Not only do they aid in activation and general preparation, but they’re an integral part in injury prevention and making sure that you have a safe and effective workout. The majority of your workout effect will come from the first few sets, so when in doubt, I’d rather drop the last set from each exercise (performing a 4x5 or 3x5 routine, for instance, instead of a 5x5) rather than cutting out the warm-ups and risking an injury or even just having to use less weight in the movement because the client wasn’t sufficiently prepared to lift heavier.
Although technically your warm-up and cool-down is not part of actual workout time, in reality it has to be part of your time-management. Using tools like supersets, giant sets, or having the client come in a little earlier to begin their general warm-ups can help you to save time and increase the amount of actual training time that you have available in your training sessions.
Thanks for the excellent question, Y.K.!
-Jonathan
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What's the best way to utilize warm up sets in a program? How many do you do and do you need to do them at the start of each exercise or just for the bigger movements or just for the initial exercises/movement patterns? Also, how do you account for time when working them in? I've read a lot of stuff on program design and almost all of it seems to totally ignore the time required for warm up sets and just focus on filling up the hour with working sets. So drawing from your experience, what is the best way to implement warm up sets in a program and especially in a program with tight time restrictions?
-Y.K.
Honestly, warm-ups can be fairly specific to the program as well as the individual. Normally, I'll write in anywhere between 3-6 mobility/activation warm-ups to start a workout (stuff like scap pushups, glute bridges, etc), depending on the client's needs. Which exercises I use, and how many exercises I chose will depend on what I find in the evaluation (for online/distance clients, I will have to rely more heavily on postural assessment, and understanding what muscles will normally be weak or imbalanced to cause the posture or as a result of the posture itself). It’s almost *certain* that your client will have an issue with scapular positioning and proprioception, as well as hip mobility, so those are usually good places to start.
For the specific warm-ups themselves, I'll usually look at 3 specific warm-up sets for workouts that are 6 reps or fewer/set (possibly one more warm-up set for 1-2 RM loads, but that also depends on the client: some need more warming up than others), 1-2 warm-ups for sets of 8-10, and possibly a single quick warm-up for higher rep sets.
When you write specific warm-ups, you should be steadily increasing the loading while decreasing the number of reps, so that you slowly get to (or close to) the weight desired, but not so slowly or with so much volume that you become tired before your first set. For example, if I’m warming up a client to a 5 rep set using 100 pounds, I might write the warm-up this way:
1x4@75 lbs
1x3@85 lbs
1x2@95 lbs
If it's a full-body workout, I warm to every unique primary movement, but if it's a push/pull routine (all pushing motions one day, all pulling motions the next day), for instance, where I might have them do an upper body push (heavy) in the beginning of their workout followed by an upper body push (light) at the end, I don't always warm to the light sets (they will already be warmed from the previous, heavy lifts)...but of course, that's just a general rule: everyone has the *potential* to be different and I'll tweak the approach to suit their needs.
Remember that specific warm-ups not only prepare the actual joints and muscles for the exercise (by increasing synovial fluid saturation and blood flow/agonist blood vessel dilation, respectively), specific warm-ups also “activate” our Central Nervous System (CNS) in preparation for the movement and weight. In the “real world,” our bodies would become activated through the “fight or flight” response to danger, and all of the goals of the warm-up (increased blood flow, neural activation, heightened sensitivity, etc) would be produced by a hormonal response to an outside stimulus which represented a threat to our well-being (after all, if you’re Barney Rubble and you see a T-Rex running towards you, you want your CNS to be fully “activated” so that it can “turn on” all of your muscle fibers, allowing you to run at top speed so that you can escape from becoming someone’s dinner…or something like that…). In the gym, we don’t have this occurring (probably a good thing!), and so we have to artificially recreate that response with gradual and specific preparation.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the specific warm-up by how your client feels afterwards. If they feel strong and ready for their work sets, then change nothing. If they feel stronger after their first or second work set, then you may want to add in an additional warm-up set (they probably needed more time/warming up in order to be prepared). Conversely, if they felt weak, either remove a warm-up set, or decrease the reps in each warm-up (they became overworked). It can sometimes be a little trial and error, but a good warm-up is worth the effort!
As far as time concerns, I would never want to skip out on the warm-ups. Not only do they aid in activation and general preparation, but they’re an integral part in injury prevention and making sure that you have a safe and effective workout. The majority of your workout effect will come from the first few sets, so when in doubt, I’d rather drop the last set from each exercise (performing a 4x5 or 3x5 routine, for instance, instead of a 5x5) rather than cutting out the warm-ups and risking an injury or even just having to use less weight in the movement because the client wasn’t sufficiently prepared to lift heavier.
Although technically your warm-up and cool-down is not part of actual workout time, in reality it has to be part of your time-management. Using tools like supersets, giant sets, or having the client come in a little earlier to begin their general warm-ups can help you to save time and increase the amount of actual training time that you have available in your training sessions.
Thanks for the excellent question, Y.K.!
-Jonathan