The Perfect Scientific Warm-Up Sets?

[T-Rage]

I hate assumptions and guessing. Is there a tried and true, best of breed way to warm up a muscle before hitting it hard?

Note: I always do a 15 minute walking warm-up with stretching before any lifting.

For example lets assume I have a 1RM of 225 lbs. on bench press. Is there a perfect formula to guarantee a muscle is safely warmed up without over taxing it during the warm up?

I want to do just enough to prevent injury yet not so much that I take away from my work set. There should be percentages or something. I do something like this but I just came up with it one day. I could be doing too much or not enough.

45 x 12 (20% of 1RM)
90 x 10 (40% of 1RM)
135 x 8 (60% of 1RM)
160 x 6 ( 70% of 1RM) just to get used to the heavy stuff
180 x 8 - 12 (work set)
180 x 8 - 12 (work set)

What do ya all do in terms of warm-up sets x reps in terms of percentages for common movements?

 

[coolcolj]

Well funny thing - I was reading a good article on this last night -enjoy


http://t-mag.com/html/body_115warm.html


Your proposed warmup would make me very tired

 

[Zander1983]

Well funny thing - I was reading a good article on this last night -enjoy

http://t-mag.com/html/body_115warm.html

I don't like stretching pre-weights... It just doesn't feel right.

 

[T-Rage]

Thanks for the link!

 

[casualbb]

An interesting article. His 5-step program is very thorough, but I feel a little impractical for someone who isn't a full-time athlete. I'd spend more time warming up for a HST session than performing it! But if you do a split routine it becomes more feasible.

-casual

 

[coolcolj]

But the warmup sets section was good - I learnt a better way from that article

 

[coolcolj]

Well I trialed the warmup sets and reps guideline from the artcile today and it worked great!

I was dialed in perfectly

 

[SofaGeorge]

I used to only do 1-2 warmup sets... then I switched to a slower progression... 4-5 sets building towards my work sets. I definitely feel like I'm more "ready" when I do the slower progression... especially on delts and quads.

 

[T-Rage]

The article was good. I already do the cardio warm-up on a treadmill and also go through the whole joint things so I'm good there.

I'm going to try this as it makes sense. Also, a year or so ago I read a similar article about warming up that stressed doing low rep warm-up sets (all below 6).

 

[nanotitan]

Yes, low rep warm-up sets would make better sense.

When warming up I'm usually trying to do two things.

First is to raise the temperature of my body or at least the area to be worked. I do this by pulling blood into the area with high reps and very low weight.

Second (and most importantly I feel) is getting my body ready for "the heavy stuff". By this I mean 'awakening' my nervous system and improving coordination. This I do with low rep sets of increasing weight. These sets don't fatigue me too much and help me coordinate better. The first one makes sure I'm ready for the second one, the second one makes sure I'm ready for the third one, and the third one makes sure I'm ready for my work set, as an example.

This might explain why some report feeling readier when they do a slower progression since with more sets performed there's obviously a larger amount of first reps performed as well.