CHAPTER 23

The Warmup

“It’s just common sense. You need to prepare the joints and muscles for the heavy work to come. By doing light stretching and warmup sets, you loosen tight muscles, lubricate the joints, tendons, and ligaments, and warm up the area by bringing blood into the muscles.”

– Greg Zulak, regular MuscleMag International contributor, commenting on the importance of warming up before a heavy training session.

“In a cold gym your body needs more time to warm up and your muscles quickly cool between sets. A cold environment carries an increased risk of injury, especially when you are lifting heavy weights.”

– Dr. Nick Evans, MuscleMag International columnist.

It’s amazing the number of bodybuilders who head straight for the squat or bench-press rack without a warmup. Their muscles are “cold” and not prepared to become subjected to hundreds of pounds of stress. No matter how pressed for time you are, don’t plunge headfirst into a workout without properly warming up. A good warmup will accomplish the following:

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Photo of Troy Alves by Robert Reiff

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A proper warmup should prepare your muscles for the work ahead without draining your energy reserves.
Photo of Chris Jalali by Ralph DeHaan

WALKING A FINE LINE

There is a fine line between a warmup that adequately prepares the muscles and one that reduces your training intensity. A good warmup should increase your heart rate, produce a light sweat, increase your body temperature and loosen up the muscles. On the other hand the warmup shouldn’t drain your energy reserves to the point that you can’t complete the desired number of sets and reps with maximum weight. Here are a few guidelines:

  • Modify the warmup so it increases body temperature and produces sweat, but does not deplete your energy level or cause fatigue.
  • Include stretching exercises to help loosen muscles.
  • Include lighter versions of the exercises you’ll be doing in your workout to prepare your muscles for more intense training.
  • Stop the warmup after about 10 minutes.

Generally speaking, warmups can be divided into three categories, or phases.

PHASE ONE

Phase One can be considered a full-body warmup. Even if you are only planning to work one part of your body, say chest or back, your heart and lungs play a major role, and you want them operating at peak efficiency. For most bodybuilders, five to ten minutes will be a sufficient warmup. There’s no need to pedal the Tour de France! A few minutes on the bike will get the heart and lungs pumping and will ensure the muscles will receive sufficient amounts of oxygen and nutrients. Other machines you can use are the treadmill, rower (called an ergometer), and StairMaster. If cardio machines are not your thing, try skipping rope, doing a quick jog up and down your street, or running up and down a few flights of stairs. Any of these activities will prepare your body’s major systems for the work ahead.

PHASE TWO

The second phase of your warmup should focus on preparing the muscles for injury prevention and efficient functioning. Probably the best form of exercise for doing this is stretching. Stretching is one of those activities that can be performed before, during and after your workout. It both warms up the muscles and relaxes them after a workout. It also increases blood flow to the muscles and speeds up the removal of waste products. Ideally, you should stretch the whole body, but if you can’t, perform a few light stretches for the muscles that you will be training that day. I’ll deal with stretching in greater detail later in the book.

PHASE THREE

The third phase focuses on performing a few light sets of a given exercise before moving to your heaviest weight. If you’re working up to 200 pounds on the bench press, start off with just the bar and do 15 to 20 reps. Then put 100 to 120 pounds on and do 10 to 12 reps. You could then go to your top weight of 200 pounds on the next set, or you could do a third warmup set with about 150 to 160 pounds. Always do at least two good warmup sets before lifting your heaviest weight. In fact, you may need to do three or four warmup sets once you can manage 400 pounds or more. No matter how strong you become, you’re still at risk for injury. In fact, the stronger you get the higher the risk, because of the huge poundage you end up using. So far you may have been skipping warmup sets with no ill effects. However, I warn you that one of these days you could be repping out when rrrrrriiiiiippppppp! There you go – a massive tear has occurred that could require surgery and many months of therapy. It has happened to some of the top pros, so it could certainly happen to you.

CONCLUSION

On average, your warmup – both cardiovascular and muscular – should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes. This is long enough to prepare your body for more intense training without depleting your energy reserves too much. For those who consider 15 to 20 minutes too long, look at it this way: investing this small amount of time could prevent months of potential grief and misery – not to mention muscle atrophy.

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By warming up for 15 to 20 minutes, you decrease the risk for injury and increase the muscles’ ability to function efficiently.
Photo of Greg Jones by Robert Reiff