Warming up prepares the muscle and joints, rehearses technique, and primes the nervous system so your first working set lands real tension rather than wasting it on a body that isn't ready. It also lowers injury risk. Don't skip it — but don't turn it into a workout of its own either.
General Warm-Up (start of session)
5–10 minutes of light cardio (bike, incline walk, rower) to raise core temperature and get blood moving. Optional: a few dynamic movements for the areas you're about to train (band pull-aparts before pull/push days, bodyweight squats and leg swings before leg days). The goal is "warm and loose," not fatigued.
Ramp-Up Sets (per exercise)
These are the warm-up sets listed in column 3 of the program — light, easy sets that build toward your working weight. They are separate from the Early Sets, which are already hard working sets stopped 1–2 reps shy of failure.
A simple ramp on a compound:
- Set 1: ~50% of working weight × 8–10 easy reps.
- Set 2: ~70% × 4–5 reps.
- Set 3: ~85–90% × 1–3 reps (a primer, not a grind).
- Then your first working set.
How Many Warm-Up Sets?
- First (compound) exercise for a muscle: 2–3 ramp-up sets.
- Later exercises for the same muscle: often 0–1 — it's already warm. Machines and cables generally need fewer warm-ups than free weights (more stability, less rehearsal needed).
- Isolation exercises: usually 1 light feeler set is plenty.
Rules of Thumb
- Warm-ups should never cause fatigue that bleeds into your working sets. If your ramp-up tired you out, you did too much.
- The bigger the load and the more systemic the lift (squats, RDLs), the more you ramp. Lateral raises need almost nothing.
- Use ramp-up sets to rehearse the cues for that exercise — especially the controlled negative and the deep stretch — so good technique is automatic once it's heavy.