Warming Up

[TallShadow]

Hello,

I was wondering what a good warm-up routine for weight training would look like. Gentle treadmill? Stretching? Light reps of the anticipated exercise?

What things should you do and how long should it last? What about cool down?


Thanks,

TallShadow

[AdamJM]

I've always done a lot of stretching and then a light warmup set on any of the excerices that I consider core (bench, squat, deadlift) before I do each one.

[Fudomyo]

Get a heart rate monitor. A little bit of cardio to get you to your anaerobic threashold (~145 bpm) is perfect. Your blood flow is drastically different at rest, and at the AT. When you walk into the gym, the majority of your blood flow is to your organs. At your AT, the majority is to your muscles.

It's obviously a huge stress to divert all this blood flow in a few seconds, like if you just went straight to the leg press machine.

Some people say you should take 15 minutes to warmup, but I can never wait that long. 5 minutes seems like an eternity.

Now blood flow is optimal. Do about 4 sets of warmups for the muscle group in question. None should make you tired. Sets of 8,6,4,2 with increasing weight.

Stretching has not been shown to prevent muscle injury. Incremental warmup sets have.

Fudo

[Gaffer]

Hi Fudo,

Originally posted by Fudomyo
Now blood flow is optimal. Do about 4 sets of warmups for the muscle group in question. None should make you tired. Sets of 8,6,4,2 with increasing weight.

I tried your method of warming up followed by 3 mega heavy sets.

That was an hour ago and my arms are still buzzin', boy am I going to be sore in the morning!

Just what I needed, thank-you.

Atb,

Gaffer.

[Lee J B]

three words here .... Rusian Power Stretching.

[mustang GT]

[quote]Originally posted by Fudomyo


It's obviously a huge stress to divert all this blood flow in a few seconds, like if you just went straight to the leg press machine.



Fudo, when you say it's a big stress, what do you mean? You mean it's a stress to your muscles, or your organs?

[Fudomyo]

Organs.

They are cruising at 100% blood flow, and then bam, you take it away. Basically the only time your body diverts blood this quickly is when it thinks you are dying. I'm sure your kidneys etc know what to do, but that huge change has got to less than optimal for you.

How many experienced lifters get nauseous on leg day? They eat well. They have plenty of muscle mass. I'd bet money a little warmup would help them out a lot.

Fudo