Warm up before lifting

Generally I will do something to warm up my hips. I like to use a heavy band, and do some stretches. It depends on what I’m doing. If it’s squat day, hip band work and goblin squats. Deadlift day, hip band work and posterior chain stabilization. Overhead day, light hip band, shoulder mobility and upper back activation. Bench day, light hip band work, upper back activation and pushups. Then, I will warm up with the main lift. I start with the barbell, then add weight up to my working sets. The key is to treat the warmup sets like they’re 95% singles. If you aren’t doing them with the same intensity as your working sets, then it’s pointless.

personally this is what i do, please understand I will be 39 this year and have been lifting since 13 or so with only a year or two off. I also played baseball my whole life and have 3 young boys I throw with almost daily so I have to pay special attention to the shoulder joint.

I have no injuries to speak of and credit the shoulder dislocates and band pull aparts, deep iso squats and extreme knees over toes with the DC quad stretches as the reason why. Plus smart lfiting.


1 round-
10-15 - shoulder rolls on all 4
10-15 - scapular shrugs
25 - Bar dislocates
25 - Band Pull Aparts
25 - Band Overhead straight arm pull downs (Y to T)
25 - banded chest flyes
25 - very hard and slow banded dislocates(these should burn)
15 - each leg front swings
15 - each leg side swings
25 - lying YWTs with no weight but iso holds at each position.

arch body holds super setted with hollow body holds-4 to 5 rounds

I then usually hit squat stretches similar to some of the things knees over toes guy preaches. Essentially getting into the bottom of the squat and push one knee down until it touches the floor and then rolling it out to stretch the hips. I also go into a deep quad stretch and activation similar to dc quad stretch.

i also then do some tibia activation by just doing the heel raises against the wall.

from there I may repeat a set or two of certain exercises if I feel I am tight.

I consider that my mobility/stretching. from there I do the follow

4-5 rounds- i consider this my warm up, similar to the wenning warm up but using exercise that fit me.

10-15 reps prisoner squat with pase at the bottom and explosion out the bottom. I will do 1 set really wide and focusing on shins parallel to the floor and pushing arse back and knees out. Then next set i do more of an olympic knees over toes squat.

10-15 Pushups-i am being very mindful to pause at the bottom and explode out and making sure my scapula pulls together at the bottom and pushes apart at the top

3-5 dead hang pullups- again if I am focusing on the scapula movement

2-3 skin the cats on the rings with a german hang at the bottom

if I am feeling tight or beat up in the shoulder area or upper back I will also do ring scare crows and facepulls with rotation.

If legs feel tight I will do some glute bridges or frog pumps along with some furniture slider bodyweight leg curls. This is to activate and mobilize the posterior chain.

before the main lifts I will also grab a lighter weight and do really high reps similar to how matt wenning decribes.

For example last night I had heavy DB press. So after the above I did the following EMOM

KB Press- 18's- 25 reps supersetting with 3 chins
KB Press 26's- 15 reps supersetting with 3 chins
KB press 26's- 15 reps supersetting with 3 chins

This make sure I am completely warm and gives me some extra volume. It does burn towards the end and prolly cost me a tad bit of top end strength, but its worth it to get the blood flowing and to make sure I dont have an injury.

Rower for 5 minutes

10 mins on light cardio - walking, bike, eliptical. Just get blood moving more.

I start every barbell exercise with 10 reps of empty bar.

Doing 5/3/1 BBS now, so after empty bar
5reps at 40%
5reps at 50%
3reps at 60%

Then begin main lift progression

BBS muscles are usually warm at that point, so straight into it with super setting accessory between BBS sets.

Cooldown is walking to the car

the part i just listed takes about 10 min total, then i go to the wenning warmup i listed. Overall i do about 60-75 min 3 or 4 times a week.

I do block off 8-10pm to workout in the garage 3-4 nights a week, but that 2 hours includes me being in bed by 10 so i have to get last meal and shower and start clothes before that.

that routine doesnt take long at all if you dont play, i do it as a circuit, one after the other. when i get to the workout, i do 2 min between sets. the wenning warm up are 1 min between.

it looks like a lot on paper but really isnt.

quote:

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Stretching before lifting is counter productive so usually light cardio to elevate the heart rate, followed by some mobility exercises.

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I've heard this often and don't necessarily disagree. But I was sprinter/jumper, two very dynamic/power-based activities, and would never even think about not stretching before practice/meets. Not sure why its that much different for lifting, just asking.

As I described above I do a pretty extensive warm-up and only add targeted stretches if a particular area is feeling tight or stiff. But there are definitely days where I need to do some stretches before lifting, general for tight hips, hamstrings, or quads.

Thanks, that is a simple answer that makes sense.

Though I will add, I've had days where I haven't felt really explosive/dynamic in my lifts, but now that I'm in my 40s I can accept that if it means I'm not pulling or hurting something due to not enough warm up or tightness.

I don’t believe in it. You ever see a lion limber up before it takes down a gazelle?