The details of how to perform warm up sets in the most advantageous manner may be one of the most overlooked aspects of weight training. Many people assume that warm up sets have little if any effect at all on stimulating strength. Many lifters believe that the only thing that has any impact on your strength are the work-sets. It is true that the work-sets will produce much faster results than any work that is done in regard to your warm up sets, however, if you design your warm up sets with a progressive system in mind, they will contribute to your long-term progress.
When you gain strength, your body is trying to accomplish one of two things, either it is trying to make it easier for you to lift the same weight, or it is trying to keep gradual additions of weight from becoming more difficult to lift. My belief is that your main focus should be on allowing the same weight and reps to become easier when doing your work-sets. Of course, you must eventually add weight to your work-sets, but not until they have grown easier over a sufficient amount of time. If you want to add weight on a weekly basis, my suggestion is to do this in conjunction with your warm up sets. More specifically, use short loading waves with your warm up sets by adding five pounds to your warm up sets for three or four weeks. Then start over by reloading with the same weight and reps that you used for the previous loading wave. Keep doing this until you know you have gained some strength. Once you know you are five to ten pounds stronger, start a new loading wave that begins five to ten pounds heavier than the previous loading wave.
Bottom up Loading and Short Loading Waves
Sometimes I use the term, bottom-up loading, when referring to the process of frequent loading for your warm up sets. If you are naturally gifted when it comes to gaining strength at a rapid rate, and you are a beginning or intermediate lifter, you probably don’t need bottom-up loading because you will be able to add weight to your heaviest work-sets on a weekly basis. However, when the strength gains slow down, and they will slow down if you stick with weight training long enough, you will be at the stage where you can consider the use of bottom-up loading. Once again, this is done through the use of weekly additions of weight to your warm up sets in the form of short loading waves.
For most lifters, the basic reason for performing warm up sets is simply to prepare the body to lift heavier weights when performing work-sets. However, you will get more out of your workouts if you plan your warm up sets carefully. In addition to adding weight to your warm up sets, you can also design your warm up sets to create an emphasis of more volume, or load, or variety to your workout. The rest of this article will discuss how to design your warm up sets to create an emphasis on increasing the volume of your workouts. In this case, it basically refers to adding more reps to your workout.
The Work-sets for the Workout
Assume you are going to do a basic workout in which you perform three work-sets of eight reps for each muscle group. These sets are based on precision point principles in which you are using as much weight as possible without exceeding your ability to maintain a steady even rep pace for every rep of every set. Most lifters will probably use 70% to 75% of their single rep max to do this for three sets of eight reps.
The Warm up sets for the Workout
The next step is to create a warm up that adds more training volume to your workout without taking away from your strength or ability to perform the work-sets. This can be done by doing a fairly easy series of three warm up sets before each work-set as follows:
Warm up set 1: Do 4 reps with 40% of your single rep max
Warm up set 2: Do 4 reps with 50% of your single rep max
Warm up set 3: Do 4 reps with 60% of your single rep max
Follow the warm up sets immediately with your first work-set as follows:
Work set: Do 8 reps with 70% to 75% of your single rep max.
Details Regarding the Warm up Sets
The warm up sets should be done as quickly as possible. Only rest long enough to change the weights. The work-set should also be done as soon as possible after you finish the three warm up sets. After you complete your first work-set, rest at least three minutes before doing another series of three warm up sets followed by a second work-set. Repeat this procedure until you have gone through the warm up three times and have also performed three work-sets. When following this procedure, you will finish with a total of 36 warm up reps, and a total of 24 reps for your work-sets. This will add extra volume to your workouts.
Bottom-Up Loading for Your Warm up Sets
The key to deriving benefit from your warm up sets is to employ bottom-up loading in the form of a brief loading wave. Do this by adding five pounds to each warm up set from week to week. As you keep doing this, the weights will eventually become heavy enough to create just enough fatigue to start making it hard to perform eight reps using a steady even rep pace for your work-sets. This is when the loading wave stops as you will stop adding weight to your warm up sets. Start over with a new loading wave by backing off to your original warm up weights that you started with the first week. You will then start a new loading wave by adding weight to your warm up sets again.
Each time you start over with your original warm up weights, you are doing another loading wave with your warm up weights. Assuming you keep the weight the same for your work-set for eight reps, you should notice that it starts to get a little easier to perform eight reps each time you start a new loading wave with your warm up weights. The goal is to reach the point where you are able to extend the length of your loading wave beyond the length of the previous loading wave without losing the ability to perform eight reps using a steady even rep pace for your work-sets. An example will help to clarify how this works:
John’s Example
John had the ability to use 180 pounds while maintaining a steady even rep pace for each rep of each set when doing three sets of eight reps for the bench press. John planned to include three warm up sets before each work-set as follows:
Warm up set 1: 4 reps with 105 pounds
Warm up set 2: 4 reps with 135 pounds
Warm up set 3: 4 reps with 155 pounds
Work-set: 8 reps with 180 pounds
A Three Week Loading Wave
John added five pounds to each of his warm up sets each week until he reached the following poundages for his warm up sets during the third week:
Warm up set 1: 4 reps with 115 pounds
Warm up set 2: 4 reps with 145 pounds
Warm up set 3: 4 reps with 165 pounds
Work set: 8 reps with 180 pounds
When to Drop Back and Start a New Loading Wave
It’s during the third week that the increase of warm up weight created sufficient fatigue to make it difficult for John to perform eight reps using a steady even rep pace for every rep of all three sets. This being the case, John started over with his original warm up poundages that used during week one. With the reduced warm up poundages, he noticed that 180 pounds felt easier to lift. When going through his second loading wave of adding five pounds to his warm up weights each week, he found that he was able to continue for four weeks before it became difficult to lift 180 pounds using a steady even rep pace for all three sets of eight reps. He reached the following warm up poundages his fourth week of the second wave:
Warm up set 1: 4 reps with 120 pounds
Warm up set 2: 4 reps with 150 pounds
Warm up set 3: 4 reps with 170 pounds
Work-set: 8 reps with 180 pounds.
When to Increase The Weight of the Work-Sets
When John dropped back in weight to start over with his original warm up poundages for a third loading wave, he found that it felt pretty easy to use 180 pounds while performing three sets of 8 reps using a steady even rep pace. He then decided that instead of repeating the same warm up wave and continuing to use 180 pounds for his work-sets, he was ready to increase the weight of his work-sets to 190 pounds. He also started a new loading wave. The new wave started ten pounds heavier than the starting weight that he used for his previous loading waves when doing work-sets with 180 pounds. John’s goal is to repeat the whole progression process again until he is able to increase the weight of his work-sets again.
The biggest drawback of using this training strategy is that you must strip the weight of the bar after each work-set and add it back on again as you go through your warm up sets. This is only a problem if you feel it is a problem, otherwise, you simply do it. Some lifters may prefer this method more when doing one work-set of three different exercises for the same muscle group. For example, instead of doing three work-sets for bench presses, you would do three warm up sets for bench presses, followed by just one work-set for benches. You would then switch to three warm up sets for incline presses, followed by one work-set of incline presses; and you would finish with three warm up sets for decline presses, followed by one work-set of decline presses. This would be combined with the use of loading waves for your warm up sets for each exercise.
If you are looking for ways to keep gaining strength, you must carefully consider how to make the most of every aspect of your training; including your warm up sets. In the next article, I will address a different type of warm up in which the emphasis is focused more on working up to a fairly heavy weight without going so heavy that it takes away from your work-sets. Best of training to you.
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Resources Related to Warm Ups
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