Everything You Need to Know About Warm Up

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Injuries can hinder significantly the performance and journey of any trainee and athlete. In particular when it comes to resistance training (bodyweight or using weights), where progressing steadily over time plays such a crucial role in achieving one's objective.

Especially when warm up is not included in a training session, the risk of injury, even if not instant, can increase quite significantly over time, particularly if you are not very flexible and cannot stand the test of time (and load) on your joints and muscles. When training with weights, the risk of injury is not very high, generally speaking, especially for disciplines such as bodybuilding and powerlifting, where the weights lifted tend to be heavy, but movement patterns are quite linear and simple. This is not very similar to other more competitive sports such as football or basketball, in which the dynamic nature of them makes players more prone to injuries, more often.

One of the key elements that must be present in weight training when it comes to preventing injuries is correct form of execution. Performing every exercise with as close to perfect form as possible is crucial in technical disciplines such as resistance training based ones (e.g. bodybuilding, calisthenics, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting). And, one can argue, there is always margin of improvement in the execution of an exercise, which is something worth striving for in every training session. Besides perfect form, another pillar of injury prevention (and possibly performance enhancement) is warm up.

Warm up is often an avoided part of training programs and sessions, as considered by many gym goers a waste of time in the constant struggle to manage time as efficiently as possible. And yet warming up can be a crucial aspect of every workout and fitness journey. Not only due to its injury-prevention nature, but also as a (sort of) ritual to prepare the body and mind to enter into a training session with the highest state of preparedness. At the same time, warming up represents a great opportunity to improve mobility and flexibility, two fundamental aspects of longevity and general health.

But in order to make the case for the relevance of a well-crafted warm up routine in the domain of resistance training, we first need to get to the definition of warm up. That is because warming up does not merely concern increasing the body temperature in order to prime the body for the subsequent training session. An optimal warm up routine has the capacity to embody more than that: it can act as an opportunity to work on mobility improvement (i.e. the range of motion joints and muscles can handle dynamically); it can be the moment to begin the mental transition into "training mode" and the flow state.

When it comes to defining warm up, however, one gets to point out that warming up does not correspond to stretching (although stretching may be part of a warm up routine). In particular, warming up does not correspond to stretching in the meaning we generally allocate to it (i.e. static stretching, holding poses for several seconds in a static position). Static stretching can have a role at the end of a training bout, as a way of releasing tension from the muscles worked and improve flexibility. Static stretching is different from dynamic warm up. A dynamic warm up routine is considered much more appropriate as a pre-workout activation routine, while static stretching can have some significant disadvantages hindering performance if placed right before a training session.

As a matter of fact, dynamic warm up corresponds to performing a mobility drill for numerous repetitions, hence lengthening and shortening muscle fibers in a constant motion. This is very different from holding stretching poses, which instead lengthens muscle fibers, releasing energy from them. Because of the muscle-lengthening nature of static stretching, it is not considered optimal before a session, because by lengthening muscle fibers they become less capable of producing force, hence hindering optimal performance during the training bout. To dig deeper into the anatomy of a skeletal muscle fiber, here is a complete video.

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Possible Counterarguments and Diminishing Returns Of Warming Up

Warm up can also have disadvantages to it, if not crafted in the most appropriate manner. In particular, as hinted above, it can be time consuming for those athletes and trainees whose main objective in their workout is to maximize the time at their disposal for the most optimal result based on their goal (whether muscle hypertrophy, strength development, or weight loss). So, some people may see warm up as a "waste of time" because not active part of their schedule and training direction. This view, one could argue, can be rather detrimental in the long run, as not working on mobility and injury prevention can put excessive strain on muscles and joints, hence leading to progress-disrupting injuries.

As a second point against warming up, it is relevant to point out that warm up can be overdone. Including too many exercises and drills in a warm up routine can lead to diminishing returns, as this is the opposite side of the spectrum with respect to not warming up at all. And, like the wide majority of things in life, you want to strike a balance between too little and too much in order to reap the maximum benefits from an activity (balance). So, prolonging excessively a warm up routine can easily lead to muscle and aerobic fatigue, which consequently can have a negative effect on the main performance of the session. So, it is a valid idea to underline that the purpose of warming up is only complementary and preparatory to the main objective of a training session: resistance training in order to improve muscle hypertrophy, strength, body composition.

The Three Phases of Warming Up

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When looking at a well-rounded warm up routine, there are three main phases which can be identified: an aerobic phase of 5 to 10 minutes; a mobility phase including dynamic mobility drills; and a specific warm up phase in a pyramid style before the first exercise.

Let's get into each of these phases. First, but not very necessary if you are short in time, is the aerobic phase of warming up, in which the body's temperature is raised in order to enter into "workout mode" and prepare our muscles and joints for the effort to be exerted later in the session. This phase can last anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes and is carried out at a low and steady intensity on a cardio machine such as the stair master, treadmill, stationary bike, rower machine.

Secondly, there is a mobility-focused phase. This is arguably the most crucial part of an effective warm up routine, in that it truly begins to activate the muscles to be worked during training, while improving mobility and blood flow in the areas worked. This phase can take up to 10 minutes, and you probably do not want to overdo it, as it can lead to diminishing returns and fatigue. Movements such as leg swings, crucifix, Ido Portal's pre-squat routine are all examples of drills included in this part of the warm up. At the end of this post I will put together an example of a complete possible warm up routine. The key characteristic of pre-workout mobility drills is that they are performed in an active fashion, instead of being static stretching holds.

The last phase of a warm up routine takes place right before beginning the first exercise of the resistance training bout (usually a compound movement), and it involves performing some repetitions in a pyramid fashion, by increasing the weight at every warm up set until reaching the working weight for the exercise. In a squat, this would involve doing the first warm up set using only the bar for more than 10 reps (notice that the number of reps and pyramid weight used depend on what is your working weight - the closer you get to your working weight, the less reps you perform), to then increase the weight in small increments and do fewer reps each time. The aim of this phase is to fire up the neuromuscular system, recruit the right muscles involved in the lift, and practice the movement pattern, preparing the body for optimal performance.

I have compiled a (free) full body warm up routine based on all these principles in a Notion page, which you can find here.

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