Probably almost everyone would agree that adequate warm-up is mandatory for having an injury-free workout while achieving maximum performance. In spite of this, a considerable amount of people go into their routines without warming up or with a deficient warm-up. This post reviews the importance of warm-up for bodybuilders, and provides some guidelines for warming up properly.
Warm-up plays an important role in bodybuilding. It prepares the body and the nervous system for physical activity. In addition, it increases muscles and joints lubrication and blood flow to the muscles, making them more suitable for weight training. More importantly, warm-up reduces the risk of injury by increasing muscles flexibility and gradually preparing them to the upcoming workout.
For accomplishing an adequate warm-up, the first stage, before any intensive training, must be a general low-intensity aerobic activity, such as light jogging, stationary cycling, jumping rope, or rowing machine, for about 5 minutes, just long enough to raise the body temperature, get the blood flowing and generally prepare the body for activity. After this aerobic activity, you can finish this phase of the warm-up with some light stretching.
At this point, you can move to the weight room. However, even though you have had a general body warm-up, you need additional warm-up for the muscle which you are about to train. Defining this specific warm-up can be tricky, because you must gradually prepare the muscle to handle heavy weights without injuring yourself, but at the same time you do not want to be fatigued when facing your working sets.
A good way for approaching this problem is as follows. Start by giving the muscle a light pump by completing one set of 10-12 reps with a very easy weight (e.g. 40-50% of the working sets weight). Then, in order to gradually habituate the muscle to the heavy weights it will have to handle during the working sets, perform 2-3 sets with low reps (2-5) in a pyramiding fashion, increasing progressively the weight until reaching the 80-90% of the working sets weight, while decreasing the reps. Do not rest too much between these sets (preferably less than 1 minute). Once you have finished all the warm-up sets, rest 2-3 minutes before starting the working sets.
Let’s see an example applied to bench press exercise. Assuming that working sets consist of 6 reps with 100kg (100x6), an adequate warm-up can be as follows: 40x10, 60x4, 75x2 and 85x1. Obviously, this is not a fixed scheme. The needed amount of warm-up sets will depend on the intensity of the exercise. The lower the reps you are performing on the working sets, the more warm-up sets you should do. The higher the reps, the fewer warm-up sets you may need.
This specific muscle warm-up is not necessary on every exercise in a workout. You have to do it only for the first exercise for each muscle group. Once the muscles are warm any further warm-up is just wasting energy. An exception can be made if the following exercise hits the muscle in a substantially different way with respect to the first.
Finally, in the same way that you warm up before starting the workout, it is also a good practice to do some cool down after training. A proper cool down usually consists of 5 minutes of walking or riding a stationary bike at a relatively slow pace, so that your breathing should be able to return to a relaxed pattern and your heart rate should slow. After that, you can follow with some stretching exercises.
Further information about warming up can be found in the article “Warming Up For Mass Gains!” by Shannon Pittman and the article “How Important Is Warming Up?”
Warm-up plays an important role in bodybuilding. It prepares the body and the nervous system for physical activity. In addition, it increases muscles and joints lubrication and blood flow to the muscles, making them more suitable for weight training. More importantly, warm-up reduces the risk of injury by increasing muscles flexibility and gradually preparing them to the upcoming workout.
For accomplishing an adequate warm-up, the first stage, before any intensive training, must be a general low-intensity aerobic activity, such as light jogging, stationary cycling, jumping rope, or rowing machine, for about 5 minutes, just long enough to raise the body temperature, get the blood flowing and generally prepare the body for activity. After this aerobic activity, you can finish this phase of the warm-up with some light stretching.
At this point, you can move to the weight room. However, even though you have had a general body warm-up, you need additional warm-up for the muscle which you are about to train. Defining this specific warm-up can be tricky, because you must gradually prepare the muscle to handle heavy weights without injuring yourself, but at the same time you do not want to be fatigued when facing your working sets.
A good way for approaching this problem is as follows. Start by giving the muscle a light pump by completing one set of 10-12 reps with a very easy weight (e.g. 40-50% of the working sets weight). Then, in order to gradually habituate the muscle to the heavy weights it will have to handle during the working sets, perform 2-3 sets with low reps (2-5) in a pyramiding fashion, increasing progressively the weight until reaching the 80-90% of the working sets weight, while decreasing the reps. Do not rest too much between these sets (preferably less than 1 minute). Once you have finished all the warm-up sets, rest 2-3 minutes before starting the working sets.
Let’s see an example applied to bench press exercise. Assuming that working sets consist of 6 reps with 100kg (100x6), an adequate warm-up can be as follows: 40x10, 60x4, 75x2 and 85x1. Obviously, this is not a fixed scheme. The needed amount of warm-up sets will depend on the intensity of the exercise. The lower the reps you are performing on the working sets, the more warm-up sets you should do. The higher the reps, the fewer warm-up sets you may need.
This specific muscle warm-up is not necessary on every exercise in a workout. You have to do it only for the first exercise for each muscle group. Once the muscles are warm any further warm-up is just wasting energy. An exception can be made if the following exercise hits the muscle in a substantially different way with respect to the first.
Finally, in the same way that you warm up before starting the workout, it is also a good practice to do some cool down after training. A proper cool down usually consists of 5 minutes of walking or riding a stationary bike at a relatively slow pace, so that your breathing should be able to return to a relaxed pattern and your heart rate should slow. After that, you can follow with some stretching exercises.
Further information about warming up can be found in the article “Warming Up For Mass Gains!” by Shannon Pittman and the article “How Important Is Warming Up?”
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