A Warm Up That Actually Works

A good warm up does three things: it raises your body temperature, it takes your joints through the ranges you are about to load, and it rehearses the movement pattern with progressively heavier sets. Anything else is optional.

Start with three to five minutes of easy cycling, rowing or skipping. You want warm, not tired. Follow with a short mobility sequence targeting the day's movement: hip openers and ankle rocks before squats, thoracic rotations and band pull aparts before pressing.

Then ramp your working lift. A simple approach is empty bar for ten, forty percent for five, sixty percent for three, eighty percent for one, then your first working set. On lighter accessory work a single ramp set is enough.

Skip the long static stretching before you lift. Save it for after the session, when it is genuinely useful for mobility.