How to Warmup Without Wasting Your Time
Your guide to warming up effectively and efficiently.
10 min read
By: Dylan Dacosta
When it comes to warming up, there is no shortage of frills out there. You’ve probably been inundated with flashy ways to warm up, time consuming corrective strategies and dogmatic rules that you may have never truly questioned.
A simple one being “should you stretch before you workout?” Conventional wisdom is usually, yes. While counter culture may have you believing that if you stretch before you workout, you will actually hurt yourself. In fact, over the last several years, there has been an evolving hatred for stretching. I too, have felt into this camp at times.
Regardless, I think everyone agrees that we should warm up. I see the tension being around how we should warm up. I want to start with this and I want you to engrain this into your brain:
As a human, you are a highly adaptable being with a robust ability to endure plenty of physical stressors and adapt to them. So the fear mongering around an excessive need for corrective exercise and having to mobilize every joint with fancy tools is absolute nonsense. I’m not saying these practices don’t have a place. You should just not feel like anything short of an in depth, drawn out and complicated warm up routine will cause you impending doom. It won’t. You could literally walk up to bar cold and load it up and be okay. I don’t generally recommend that strategy, but your training career is not terminal if you don’t have a long warm up.
Let’s start with a basic question:
Why should I warm up?
A warm up, in general, will be aiming to do four things:
Increase core body temperature
Reduce risk of injury. (Not prevent, as you can’t actually prevent injury when it comes to training/sport)
Bring blood flow/warm up to the muscles you’re about to train.
Practice the specific movements you’re about to do.
You can also add in: mentally prepare for training/sport here too.
At the end of the day, your warm up should aid in your performance. It should not take away from it. So if your warm up is longer than your workout, I’d say your warm up is actually becoming a net-negative when it comes to your results.
It still seems clear that an effective warm up will help your performance though. One meta-analysis (a study on relevant studies) showed that among 32 studies that assessed a warm-up’s effects on performance, 79% of them showed a positive impact on performance outcomes.
A forest plot showing the effects of warming up on performance across several different sports/training styles. Dots right from the centre line indicate a positive impact. Dots left from the centre line indicate a negative impact.
These researchers gave a simple recommendation:
A warm up should include a period of aerobic exercise (to increase core body temp), followed by stretching (we’ll get into that next) and some task specific activity. Which to be clear, if you were starting with barbell back squats, would look like squatting with an empty barbell first. Which will be as specific as you can get.
Should my warm up include stretching?
Short answer: Yes.
But as always, we’re going to dive deeper. As discussed above, stretching has become contentious in the fitness industry. Some people have even become anti-stretching. Considering I used to be one of those folks, I’ll be kind here. What I will say, is that being anti-stretching is a bit strange when you think about it for a second. Stretching does work. The intended outcome of stretching is often to increase flexibility, which it certainly does. One meta-analysis looked at static stretching’s outcomes on hamstrings flexiblity when compared to a control group (meaning they didn’t stretch). To no surprise, the static stretching group out did the control group consistently.
Now when it comes to stretching’s impacts on performance, it does seem to depend on the type of stretching and the dosage of the stretching that you do.
When it comes to aiding performance as part of a warm up, dynamic stretching has been shown to outperform static stretching. It’s been show to outperform static stretching in leg extension power. As well as in reducing sprint times when compared to static stretching.
The last study was using a sample of rugby athletes. So the application to general population might not be as relevant, but the difference is still there.
Why might dynamic stretching be better for performance than static stretching?
This may sound strange, but one reason seems to be surrounding muscle stiffness and the actual benefit of it. (you read that right)
Muscles have somewhat of an elastic property to them. So the stiffer a muscle is, the more recoil the muscle will have when it’s stretched. Similar to an elastic band — a stiff elastic band will have high recoil when you let go of it. Just like an elastic band, when you stretch a muscle for too long, it may reduce that stiffness and reduce the elasticity of it. Which, in the context of strength training and performance, is not an ideal outcome.
Dynamic stretching on the other hand works with that elasticity quite well. So it will bring blood flow to that specific area, as well as use that elastic property during the movement, rather than reducing it like a long-held static stretch might.
So I recommend that you should do some sort of dynamic stretching before exercise and after your light aerobic warm up. I would also recommend that this dynamic stretching be specific too. For example, if you were going to deadlift, some sort of dynamic hip extension stretch would be great. One exercise that I like in that context are hip swings. If you were about to bench press, then some chest openers would also be a great option. Both options shown below.
My general recommendation would be 1–2 sets of 10–15 reps. Nothing to overthink here either. This is meant to be simplified.
If you do really want to do static stretching before you train, that’s also fine. Using the study above, I wouldn’t recommend static stretching for 30 seconds or longer though, as negative performance outcomes have been shown to happen at or past that duration.
What should my specific warm up be?
As I mentioned above, your specific warm up should be quite specific to the main lift or task you’re going to be doing. Just like if you were warming up to play basketball, you’d start by shooting around.
If you were going to start by squatting, I’d recommend your specific warm up be based around squatting.
You could start by doing some body weight squats or just progress to a very light weight with the specific movement you’re going to do. If you were back squatting, this would look like doing a set or two with just the bar on your back. If you were goblet squatting, this would look like doing a set or two below 50% of what your working weight was going to be.
From there you would just build up to your working weight. The stronger you are, the longer this will often take. I’m currently squatting 325 lbs for sets of 6 in my back squat. This requires me building up a pyramid to get there.
Here is an example of what that looks like for me:
1–2 sets with the bar for 10–12
1 set with 135lbs for 8–10
1 set with 225lbs for 6–8
1 set with 275 for 4–5
1 set with 315 for 2–3
Then my first working set of 325 for 6.
All having short rests (around a minute)
This is one example and your warm up may look different. One thing to take away though is that as I get closer to my working weight, I will really drop my reps. As I don’t want my warm up sets to be fatiguing. Since this is heavy, I want to feel physically and mentally prepared to take on my working weight. So that last set is just to see what 315 lbs feels like on back mostly.
One more caveat here: You will not warm up this way for all of your lifts. This will usually be for your more heavy and complex movements. If my next exercise was flat dumbbell press, I would probably only do 1, maybe 2 warm up sets. And if I was doing biceps curls, I often just go right to my working weight since they’re usually later in the workout, I’m fully warmed up and those muscles have probably been worked in prior exercises.
What about corrective strategies?
You may have been told that you need to work on corrective exercise strategies before your workout. To me, this defeats the purpose of a warm up. Warming up is meant to increase performance, prepare you physically/mentally and reduce your injury risk.
Your warm up should not be responsible for any adaptations/stimulus. While corrective exercises should, in theory. So placing corrective exercises before you train is not ideal for two reasons:
1. If it’s only 1 set with low stimulus, it’s just a warm up at best and won’t create any adaptations. Making it a warm up and not a corrective exercise.
2. If it is multiple sets taken to an appropriate proximity to failure (i.e. sets that will create adaptations) then they’re not warm ups. They’re just resistance training. Which just makes for subpar exercise selection. Your first exercise of the workout should be the most complex or fatiguing exercise. Not a less complex, less intense, corrective exercise.
If there are specific things you’re trying to work on that would fall more in the “corrective” realm, you can still do them. I just suggest you train them like you would any other movement. Following progressive overload and trying to get more skilled and stronger with them over time.
Should I foam roll?
Foam rolling or any other form of self-myofascial release (lacrosse balls are often used) can be a viable part of your warm up. It’s been shown to acutely (short term) increase flexibility without decreasing performance. Given they don’t benefit performance like dynamic stretching can, I’d still put it lower on the totem pole than dynamic stretching. If you have flexibility issues, they can be a useful option though.
When it comes to application of using a foam roller, you don’t need to be in tears either. One study compared rolling your quads with a low, moderate and high perception of pain. All three groups gained passive range of motion without significant difference between groups. Which means you don’t need to be in agony to receive any of the benefit that foam rolling may provide. This study also used a protocol of rolling the quads for 3 sets of 60 seconds. Which is something you may not want to do. And if you don’t, you’re not missing out on any increases in performance as a result.
So in summary, you can foam roll. There isn’t an inherent downside to it (other than the discomfort). You can expect some increases in range of motion (in the short term) but you shouldn’t expect any increases in performance.
Summary & Applications
I hope I have demonstrated the value in an effective warm up. I also hope I’ve shown you that you don’t need to have some fancy, time consuming warm up if you want to stay safe and see results.
Remember, your warm up should only take up a small part of your workout. Efficiency matters here.
It should help increase performance and help mitigate injury risk. It’s not meant to fix anything or correct anything. I have seen people get caught down this rabbit hole. It usually ends up in worse results because their warm ups start to take up more time than their training. Which a warm up should not do.
So here your general guide to warming up effectively and efficiently:
Step 1: Raise core body temperature.
-This usually involves 5–10 minutes doing light aerobic acitivty. Since this shouldn't be fatiguing, your aim should be at about 4–5 out of 10 on the scale of rate of perceived exertion.
Step 2: Dynamic stretching exercises relevant to your training.
-1–2 sets of a few dynamic stretching exercises involving muscles you’re about to train.
Step 3: Specific warm up sets with the movement you’re going to train.
-The heavier you go, the longer this may be. But you should build up to your weights with in a pyramid (less reps as you progress) as to not fatigue yourself along the way. Also, start with an empty bar or very light weight for your first warm up sets on your main lift. Your less complex exercises don’t need to be warmed up in this manner either. Usually one, maybe two warm up sets will suffice here.
Step 4: GO TRAIN.
Caveat: if you want to use some foam rolling or SMFR work, you can do that before the dynamic stretching. But remember, the longer your warm up, the more you’re eating into you training time. So don’t feel like you need to do it.
How long should this take?
Cap this out at around 15 minutes. If you’re spending 20+ minutes warming up, you’re getting too cute. Make this warm up effective and efficient. Remember, you’re there to train, not to warm up.
Happy lifting. 🍻
-Coach Dylan
References:
1. Effects of Warming-up on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2010/01000/Effects_of_Warming_up_on_Physical_Performance__A.21.aspx
2. Influence of static stretching on hamstring flexibility in healthy young adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09593985.2016.1204401?journalCode=iptp20
3. Effects of static stretching for 30 seconds and dynamic stretching on leg extension power
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16095425/
4. The effect of different warm-up stretch protocols on 20 meter sprint performance in trained rugby union players
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15574098/
5. Effects of self-myofascial release: A systematic review
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26592233/
6. Higher Quadriceps Roller Massage Forces Do Not Amplify Range-of-Motion Increases nor Impair Strength and Jump Performance
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30152808/
