I warm up, and get lift offs anything over 135lbs with benching.
The tighter/better technqiue you get on benching, youll realize it’s nearly impossible to unrack by yourself for any set, whether it be warm up or work set.
I always utilize the bar as a warmup for technique purposes. Olympic lifters use it in their warmups for technique purposes, why shouldn’t a normal lifter do the same?
On upper body days, I do some arm circles first, then 3 sets of pushups and pullups, supersetted. Relatively easy, just to really circulate blood to my entire upper body. It really does not require much equipment and you can actually do it at home in the morning just to wake up. Add some lunges or BW squats too, works really well IMO.
I think everybody’s body reacts differently. Personally I start by doing some cardio/dynamic stretching (boxing, jumping, cycling, etc) before any lifting and then do my first set at 50-70% of my max weight. For example I start at 225/275/315 respectively for bench, squat and deadlifts and aim to start doing my heaviest lift(s) by the 3rd or 4th set.
I used to do lighter sets prior to that but I didn’t notice my body reacting any differently once I stopped doing them.
I’ve been training for over 10 years and I generally have no pain or problems with any of my joints. My last big lifting injury was back in 2004 so obviously my warmup routine are not causing me any problems. However like I said everyone reacts differently so what works for me is probably not going to work for everyone else.
I thought everyone warmed up with lighter weights first…
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
OP, I’m just curious, is this how you always give advice, calling people idiots and ending with “I dont care, just read”?[/quote]
Does the op ever even check this thread? I seriously want to know this
I start my deadlift warmups at 315, squat at 225, and bench at 135. Considering that this is all featherweight and ~100 pounds less then my max on each lift.
As I have gotten closer to 30 I warm up before every event/workout.
I do a general body warm up - some kind of cardio and then a warm up set for each lift (major muscles no tricep/bicep warm up).
I didn’t always lift and exercise like this but after a few pulled and torned hammies and groin I have no choice.
I also like doing dynamic movements, mobility movements and abs after my cardio wram up.
[quote]Sick Rick wrote:
I usually just warm up 2 sets with the bar, slap two 45’s on and warm up another set and then gradually increase weight.
I don’t see how one actually CAN put their (near) PR weight on the bar on the first set. I’m usually strongest 4-5 sets into my workout…[/quote]
I don’t see how anyone could do this either. Perhaps their true max would be much higher if they worked up to it. For DL in particular if I started out with my max., I don’t think I’d do more than rattle the plates. I’m still playing around with what works best for me in terms of peak strength during my workout but I do better with higher volume sets and lower weight jumps.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
I start my deadlift warmups at 315, squat at 225, and bench at 135. Considering that this is all featherweight and ~100 pounds less then my max on each lift.[/quote]
That doesn’t make any sense. Why?
[quote]Synthetickiller wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I start my deadlift warmups at 315, squat at 225, and bench at 135. Considering that this is all featherweight and ~100 pounds less then my max on each lift.
That doesn’t make any sense. Why?[/quote]
I’m not about to hurt myself using that weight, and I personally feel doing too many warmups negatively affects me when I’m trying to hit a pr.
For ex squat day might look like:
225x5
275x3
315x2PR
DL day might look like:
315x2
365x1
405x3(rep PR)
or
315x2
365x1
385x1
425x1PR
Generally i warm up with the bar for 5-8 reps for 2 sets maybe, then I do a 50% and an 80% warm up set of my workout weight of the day with 1-5 reps. I keep the reps low, because I am just getting the joints warm and ready to handle the heavy weight.
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
KBCThird wrote:
OP, I’m just curious, is this how you always give advice, calling people idiots and ending with “I dont care, just read”?
Does the op ever even check this thread? I seriously want to know this
[/quote]
hey man, sorry for duckin’ ya in this thread for a while…i took a brief T-Nation hiatus.
as for when i said:
“I know there are those of you on here who don’t think they need to warm up at the gym. I have something for you to read. I don’t know if you think you’re too strong or cool to warm up…either way; I don’t care. Just read.”
the “i don’t care just read” thing…that was just me saying that i don’t care if these people who don’t warm up think of themselves…and they should just read what i found an am presenting.
that’s all.
do i do that often? you said that I’m “always giving advice and then saying…”
if i am, i probably can justify it. toss me a PM or something and i’ll rethink my words.
~b
There is a guy that comes to my gym that will walk in, put 500 on the bar and deadlift, or 365 on the bar and bench, without doing anything prior. He is having his shoulder scoped soon to clean out all the scar tissue in there. I think he’s like 21-22 years old.
[quote]B rocK wrote:
KBCThird wrote:
KBCThird wrote:
OP, I’m just curious, is this how you always give advice, calling people idiots and ending with “I dont care, just read”?
Does the op ever even check this thread? I seriously want to know this
hey man, sorry for duckin’ ya in this thread for a while…i took a brief T-Nation hiatus.
as for when i said:
“I know there are those of you on here who don’t think they need to warm up at the gym. I have something for you to read. I don’t know if you think you’re too strong or cool to warm up…either way; I don’t care. Just read.”
the “i don’t care just read” thing…that was just me saying that i don’t care if these people who don’t warm up think of themselves…and they should just read what i found an am presenting.
that’s all.
do i do that often? you said that I’m “always giving advice and then saying…”
if i am, i probably can justify it. toss me a PM or something and i’ll rethink my words.
~b[/quote]
Nah, I dont know whether you do it that often or not, that’s what I was asking about. I was just taken aback by a post that’s clearly intended as a public service announcement (for lack of a better word) but is delivered in a pretty harsh tone. Usually you see people reserving their hate for people curling in the squat rack, so I was just trying to figure out what prompted the title.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
I personally feel doing too many warmups negatively affects me when I’m trying to hit a pr.
[/quote]
Is your work capacity really that low?
never seen anyone NOT warmup lol, even the guys doing quarter squats or curling warm up, cant really relate to what your saying
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
Nah, I dont know whether you do it that often or not, that’s what I was asking about. I was just taken aback by a post that’s clearly intended as a public service announcement (for lack of a better word) but is delivered in a pretty harsh tone. Usually you see people reserving their hate for people curling in the squat rack, so I was just trying to figure out what prompted the title.[/quote]
lol; no worries man.
i do reserve my hate for curling in the squat rack; as well as popped collars. (and a large list of gym-pet peeves)
but it does sorta “grind my gears” when i see people being so obviously (at least to me) retarded.
oh well. to each their own way…
Never seen anyone who is any well trained not work his way up 
It all depends a little what weight u start with on different exercises tbh. I mean, if u already started ur workout with maybe 10 mins on a stepmachine or something, u have gotten a slight sweat and some nice lubrication to ur lower back area.
Then u can start ur first warm up sets considerably higher than if u just go into the gym and slam some weights on the barbell ;p Personally I like to work my way up, maybe first start with a set with 100kg, then 120, then 140, then 160, then 180, then 200 or so.
I like working my way up like this ;p hope u dont mind I didnt translate to pounds, but its not really relevant to my point anyways ;p
I mean, if u come in a day and u plan to do the bench, then maybe if ur shoulder is a lil sore or feels a little stiff, u might wanna start with only the bar or some small weights on it, moving the bar really slow up and down.
Then putting it down, stretch the back a little bit ;p seems to work for me, prolly cuz its the opposite muscle. Then usually when I start on the bench again I get a nice lubricated feeling like a squirting pussy ;p I love that sudden release feeling one can get, really takes away that stiffnes that can damage ur benchpress workout.