The Art of Warming Up

Iron_Dwarf · February 13, 2012, 4:01pm

[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
The max ot warmup IMO is the best one, i use it or something close all the time[/quote]

It is quite good. Probably most common-sensical for almost everyone without injury issues.

2020Wellness · February 13, 2012, 4:11pm

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
The max ot warmup IMO is the best one, i use it or something close all the time[/quote]

It is quite good. Probably most common-sensical for almost everyone without injury issues.[/quote]

Care to lay out the method?

Iron_Dwarf · February 13, 2012, 5:09pm

[quote]2020Wellness wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
The max ot warmup IMO is the best one, i use it or something close all the time[/quote]

It is quite good. Probably most common-sensical for almost everyone without injury issues.[/quote]

Care to lay out the method?
[/quote]

"Max-OT - Warming Up The Max-OT Way.

I want you to remember the following. Max-OT is all about building muscle. Max-OT takes the approach that every rep, every set, and every workout is done for one reason - to build muscle and strength. This is very important. If you do a rep, set, or entire workout with weights for any other reason then you need to seriously question just why you are training in the first place.

Any time you wrap your hands around a bar and start a set it should be approached with the mindset of building muscle and strength. You should be able to quantify why you do each rep. What other physiological reason is there for lifting weights? So every time you do a rep you know that that rep is either directly involved in building muscle or is a necessary prerequisite to the muscle building reps.

How most lifters fail to take the right approach from the very start.
Efficiency is one of the main attributes of Max-OT training. The more efficient you train the more effective your workout is going to be, the more muscle you are going to build and the quicker you are going to build that muscle.

Why expend precious energy without using maximum efficiency? Warming-up properly is an area of training that should be performed with the utmost efficiency because it is the prelude to building muscle. Warming up improperly will impede your ability to maximize muscle overload, total muscle fiber stimulation, and growth. Warming up correctly will allow you to expend the maximum physical mental intensity on the sets that count the most - the muscle building sets.
Warming Up The Wrong Way - Are You Guilty?

I would say that 99% of the people that train warm-up wrong. And in doing so, it reduces their ability to produce maximum overload for maximum growth growth. Again, as I discussed in the last section, this incorrect technique has been and continues to be passed along from gym to gym, coach to athlete, magazine to subscriber, etc., etc. It’s like a weed you can’t get rid of.
A somewhat unfortunate thing about building muscle is that there is no definite “right” or “wrong” way to go about it. What I mean is, you can train wrong and still build muscle. Max-OT is about building maximum muscle and strength in the shortest amount of time. Max-OT extracts all the physiological understanding of what stimulates muscle growth and wraps it all up into a systematic, step-by-step plan that will maximize the muscle growth parameters and eliminate the regression caused by typical training programs.

How NOT to warm-up.
Let’s use the Bench Press as an example here. For sake of description we’ll say that 275 is the maximum for 3 reps. Here is how most people do a bench workout.
They load the bar with 135 pounds and do about 10 or 15 reps. They’ll rest a few minutes and then go to 185 pounds. Here they do another 10 reps. Then they go to 205 pounds and do about 10 reps. After a little rest, they go to 225 pounds and do 7 or 8 reps depending on how good they feel.

So far that is 4 sets. Now throw on 20 pounds to 245 and do about 7 reps. That’s set number 6 and they haven’t even started to build muscle yet. From here they take the 10’s off and put on some 25’s. At 275 pounds the barely knock out 3 reps.
Can you point out the mistakes here? They warmed up. No question about that, but they did so at the expense of strength and overload. In other words, their technique for warming up resulted in poor or inadequate muscle fiber stimulation and overload due to premature muscle fatigue.

Warming Up Is Warming Up.
Understand that warming-up is nothing more than “warming-up”. What this means is that you should warm-up the muscle group you are training in a fashion that will allow you to infuse the right amount of blood into the muscle and connective tissue and progressively introduce the increasing overload to this muscle group. This warm-up process should not fatigue the muscle. I repeat, the warm-up process should not fatigue the muscle. If you generate any muscle fatigue whatsoever during your warm-up sets you will compromise muscle overload and growth.
Proper Max-OT warm-up techniques introduce blood into the muscle group, progressively acclimate the muscle and soft tissue to the heavy weight, and does not fatigue the muscle. A fatigued muscle is a weak muscle. A muscle not “ready” for heavy weight is an injury prone muscle. The key is to warm-up the muscle being trained so it can handle maximum overload without injury, while at the same time not fatiguing the muscle in the process.
I am going to show you how to implement a technique into your training that will provide immediate results in the amount of weight you use. Remember, muscle growth is dictated by overload. The greater the overload placed on a muscle, the greater the growth response from that muscle.

We are going to take the same weight scenario on the Bench Press as used before, but we’ll use the Max-OT warm-up technique. This technique will allow you to lift more weight for more overload and more growth.
Understand that the only sets that actually induce muscle growth are the heavy sets - the sets using maximum weight for 4 to 6 reps. All other sets besides these will not produce overload needed to induce growth. These sets are merely preludes to the muscle-building sets. With this known, now you can see why it’s critical to intelligently warm-up so you can maximize the growth producing sets.

Warming Up The Right Way.
Here we are going to take the Bench Press and show you a proper warm-up technique that will allow you to lift more weight on your heavy sets. Remember, more weight - more overload - more muscle.

Again well use 275 as your heavy weight. If you typically warm-up and train like I pointed out earlier the 275 will feel a lot lighter this time.

First Set: 135 x 12 reps (warm-up)
These should be good smooth reps. Not too slow and not to fast. Your main goal is to increase blood flow and get the feel of the movement and the weight. After this first set you should rest about 2 minutes.

Second Set: 135 x 10 reps (warm-up) Same weight as before. Rhythm should be a little faster this time. Not much faster. Rest about 2 minutes.

Third Set: 185 x 6 reps (warm-up)
This should be a deliberate set done at a moderate pace. This is the next step in weight acclimation. It should feel light and 4 reps should be very easy. Rest about 2 to 3 minutes before the next set.

Fourth Set: 225 x 3 reps (weight acclimation) You should follow the same rhythm as in the last set. 3 strong reps. Rest 2 minutes
before next set.

Fifth Set: 255 x 1 rep (weight acclimation)
That’s right, just 1 rep. The purpose here is weight acclimation. This should be a strong, powerful and deliberate rep.

Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Set: 285 x 4 to 6 reps (muscle-building)
These are the muscle building sets. Very important. These are the only sets that produce muscle growth. All the sets leading up to these heavy sets are merely warm- up sets and are treated as just that and nothing more.

Notice we went to 285 instead of 275. Warming up the Max-OT allows you to use heavier weight during the most important muscle building sets."

2020Wellness · February 13, 2012, 6:16pm