My question is when warming up for any exercise (bench, squat, curls) what do you recommend the rep range and number of sets be. Really light, medium weight? How many times is good, 8-10, 10-12? How many sets 1 or 2? I’ve heard for sets that even 4 is good to warm up but that sounds crazy to me. Please help me out, it has been puzzling me forever. They say if you don’t warm up right you’ll never go up in weight and I’ve been on a bench plateu forever and after warming up I still havent broke through it. I’m free to any comments. Thanks.
warm up as long as it takes you to get ready. when its cold, it takes me longer. if i am going to go heavy, it takes more sets. if you are older or have had injuries in the past, it takes longer.
for example, on squatting, i generally do about 3-4 minutes on a bike just to get my heart rate up a little. stretch my neck, shoulders lower back and legs for about 5-10 minutes. hit 135 for 2 sets of 5-10, 225 for 5-10, 315 for 5-10 and then it depends on if i am maxing up or doing reps. if maxing, i will just go up 50 pounds a set and get a single each time. if doing reps, i’ll add 50 pounds and hit 3-8 until i get the the weight i want and do the reps i planned on getting.
Remember, it’s also about “warming up” the nervous system, increasing core temp etc. Read Staley’s article in issue 115 of Test.