How to warm up for lifting

Step one: raise your temperature (about 5 minutes)

Pick something easy that makes you warm and slightly out of breath: rowing, cycling, a gentle SkiErg or skipping. Keep it conversational. You are not trying to squeeze in a workout; you are trying to get your heart rate up and your body out of desk mode.

In winter, first thing in the morning or after a long day sitting, stretch this to seven or eight minutes. If you cycled or walked briskly to the gym, you have already done most of this step.

Step two: targeted mobility (3 to 5 minutes)

Only do drills for the joints the session will use and the areas you personally find stiff. Some examples:

• Squat day: bodyweight or goblet squats with a pause at the bottom, ankle rocks against a wall, a kneeling hip flexor stretch.
• Deadlift day: hip hinges with a dowel on your back, glute bridges, hamstring sweeps.
• Upper body day: band pull-aparts, arm circles, scapular push-ups, light face pulls.

Short static stretches of around 30 seconds are fine here. Long static holds of a minute or more on the same muscle right before heavy lifting may slightly reduce force for a short time, so keep long stretching for after training or separate sessions. There is more on this in our guide to stretching before or after training.

Step three: ramp-up sets

This is the most important part and the one people skip. Start your first exercise with an empty bar or a light weight, then climb towards your working weight in several jumps, doing fewer reps as the weight goes up. The reps should feel crisp and easy.

Here is a typical ramp for someone whose working sets are 5 reps at 100 kg on the squat:

1. Empty bar (20 kg) for 10 reps, then 5 more
2. 50 kg for 5 reps
3. 70 kg for 3 reps
4. 85 kg for 2 reps
5. 95 kg for 1 rep
6. Working sets at 100 kg

If your working weights are lighter, say a 40 kg squat, you need fewer steps: the empty bar, then one or two jumps is plenty.

Warm-up sets do not count toward your working volume. Rest briefly between the early ones and a little longer before the last two. Use every ramp rep to rehearse your set-up and your breathing and bracing.

Three sample warm-ups

Here is how the three steps might look for different sessions. Swap drills in and out to suit your own body.

• Heavy lower body: 5 minutes easy rowing, 10 ankle rocks each side, 30 seconds of hip flexor stretch each side, 8 goblet squats with a 3 second pause, then ramp-up sets of the squat.
• Upper body pressing: 5 minutes on a bike or SkiErg, 15 band pull-aparts, 10 scapular push-ups, 10 light face pulls, then ramp-up sets of the bench or overhead press.
• Full body or power: 5 minutes easy cardio, 10 bodyweight squats, 10 walking lunges, a few low pogo hops and 3 small jumps, then light ramp-up sets of the first lift.

Each of these fits in under 15 minutes including the ramp. If you only have 45 minutes to train, that still leaves half an hour of quality work.

Warming up for power and jumping

Explosive work such as box jumps, kettlebell swings, cleans and sprints needs a slightly more thorough build-up, because tissues are loaded fast. Include a few progressively quicker efforts before the real sets: small hops before jumps, lighter swings before heavy ones, and a couple of relaxed strides before any sprinting.

Tendons in particular like to be loaded progressively, which is why the first few jumps of a session should be well below your maximum. Keep the all-out efforts for after the build-up and early in the session, when you are warm but not yet tired.

Common mistakes and personal adjustments

• Using the same routine for every session, whether it is a heavy deadlift day or a light upper body day.
• Spending 20 minutes foam rolling and stretching, then jumping straight to heavy weights.
• Turning the warm-up into a conditioning session and starting the lifting already tired.
• Skipping ramp sets because the rack is busy or time is short.
• Copying someone else's routine instead of targeting your own stiff spots.

Warm-ups for conditioning sessions or races look different, because they need more time at higher heart rates and some faster efforts. Our warm-up and cool-down guide covers those.

Finally, adjust everything to the person doing it. A 55-year-old with stiff hips returning to training will need longer on step two than a 25-year-old who played five-a-side yesterday. Most people find that the time they need for step two shrinks once they have been lifting consistently for a few months, because the lifts themselves improve mobility.

If a particular joint takes ages to loosen or hurts every session, it is worth getting it looked at rather than warming up around it forever. Lycan Strength has on-site physiotherapy, and gym members get 20% off treatment.