Bodyweight What do you think about warm up?

[offwidth]

if I simply _thought_ about the exercise I was about to perform, my heart rate went up.

I read once about some athletes (climbers) who would take some weeks (to a month) off in their yearly training cycles; and during that time would not: read about climbing or watch climbing videos to avoid an adrenal response, that might hamper their ‘recovery’ period. Maybe a bit extreme.... maybe not....

 

[Steve Freides]

I read once about some athletes (climbers) who would take some weeks (to a month) off in their yearly training cycles; and during that time would not: read about climbing or watch climbing videos to avoid an adrenal response, that might hamper their ‘recovery’ period. Maybe a bit extreme.... maybe not....

I've read the same about runners from Africa, I think it was Ethiopia. They would take off a month to work on their families' farms, around November/December, and then start up again after that. These were the distance runners.

-S-

 

[Kenny Croxdale]

My view on warm-ups constantly changes, so I'll link Pavel's thoughts through the years instead:

Nice Collage Of Information

This is a very nice collage of training warm up information.

My perspective and Pavel's are the same; less is more effective when it come to warm up.

For many individual, extended warm up is emotionally driven and has little carryover to any physical warm up necessity. A pervious example are lifter who are able of Squatting load of 700 lb plus, warming up with a 45 lb/20 kg bar.

It makes virtually no sense to start off with an Olympic Bar that t is 6% of your max training set. It more of a head thing or some type of ritual rather than a physical necessity.

The doctrine of extended Warm Up has be engrained brainwashed) into their head and is now their religion belief, metaphorically speaking.

Advising these individual there is a more effective approach and requires fewer Warm Up is heresy.

I understand. That is my initial reaction to anything that is new and goes against what I have learned.

The Mental Side of Training

To reiterate, I addressed the head issue in my previous post. In other words if something F's with your head, it an issue and need to be addressed or catered to.

As in dealing with my friend that felt he need extended Warm Up, we kept the same number of Warm Up Set but decreased the Repetition in each of them.

 

[Kenny Croxdale]

It is generally advised to only stretch warm muscles.

Good point.

String Cheese

Connective Tissue is somewhat like String Cheese.

String Cheese doesn't stretch when it is cold.

However, when you warm up up, it is more more pliable, stretches easier.

Thus, one of the best methods of optimally stretching is post workout when you have heated everything up.

Another method is to integrate the between workout sets; as you heat them up.

Stretching Prior To and Between Workout Sets

There are some caveats to this.

Too much stretching prior to and between training sets, dampens force production (Maximum Strength, Power and Speed).

However, short stretches prior to and between sets can enhance force production. Steve has some information on this.

It is somewhat like Goldilocks, you don't want too much or too little, you want what's just right.

 

[bluejeff]

Do you warm-up before stretching?

As others have stated, it's a good idea. Light stretching generally requires little to no warmup, unless you are extremely tight and/or sore. DEEP stretching, which looks to increase your total range of motion, absolutely requires a warmup in my opinion.

As @kennycro@@aol.com said

It is somewhat like Goldilocks, you don't want too much or too little, you want what's just right.

So it depends on your goals, in my opinion.

Like most everything in strength and fitness, these are guidelines. Learning to sense what your body responds to best is what will get you where you want to go.

 

[pet']

Hello,

Too much stretching prior to and between training sets, dampens force production (Maximum Strength, Power and Speed).

However, short stretches prior to and between sets can enhance force production.

+1 to this

Richard Sylla (multiple world French boxing champion) always makes us performing easy stretching between drills. He insists on reaching our full ROM, but not trying to go beyond. Basically, this is done 2 to 3 times before the drill.

Kind regards,

Pet'

 

[WhatWouldHulkDo]

Back in my college days, I was very much anti-warmup. Warmup was wasted time; just load the bar and go. And that worked just fine, when I was in a much stronger twenty-something-year-old body. I wouldn't say I ever got injured due to lack of a warmup.

These days, being weaker and older, I am finding that I am much better off with a warmup. If I don't do some warmup sets, then my first "work" set is peppered with so many creaks and aches, it doesn't feel like a quality set. It's not so much a matter of being worried about getting hurt; it's more about not wanting aches and pains to pollute technique.

So, I would say, measure your need for a warmup by the quality of your first work set. If it's solid, whatever you're doing is the right thing, don't mess with a win streak. If things don't get solid until the second set, you should warm up more.

 

[North Coast Miller]

So, I would say, measure your need for a warmup by the quality of your first work set. If it's solid, whatever you're doing is the right thing, don't mess with a win streak. If things don't get solid until the second set, you should warm up more.

This right here^.

My warmup these days is 5 minutes of jump rope at an easy pace or 20 very easy pace burpees using 60-lb sandbag DLs in place of the jump. I usually do some hip mobility in the squat posture.

When I was younger my warmup was 5-10 minutes jumprope and another 10-15 on the heavy bag, that would definitely shave some output from my resistance work these days...

 

[Blake Nelson]

The term “warm-up” is often a misnomer. I sometimes think “pre-flight checklist” might be better, but it is still a misnomer. Still, a pre-flight checklist is a useful metaphor. Let me use this metaphor with a heavy get up. Before I begin a 62 pound get up, it’s important that I make sure that all systems are go. My knees are in good shape and not skinned up. My hands are in good condition, with no torn skin, sprained fingers, etc. that would compromise my grip. I am rested and do not have fatigue that would compromise my ability to pay attention to what I am doing. Etc. If I do not pass the pre-flight checklist, I do not do heavy get ups, period.

That is how I think of it, too. Or maybe I should say that whether or not I do a "warm-up" (which varies) I always do my pre-flight checklist.

It is also my experience - from working with folks in their teens to some well past retirement - that age seems to be a factor. Many of my older students, let's say older than 50, achieve their best lifts after an extended build-up. Sometimes most of the hour is required to reach peak performance.

Lifestyle is obviously a factor, too. When I was coaching 100% in-person and walking between two facilities throughout the day, I could jump right into things. Nowadays I coach 95% online and spend much more time at a desk. I find that I benefit from a good loosening-up before I get down to heavy/fast lifting.

 

[Kozushi]

I don't warmup either, really. I've quit doing the goblet squats with the weight, just because it wastes my time and energy. I still like doing bodyweight squats though, mainly as a kind of mobility-maintenance thing. The "prisoner squats" seem to make it a bit more valid. I'm really trying to cut down on bodyweight anything these days in order to focus on my SFG 1 test eventually.

From my experience in martial arts and competition, the benefit of warming up, which I think running is the best kind, is to get your heart "in the zone" for the workout. But along with your heart pumping more, I think your brain gets told to shift modes towards "exercise mode". It's psychological more than anything. Once you start to sweat and you're breathing heavily, there is "no turning back!, you are now focussed on working out, focussed on your training, your training is now your whole world.

 

[Whosonfirst]

Most of the coaches are saying about importance of warm up before training. From Pavel's old books I remember that he was not a big fan of doing warm up.
I'm training everyday (GTG) so I do not do warm up and i feel good. In exercesises like weighted chin-ups risk of injury is much smaller than doing deadlifts (in my opinion)

Does a professional powerlifters/strongmen/weightlifters do a warm up? What do you think about doing warm-up before training ?

Good topic. I generally warm-up for weighted training, but not at all for bodyweight moves. How would you warm up a pushup or bwt. squat? I guess you could do pushups from the knees or leaning against a bench or table.

From just my own personal experiences, I guess injuries occurred more often to me when I wasn't properly warmed up. Any time we're exerting something requiring over 50-75% of a max effort, then warm-ups make sense in my mind. That would include sprinting. While I generally don't warm-up for pullups, I usually don't attempt a max effort without doing a few singles or doubles first. And to be totally honest, I may actually try doing some assisted pullups the next few sessions before using full bodyweight as an experiment.

Back to weighted training with barbells or kettlebells. I submit Mark Reifkind's last log for his press training. It's changed some of my thinking on how get my own pressing back on track.
Mark's blog
Press
65 85 105 x 3
135 x 2
155 x 1
175 x 1
195 x 1 fast!
205 x 1 not good
205 x 1 found the groove ( video above is of this set)
210 x 1 x 2 set
215 x 1 x 2 sets
205 x 1 x 2 very solid


the key is really loading the bow until full hip tension and then driving into the bar. The sets that didn't go well I rushed
But even the bad sets were decent.
The technique and cues are proving themselves, especially considering this is only my second heavy day using the current method.

floor pushups
61
61
55
It looks to me like Mark is programming 10-11 warm-up sets into his pressing. He uses 177 pushups as a finisher? This is at 63 years old!