I'm going to tell you WHAT you
need to do, WHY you need to do it and also highlight some key mistakes
people make which will ultimately detract from their
workouts.
Warming
up is NOT just a process whereby you do loads of reps with light weight
with no aim or direction. Done properly its actually a process which
has MANY physiological (and mental) aims.
When warming up a body part from cold (first exercise for that muscle group) you want to do 3 key things -
1. Increase blood flow into the area
2.
Increase elasticity within the muscle/joint
With
that said you want start with a rep range of 12-15 purely to encourage
blood flow into the area with a weight which is around 50% of your
working weight. Do 2-3 sets of this purely to encourage blood flow into
the muscle. This will also help increase elasticity within the area.
That's the first job
done.
The next bit is more specific to getting more from your muscle during the workout.
Increasing CNS alertness means to "flick on" your high threshold motor units as
quickly as possible so that when you go into your working sets you are
recruiting and stimulating MORE muscle fibers, particularly the more
"hypertrophic" fibers.
To
do this you need to do
1-2 warm up sets closer to your working set weight, say around 80% for
maybe 6-8 reps. Just enough to prime the CNS without creating an
environment where there is too much fatigue going on before you start.
This is the KEY to getting the most from your body in the gym.
If
you don't do this and you just do loads of light high rep sets you are
NOT priming the muscle and body for action. Yes you've drawn blood into
the area but there's no stress on the CNS so the muscle is
not going to be ready for the demands you are about to place on it with
your working set weight, and as a result you will inevitably under
perform. The weight will feel heavy, you may fatigue sooner and arguably
your contractions on every rep won't be as good.
As
you move through the workout to other exercises for the same muscle
group, you don't need to repeat this process in theory as its already
"warm." However, you might want to do 1-2 sets purely to accustom
your body to that exercise/range of movement before going for your heavy
weight.
This
also depends on the exercise but if you are moving from squats to leg
press for instance on a "Week 1" where the weight is heavy and the reps
are low, it's always smart to build the weight gradually for multiple
reasons, safety being one of them along with mental preparation.
Now you know how to warm up properly ;-).
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