Critical Warmup Mistakes

Philip Pape 0:01

If you're jumping straight from walking into the gym to loading plates on the bar , you're making a critical systems error that is robbing you of strength and inviting injury . Most lifters think warming up is about getting loose or breaking a sweat , but your body operates like a complex system and trying to run high-performance tasks before properly initializing is a recipe for malfunction . Today , we're exposing why most warm-ups are either too long , too short or completely missing the point . You'll discover the engineering principle that explains what happens when you start lifting cold , how to design a boot sequence that primes your nervous system for peak performance , and why the difference between muscle soreness and actual pain could save your training career . Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , certified nutrition coach , philip Pape , and today we're tackling something that happens before you even touch your first working set in the gym , but might be the most critical part of your entire training session .

Philip Pape 1:16

Now most lifters approach warming up like it is a mystical ritual involving foam rollers , resistance bands , dynamic stretching . You know enough to choreograph a dancer team and , trust me , I've been there . I used to do CrossFit . Others treat it like an annoying speed bump between walking into the gym and getting to the real work . Let's just get this over with . But I think both approaches are flawed because they misunderstand the purpose of the warmup and what it needs to accomplish , which is what we're talking about today . The truth is that your body , like we talk about all the time on the show , is a sophisticated system . I've learned from hard knocks , my own injuries and surgeries and other bumps and bruises along the way , that it requires purpose and intentionality . And if we're to use an analogy of a computer , you need to initialize your operating system so that you can operate at peak performance . And if you skip the sequence or if you execute it in the wrong way , you're not just missing out on the gains , the reason that you're in the gym , but you're actually potentially holding your back and making it harder on your physiology , on your recovery .

Philip Pape 2:22

Now , before we get into the specifics of building up your warmup routine , I do want to share something that can help you systematize this and be very intentional about how you do it . Wits and Weights Physique University gives you those frameworks . We have a course called Lifting Lessons in our training templates course and it gives you chunks of practical recommendations on every one of these and it demos how to do different things , how to warm up , what to have in your gym bag , how to use a power rack , how to live safely , et cetera . And that's how I've structured it , because I've learned from personal experience , from coaching people , from training , what really works for these different things and how people get stuck when they want to go and start lifting weights . So if you're totally new to lifting , or if you've been lifting but you're not confident enough with some of these things , we can definitely help you there and we are relaunching at a much lower tier . It's $27 a month , used to be $87 a month and if you join using my link in the show notes , I'm going to build you a custom nutrition plan at no extra cost . It is a combination of nutrition , training and lifestyle in there A lot of great courses

The Cold Start Problem

Philip Pape 3:26

, no pressure , a good community , and it's going to help you get where you want to go . All right , let's talk about warming up and understanding what we're actually trying to solve here .

Philip Pape 3:37

In systems engineering , we have something called the cold start problem . When you power on a computer from a completely shut down state , it's cold , right , it doesn't immediately operate at its full capability . You've probably seen this with your own computer at home . If it's been off and you turn it up , it takes a while to kind of crunch on . You know , not everything is ready to go . There's just this lag there , right . The system has to load the operating system , it has to initialize drivers , allocate memory , synchronize all the components . And if you try to just jump into , like your video editor or some high performance application before it completes , you know it might crash , you might get an error , it might just really slow down until it's ready to go . Computers get better and better at handling all of this stuff .

Philip Pape 4:25

But if we think of your body as working the same way , I think it's a good analogy for this process from the time you walk into the gym to the time you lift . So when you walk into the gym , especially guys and girls , ladies who've been sitting at a desk all day , raise your hand , okay , or you just rolled out of bed . Because I train early in the morning , I do try to take some time to eat and read and kind of wake up mentally before I go to the gym . But not all of you have that luxury and some of you just jump right into it . Your musculoskeletal system and your nervous system , it's like they're powered down , it's like they have to have a cold start right . Your muscles are at a very low temperature , your joints don't have the synovial fluid circulating yet , your nervous system isn't yet primed for rapid force production , the kind of power that we put into place when we lift weights , and your motor patterns are a little bit sluggish and a little bit dormant . And so if you load heavy weight onto this unrepaired system , it again is like the analogy I just said trying to launch a really demanding program on a computer . That is still like trying to start up . You're asking for poor performance at best and a crash at worst . And I just I like this analogy . I nerd out on this stuff , if you don't just bear with me .

Philip Pape 5:37

So where most people screw it up , I'll say , is they either skip the warmup entirely . And I know some of you starting strength guys you're like , oh , I'll just jump right into the lift and warm up with the lift . Okay , I get it , and that might be part of the solution and there's still a way to warm up properly doing it that way . But that's one approach . Other extreme is I'm going to spend 20 or 30 minutes of my workout doing all the warmups , and this week I'm going to add in mobility , and then I'm going to add in breathing , and I'm going to add in dynamic stretching right , and it's like I have to do all this stuff and there's a nice happy medium , right ? We don't need to do all of this and we also don't need to skip everything .

Philip Pape 6:13

The fundamental principle here is that your warmup should be targeted for you , based on your needs and recoverability , and so I'm going to give you some options today . Think of it as having three distinct phases and think about the phases that you need and how long they need to

Three Phases of Effective Warming Up

Philip Pape 6:31

be . Some of these phases may be minimal to non-existent , and others may be the most helpful thing that you personally need in the gym . So phase one is the system power on . We're gonna use the computer analogy . This is the general warmup , and if you're like me , who lives in the Northeast , I train over over my garage where it's like 50 degrees in the winter . It is cold , I'm cold , my muscles are cold , and this is like three to five minutes at most of some sort of low intensity movement . Maybe you have a rower , maybe you have an assault bike like I do , maybe I have just walk around the gym . I don't want you to be running or sprinting at this point . Just keep it easy , light and warm yourself up . Just move .

Philip Pape 7:13

The goal isn't to break a sweat or to exhaust yourself . You're just increasing your core body temperature . You're getting your joints lubed up with a synovial fluid and if you're already warm , or if it's a warm day or you've been sweating , you know , then you could skip this . You could skip it . I mean honestly , if you're , if it's 4 PM , you've been working all day , you've been moving around , it's a , it's a pleasant day . You probably don't even need to warm up . You know . Increase your body temperature , that's it . So don't do the dynamic stretches or any of that stuff . Or you know you don't have to do jump ropes . You don't have to do leg skips , any of that . You don't have to . I mean , you could , obviously , but I'm not going to waste my power , my muscles or any of that on the warmup . I'm going to keep that for the lifting . So that's phase one . Phase two is like the hardware check right . So now you've warmed up , now you got to make sure things are operating right .

Philip Pape 8:05

This is where you prep your movement . You do maybe some targeted stuff if needed , and what I mean by that is maybe some stretching or mobility work . If you have , for example , limitation most people , especially the younger you are and if you don't have a history of any issues , you don't need any stretching at all . And some might argue that too much stretching could be a negative when you get under the bar right , because you kind of have almost an over-flexibility versus the kind of strong , slight springiness , stiffness if you will . But what you're looking for here is whether everything is moving and feeling good . Can you get into that squat position ? Can you reach overhead ? Is your low back feeling good ? Nothing feels like it's going to spring out of place .

Philip Pape 8:50

For those of us with a history of shoulder injuries or knee issues or whatever , do you need to throw on your compression sleeves at this point ? Do you need to do stretches under the bar right ? If you're squatting ? This is a really good one . It might mean grabbing the bar in the rack and just getting under and stretching into that squat position to warm up your shoulders . You know your thoracic rotation , just kind of making sure you've got that range of motion , Some wall slides . If you're talking about overhead pressing , your shoulders are very stiff .

Philip Pape 9:22

I can go on and on about shoulder stretching myself with bands and stuff . But again , you may not even need this . It's not about activation drills or elaborate movement sequences or pre-exercise or anything like that . It's just is your hardware functioning for the patterns that you are now going to load ? That's all it is . But I wanted to mention it because it's an important piece that I do think some people dismiss it as like , eh , nobody has to do that . No , some people do have to do that and I'm acknowledging that for you . But it doesn't have to be a crazy amount , just a little bit of stretching for a few minutes per your needs .

Philip Pape 9:58

And then the final phase , and this is the non-negotiable part . So again , phases one and two may be partly optional or totally optional for you . The final phase is the , I'll say , application-specific loading . So if we're gonna take the computer analogy but it also that term applies to our body this is where you perform the movement that you're going to train . That's it . You perform the movement you're going to train and you start light and you gradually increase the load until you reach your working weight , and you do that by starting with a higher number of reps at a very lightweight and then jumping up in reasonable increments higher weights , lower reps , taking a little bit of rest but not too much all the way until you're ready for the working sets .

Philip Pape 10:41

And so what does that look like in practice ? Let's say let's go with a big weight Just to give you the full Monty . Here You're going to deadlift 405 and that's your working set . Okay , and maybe it's singles or doubles or triples , doesn't matter whatever , you're 405 . So you're going to have a ramp up . It's going to look something like this you might start with the empty barbell . Now , granted , somebody lifting 405 may not start with the empty barbell , is probably going to jump right to 135 . But hey , it doesn't hurt .

Philip Pape 11:08

In fact , you can consider that part of phase two . That's like stretching into the movement right , start with the empty barbell , see how everything feels with your back , with your hip hinging , your knees , you know . Make sure the form is good . Another wrong with doing that it's going to take an extra minute or two . So you might start with the empty barbell for five or 10 reps . Do it once or twice , then you're going to take , you know , enough time to load 45s on the plate to warm up for 135 . And you might do that for five or eight , right ? I know starting strength has a model where it's like it's like five , five , three , two , one , but that's because they're going for fives . For you you might want to go with more reps at the lower weight and then you know , go eight , five , three , two , one , for example . Just just an idea . So you're dead lifting one , 35 or eight . Okay , add two more 45s , two , 25 for five . Add two more 45s , three , 15 for three .

Philip Pape 11:58

You notice I'm jumping , kind of it's not a tiny , it's not tiny jumps , it's it's reasonable jumps to kind of split the whole thing from empty bar to working weight into like five or six segments , right , so 315 for three . Then you add , maybe at that point you add the 25s , and do 365 for a double , and then you could jump to 405 right from there . Some people want to have a little extra single snuck in there , so you might jump to 385 for a single and then you're 405 , right , it's a little bit of an art , a little bit of a science . The point is you got to feel good , you have to feel warmed up , and so this allows you to gauge your movement readiness as you get to that point , which also helps you understand whether the weight's going to feel good , how you're going to perform right . It gives you a lot of aspects of self-regulation that people miss when they don't warm up properly or intentionally .

Philip Pape 12:50

So

Common Warmup Mistakes to Avoid

Philip Pape 12:51

notice what's happening here right . You're not just getting warm because that will warm you up by the way Like that alone will warm most people up . You're rehearsing the movement pattern . You're teaching your nervous system to coordinate all of the muscles involved and you're gradually loading the tissues to prepare them for heavier weight . You're recruiting more and more muscle fibers . You're just gradually kind of massaging out that muscle system , if you will .

Philip Pape 13:16

And so each ramp up set is both a warmup and a practice session , a skill development session , and so you treat them seriously . You don't just rush through each warmup set . You're thinking about your cues , your form , and because they're light , they allow you to screw up a little bit as you're getting over that morning . Or you know that initial clumsiness that we all have when we first start our warmup in the gym , which is great , because then , by the time you hit real serious weights , you're going to be solid , and this approach is supported by every credible strength coach . I know Eric Helms calls it movement-specific preparation . Greg Knuckles says that if you're going to do one thing , make it specific to what you're training . Mark Ripito of Starting Strength says that you warm up with the movement you're about to train . That's the warm-up . So it kind of is consistent , but it doesn't preclude doing some of the other things we talked about ahead of time if needed .

Philip Pape 14:09

Speaking of systemic approaches and intentionality , this is what we teach inside Physique University . Again , just to accelerate the process for you and in case you feel like you're still going to be guessing when you go to the gym , we've got a course that walks you through these and , of course , support and accountability so you can post and say hey , how do I warm up for my squat today ? I'm doing this at this weight . Is this what I should be doing ? Does this training program make sense ? You know , take out the guesswork , give you frameworks just 27 a month and I'm gonna throw in a custom nutrition plan today if you join using the special link in the show notes . If you go to the public website landing page , you get the same price , but you won't get the free plan . So use my link in the show notes .

Philip Pape 14:50

All right , let's address some of the biggest mistakes that I see with warmups , because you know it's good to know what not to do as well , cause everybody's thinking here who's watching ? Okay , that sounds great , but there are things that I've done for my warmup . Is it okay to do those ? Can I keep doing them ? Are they helpful ? And I think I think the biggest first mistake a lot of people have and it comes from like the bootcamp world , crossfit , f45 world is the everything warmup right , where you spend a lot of time with foam rolling , with dynamic stretches , with mobility on every single limb , maybe yoga positions activating muscles that are firing just fine on their own right . I got to activate my glute muscles . That's actually overloading yourself . You're doing too much before , like you're loading too many background tasks before launching the main application , to go back to the computer analogy , right . So that's the first mistake .

Philip Pape 15:46

Mistake number two is the other extreme , the nothing warmup . Go straight from the locker room to loading up , you know , maybe not the full working weight , but you go like half halfway there you do a warmup and then you load up the max on the bar , excuse me , right . And that's again like trying to run a graphics intensive game right after you turn on your computer . Right , you got to wait for everything to load up first . Mistake number three is , I'll say , the generic warmup . It's like this is my warmup . I do it all the time , right , it's the same routine , regardless of what you're training , and I would say that on a given day , based on what you're lifting , that the warmup is going to have to conform to get you ready for that . Yes , obviously , the lift itself will , by definition , do that for you . But even when you're like warming up joints and stuff , if I'm not doing any upper body , I'm not going to spend as much time loosening up my shoulder If I literally don't have to use my shoulder in almost any lift for the day . Like , why waste the time you don't really have to Understanding that there are systemic ? You know there are connections in the body that are systemic such that you sometimes do need to do that , but you've got to make a judgment call on that . So that's mistake number three .

Philip Pape 16:56

Mistake number four is another big one , and that is , I'll say , confusing warmups with therapy , right , like , in other words , like physical therapy , if you need 20 minutes of mobility work just to get into a squat position . I think that's more of a movement problem that has to be addressed separately . That's just my opinion . Even me , the guy with shoulder issues it doesn't take me that long to get ready to use my shoulder in a workout , knowing that the lift I'm going to apply next is appropriate for what I'm dealing with . If it's not appropriate , then you may feel like , geez , I need to do all of this stuff first to get into that position . That is just my opinion . You may disagree , you may have a specific limitation , you're like no , I really do 15 minutes , need 15 minutes . I'm just sharing like general mistakes people have where there could be something else going on and I alluded to this before .

Philip Pape 17:49

But the warmup is a diagnostic tool . It is giving you real-time feedback about how your body , your system , is functioning right now . Today , if your usual warm-up weights like if you're going for that 405 deadlift but the warm-up at 315 just feels really , really heavy for some reason If your movement quality is off , maybe you're just low on energy . You've been dieting , you didn't have enough sleep , the quality is off . Low on energy , you've been dieting , you didn't have enough sleep , the quality is off . If you have pain rather than the normal soreness or stiffness , right , pain that wasn't there before , and you're like what is this ? Your body is talking to you right then , and there , like that's a really good thing to listen , to listen to what's going on .

Philip Pape 18:30

I don't want you to make excuses , right , because sometimes it feels a little heavy and it's just because we're still warming up and then we go after the working weight and you know what we get the working weight . It's fine , right ? I'm not saying that . I'm saying that if something's off , something's just off , it might tell you something . And if you're in a dieting phase and you're using auto-regulated type programming like rep ranges ,

Customizing Warmups for Different Scenarios

Philip Pape 18:51

that may be the thing that's telling you . This is what I need to hit today for the reps or for the weight or for the RP or RIR . Right , I would say that's more of an advanced kind of thing , but the warmup can help with that .

Philip Pape 19:03

And so one more thing comes to mind now that I think about it is the difference between soreness or delayed onset , muscle soreness , doms and pain , because I think some people confuse it too . Yes , I want you to warm up . If you have soreness , try warming up and seeing if you're good to go . But if it's an acute pain , a sharp pain , something that doesn't improve as you warm up , pain that gets worse as you're loading into the warmup , pains that's sharper , radiating pain that creates instability or you're compensating for because it just feels so weak , again it's telling you something and that is the point at which you're able to make a decision and do something about it . Okay , and some of us who've dealt with injuries and surgeries , we get really good at understanding whether our body's ready for something on a given day .

Philip Pape 19:51

And it may not be that you just don't train . My preference is you train around it or you train something different . Right , if my back is like super sore and fatigued , even on a very light squat , I'm like well , you know , I remember in the past this has caused me to like have a flare up right . This is back in the day when I had a herniated disc , I don't know . So I don't get the pain , but it might tell me to hey , maybe I shouldn't be doing this today because it's right on the cusp . I'm going to do a different . Maybe a couple accessory lifts , like a leg press right and an RDL or something to work similar muscle groups .

Philip Pape 20:26

So the warmup isn't just for prep , it's a really good diagnostic and then , when it reveals problems , you then have options right . Reducing the intensity , working around with different exercises yes , maybe skipping training I think that's the last resort . But the key here is to listen to the feedback that your body , your system provides and not just push through the warning signals . And that's not just me giving you a disclaimer , that's like really good practical advice . Now , if you're trying to customize your warmup for different scenarios , I wanted to give you some options here , because I know what your next question is like .

Philip Pape 20:59

Well , what if I work out in the morning ? Well , what if I do this ? So morning sessions usually require a little more warmup . That's just the fact of it . Your nervous system is sluggish , your joints are stiffer , your core temperature is lower and you just may need to do a little bit extra , but not much , you know . An extra couple minutes , right ? An extra ramp up set , something like that . And , by the way , once you're warmed up and have done a lift similar muscle groups that are being used for subsequent exercises you may not need to be warm up nearly as much . I always have one warm up set , you know , and subsequent lifts , unless it's super isolating , like a bicep curl , and even then I still might do a warmup set just to kind of prime things and then I can really hit it hard for the working set right . But an extra minute or two if needed , great , go for it .

Philip Pape 21:46

If you are older right over 30 , over 40 , over 50 , you know it's not really an age thing so much as a personal recovery thing you might benefit from more conservative jumps between the warmup weights . Your tissues may need , you know , more gradual loading . Hold on , I'm having tech issues on my end . Your tissues may need more gradual loading to reach the readiness versus when you were in your twenties , right , so you know the synovial fluid , the joints , the connective tissue . But again , don't use that as an excuse to go with a 20-minute warm-up .

Philip Pape 22:20

If you're later in the day but you've been sitting all day or you're stressed to the brim right , which many of us are from our work , your movement quality could be compromised from that . It's very interesting because I work out in the morning almost always , but occasionally I'll have to work out in the afternoon to move things around and I just feel different . I actually don't feel as energized , I feel a little bit sluggish . My body's not used to it . So simply being in a different context or different gym , different day of the week , different time , you really just have to think about . Should my warmup be a little bit more intentional today ? Right . Should I target anything more intentionally ? Right , but keep it specific to what you've identified not undoing everything and warming up for 30 minutes If you have a max effort day . If you're going for a PR , right .

Philip Pape 23:06

The warmup for that kind of lift is really critical . You want to be meticulous about the ramp up . You might want to take smaller jumps , but you don't want to over fatigue yourself for that single . But you might want to have a few singles near the target weight , but not too close to the target weight . It's like you're priming your nervous system to perform but you're not overstressing it . Definitely a little bit of art as well as science , but it is one of the most common questions I see , both in physique university and with my coach , andy Baker .

Philip Pape 23:35

People ask like okay , how do I warm up to hit a PR ? And my simplest explanation for that is you're going to warm up like any other lift . You might have an extra single or two . Don't make the last single too close to your last PR , right , keep it like some distance away and then go for a small PR , like , don't do a single that's near your PR already , cause that might tax you out too much . Where you can't hit a PR , give some room , take the time , the three , the four , the five minutes break and then go for that single , that max at your , you know , five pound PR , 10 pound or two and a half pound PR , whatever it is , just to give yourself the best chance of actually getting it . Now , if you miss it , you miss it . If you , but you gave yourself a chance , if you hit it and you feel great , then maybe that's a warmup for an even higher PR . That's just one more single in the way , and now you can take another three , four or five minute break and then hit another PR , right . But if it feels tough or a grind , stay there , like , like , take the wind , take the PR . That's the general philosophy for that .

Philip Pape 24:39

So I mentioned I mentioned earlier at one point , how our body

Warmups as Diagnostic Tools

Philip Pape 24:44

is systemic . Right , things are connected and I didn't want to forget to mention this . But you're , when you're warming up , right , when you've got the movement patterns and you're priming your nervous system , there's a lot of communication going on . Right , the muscles are an endocrine organ . That means hormones and signals involved , chemical signals , and so when you are ramping up those warmups you're already starting to get one of the benefits that I've talked about before about lifting , which is muscles that release signaling molecules called myokines and they help coordinate this response throughout your body . It is chemical messengers that response throughout your body . It is chemical messengers that are telling your body get ready for what's about to come . Because you're already kind of doing it right . You're warming up , doing those patterns , but you're doing them light . So it's nice because what you can do is now prime your whole system to increase your blood flow , to increase the firing of your nervous system , to tell your brain like we're ready to go and get focused here and like dial in that motor control , that mind muscle connection . So the warmup prepares your muscles and joints and whole body communication to optimize your performance when you're ready to go at it . So that's also why movement , specific warmups are so much more effective than just a general warmup . And then just jumping into the lift is to activate those neural pathways right , and the signal cascades all of that . So we just talked about all right .

Philip Pape 26:06

So bottom line here , I think I covered everything I wanted to regarding warmups . Basically , the warmup is an important thing . It's not just increasing your temperature to getting loose , right , it's getting ready and getting feedback and diagnostic . It's not breaking a sweat , it's , you know , booting up that whole system so that you can hit it hard with the lift and do it safely and avoid injury . And the warmup should be individualized , just like your training program . It should be just like your goals . It it should be just like your goals . It should be intelligent , like the approach you take with everything else in the gym .

Philip Pape 26:42

It is part of your training program , that's it . Whether it has to be pre-programmed for you , that's up to you and how much precision you want there . Some coaches will do that . Some people like to pre log what their warmup is going to look like . I don't think that's a bad idea when you're getting started , just to kind of take the thinking out of it when you get into the gym . And they're not a waste of time at all , as long as you don't waste time , right , they're not a waste of time unless you waste time . Unless you waste time is what I think I said . Right , it's , it's intentional and it gives you valuable information about how you are functioning and then you can pay attention to it and then adjust . That's it . Then you can go after PRs , then you can have healthy joints , then you can have safe lifting , then you're gonna feel confident , then you're gonna get the gains , and all because you took a few minutes to do this the right way .

Philip Pape 27:30

All right , if you enjoyed this episode , I wanted to mention episode 234 , which was

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Philip Pape 27:41

from a while ago . It's called Never Fall Off Track Again with your Fitness or Fat Loss . It's about risk management principles , because I think warming up is a really solid risk management strategy , and that episode talked even more about risk management for everything that we do . So it's episode 234 . I'll include the link in the show notes . Until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember , in lifting , proper initialization prevents system failures and malfunctions . This is Philip Pape and you've been listening to Wits and Weights . I'll talk to you next time .