App warm up calculator rant
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awkwardsoul
Posts: 222 Member
I was researching before my last session on whether I should switch to 3x5 early as my lifts are beating me up, especially since I'm juggling too many being work weight all the time. What came up was some forum comments that SL makes you do too many warm up sets.
I realized yeah, I always modified the app/SL website warm up suggestions early on my SL time as it never seemed enough - my knees would feel stiff/cold or my arms didn't quite remember what the hell I was supposed to do. Upon reading SL has too many warm up sets, I realized since now I'm hauling more weight, EVERY time the app had me do an new set of squat warm ups I would fail the work weight out of getting tired.
So for my last session for 205lb squat I cut out one warm up set entirely (I seriously cannot tell the difference in squatting 45 to 95lbs so what was the point of doing 95?) and did less on the higher weight (175lbs). I was lucky I felt some balance of I feel warmed up in form, without being tired. I did shorter rests on squats and didn't feel tired until the last set, which seemed more reasonable than being gassed on the second or third set.
Example of too little in warm ups in the SL App:
OHP and Bench - until 65lbs, the app does not have you doing a warm up. No 45lb bar or nothing.
OHP/Bench 90lbs. Warm up - 2x5 of 45lbs. That's it. WTF! I know for my male friends who did SL, OHP/Benching around 70-80 is pretty easy so this was a non-issue for them.
Once you can OHP/bench 95lbs you will finally get a set of a 65lb warm ups. OUCH WTF!
Example of too many warm up sets in the SL App:
Squat 225lbs. Warm up - 2x5 45lbs, 1x5 95lbs, 1x5 135lbs, 1x3 185lbs, 1x2 205lbs. I did this and it sucked.
Rows 105lbs. Warm up - 1x5 95lbs. Note usually one does bench press first. Under 105lbs there is no warm up for rows, but 105lb is the magic number that the app says "bench was the warm up". If your bench and rows are close in weight this is killer in adding another heavy "warm up" set.
Undecided:
Deadlift - Seems at DL 175lbs you'll get an extra warm up - 165lbs, geeze 10lbs less! Oh and it's 5 reps too! Before that it's 1x5 135lbs once you can deadlift 155. I feel it's too close to work weight, but at the same time I personally feel I don't deadlift enough so form took longer to learn. No happy medium.
I feel bad for all the new lady SL lifters who are clueless and just following the app. It already sucks with the weight being high to start, you need to adjust OHP (maybe bench) to increase less right off the bat but also the warm up sets are pretty bad. I dunno how to fix it for newer lifters as it seems an experience thing of knowing your body. I figure what I can do is on check ins here I'll start listing my warm up sets so maybe that'll provide some example. Any other suggestions?
TLDR: SL App's warm up calculations are either too little geared for men thinking one should comfortably lift that work weight, or too many warm up sets causing you to crash during work weight. Side note - if you were thinking of purchasing the power pack just for the warm up sets, I don't recommend it, save your $10.
I realized yeah, I always modified the app/SL website warm up suggestions early on my SL time as it never seemed enough - my knees would feel stiff/cold or my arms didn't quite remember what the hell I was supposed to do. Upon reading SL has too many warm up sets, I realized since now I'm hauling more weight, EVERY time the app had me do an new set of squat warm ups I would fail the work weight out of getting tired.
So for my last session for 205lb squat I cut out one warm up set entirely (I seriously cannot tell the difference in squatting 45 to 95lbs so what was the point of doing 95?) and did less on the higher weight (175lbs). I was lucky I felt some balance of I feel warmed up in form, without being tired. I did shorter rests on squats and didn't feel tired until the last set, which seemed more reasonable than being gassed on the second or third set.
Example of too little in warm ups in the SL App:
OHP and Bench - until 65lbs, the app does not have you doing a warm up. No 45lb bar or nothing.
OHP/Bench 90lbs. Warm up - 2x5 of 45lbs. That's it. WTF! I know for my male friends who did SL, OHP/Benching around 70-80 is pretty easy so this was a non-issue for them.
Once you can OHP/bench 95lbs you will finally get a set of a 65lb warm ups. OUCH WTF!
Example of too many warm up sets in the SL App:
Squat 225lbs. Warm up - 2x5 45lbs, 1x5 95lbs, 1x5 135lbs, 1x3 185lbs, 1x2 205lbs. I did this and it sucked.
Rows 105lbs. Warm up - 1x5 95lbs. Note usually one does bench press first. Under 105lbs there is no warm up for rows, but 105lb is the magic number that the app says "bench was the warm up". If your bench and rows are close in weight this is killer in adding another heavy "warm up" set.
Undecided:
Deadlift - Seems at DL 175lbs you'll get an extra warm up - 165lbs, geeze 10lbs less! Oh and it's 5 reps too! Before that it's 1x5 135lbs once you can deadlift 155. I feel it's too close to work weight, but at the same time I personally feel I don't deadlift enough so form took longer to learn. No happy medium.
I feel bad for all the new lady SL lifters who are clueless and just following the app. It already sucks with the weight being high to start, you need to adjust OHP (maybe bench) to increase less right off the bat but also the warm up sets are pretty bad. I dunno how to fix it for newer lifters as it seems an experience thing of knowing your body. I figure what I can do is on check ins here I'll start listing my warm up sets so maybe that'll provide some example. Any other suggestions?
TLDR: SL App's warm up calculations are either too little geared for men thinking one should comfortably lift that work weight, or too many warm up sets causing you to crash during work weight. Side note - if you were thinking of purchasing the power pack just for the warm up sets, I don't recommend it, save your $10.
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Replies
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I found the same problem, so I just play with my warm ups till I get a comfortable mean. For example, with deadlift, I'll do bare bar x5; 95# x5; 135 x5; 185 x3, then work weight. My OHPs suck, so it's just 5x bare bar to get the motion set, then my weenie weight of 65#. Squats are kinda between; I'll do 2-3 warmup sets then work weight (which is now sadly low, d/t a month out of the gym followed by a week of strep throat). I agree- don't waste funds buying the SL warmup program.0
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The SL app in general sounds horrible, so I agree that it's probably best one doesn't spend money on it.
As far as warm-ups go I think each person has to find what works for them. I wouldn't automatically caution against too many or too few sets. For most people I would say 2-5 warm up sets are probably a good starting point, but other than that it's hard to say. If you train in the morning, or just have creaky joints it's going to take more to get that synovial fluid nice and warm. I typically have 4 warm up squat sets, 4 for deadlift, 3 for bench, and 3 for ohp, but I run a 531 variation so I then have 3 increasing work sets with the first one or two feeling more like a warm up still.0 -
Glad to see this lost bc I want wondering about the warmup on the app. I'll just keep doing what feels right for me.0
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Like most things stronglifts, I take it as guidelines. I also found warmups to be a little off (too little on some, too much on others). To be fair I use a wendlers app and I find the same thing with the warm ups.0
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I used to do the Wendler warm-up progression a lot (and would add a set at 45 to begin just for groove pattern function whatever). 30, 40, 50% of work weight 5, 5, 3. Now I just kinda wing it, but technically will only have 3-4 warm-up sets tops, including the first one I get to (at this point, I'll typically start my squats around 75 unless I'm at the very beginning of a workout).
I've learned to ramp up without wiping myself out a lot with the "12 min to 1RM" stuff I've had to do, I guess. But I basically will just do a progression where my last 2 sets are either 2-3 reps or even a single if I'm doing heavy doubles.
Now if I was to squat to 205 I'd prolly have 5 warm-up sets. Something like 75x5, 115x5, 135x3, 165x3, 195x1?
Depends on how I feel that day.
As llama said, you can use those apps as a guidelines, but don't follow to the T. Warm-ups are a pretty contextual and personal thing.0
