Here is what I do. This may or may not work for you. I typically do 531 so there is a squat day, bench day, ohp day, and deadlift day.

If I go after work or on the weekend I don't do any cardio. If I go before work I haven't even had coffee so I do some cardio to sort of wake up, but only like 3-5 minutes. Plus I started going before work in Nov-ish so it's always cold, and I need to literally warm up.

Then I do my Joe Defranco warm up. If it's lower body day I do modified limber 11, modified simple 6, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lnqtibxboo when I say modified I take out things where it doesn't work for me for some reason. Like I never feel the stretch on the shoulder capsule stretch so why bother. I also add in quad rolling and this calf stretch which really seems to help me squat better, and also helped with shin splints http://maxpotentialsports.com/2013/07/29/preventing-shin-splints/ If it's an upper body day I'll do them all if I have time, but if not then I just do the simple 6 and shoulder health. Everything combined takes me 10-12 minutes. Maybe 15 if I'm really feeling a certain stretch.

NOW IT IS TIME FOR LIFT! Probably the best way to go about things is percentage based, but I'm lazy so I use plate math. I generally go up by full plates or 25's on lower body lifts (which is 40-50 lbs jump), but I've been at this a while. The simplest way is to start with the bar, and then go from 40-50% of your working weight for the day and jump by 10-15% ish each time. I prefer to do sets of 5 on all my warmups, but the closer you get to your working weight the lower reps you really need to do. So if your squat is say 150 you could do 45x5, 85x5, 105x3, 125x3 135x1 then 150 5x5. For something that is much closer to the bar weight say OHP which might be at 60 lbs you could do 45 2x5, 50x3, 55x1 then 60 5x5. There's really only a couple advantages to warming up with bigger jumps 1. If you compete or plan on competing in strongman or powerlifting where you will have to make big jumps during competition. or 2. saves time int he gym.

Um, as far as warm-up sets I like the Wendler 5/3/1 progression (40, 50, 60% of training max, 5/5/3 reps). Obv. I go in a bit more by feel than exact percentages (plate switching can get tedious) but say for squats, if my working set is 150, I'll do 45x5-8 (depending on how I feel), 75x5, 105x5, 135x3. Deadlifts? Say working set is 200 I'll go 95x5, 135x5, 165x3, 185x2. Benchpress @ 120? 45x5-8, 65x5, 95x5, 105x3. OHP @ 75 would go 35x5, 55x5, 65x3.

As for stretching, the sumo squat stretch is pretty awesome, and so is the long lunge or whatever it's called. And for the lower back, I'd say some yoga moves here could be your best allies. Cat cow, child's pose, broken table/bird dog (yeah, weird name), hip flexor kneeling stretch...

You might wanna look up DeFranco's Limber 11 or Agile 8. That routine is pretty good as far as lower body mobility. Also, if you don't know him yet, look up Kelly Starret (Kstarr) and his mobility WODs. LOTS of great info there. I need to spend more time on his stuff personally!

I would think that if you walk to the gym, you probably don't need the minutes on the treadmill.

I like doing lift warmups too, but tend to stick with just a couple of sets before my working weight. I also just follow what the app says. So, I'm at 135 lbs. on squats and here are the recommended warmups:

2x5 @ 45 lbs
1x3 @ 95 lbs.
1x3 @‌ 115 lbs.
Working sets @ 135 lbs.

As the weight gets heavier, I find that doing a few reps rather than a full set of 5 works better for me. I think about it as moving my body in the "right" way as preparation for the working sets, not about adding volume, you know?

I also save my stretching for after my workouts.

AbsoluteTara79 wrote: »

I need to research this. I haven't really been warming up much and I know that I should. But when the rack is open when I get there, I feel like I just need to snatch it up.

As long as you do warm up sets you should be fine. I just do mobility as a warm up because if not I don't get it done, and then I hurt.

i am really being pressured by my chiropractor to stretch after lifting - not in preference to stretching before, but 'definitely do it afterwards even if you skip the warmup.' his (and his backup buddy's) position in it is 'we' - him and his medical community or something, i guess - are finding that post-workout stretching encourages the body to build 'a better quality of tissue' in the muscles that have been worked. i will say that a similar idea seemed to make a good difference to my recovery rates from whiplash decades ago. at that point the advice was to make sure i stretched when i woke up in the morning, because your body spends the night building new muscle fibres and dumping them into the general zone that they belong in, but stretching while they're still new 'trains' them to align themselves smoothly with the muscle you already have. less of that clumped-up bunchy scar tissue, kind of idea.

so i'm complying for now on the cooldown stretching with good results so far, and i'll let you guys know how that goes.

I would march all around my house just to get a little warm (early am workouts), then do dynamic stretching and some of the moves from agile 8--particularly the hydrant hip circles help me with mobility. Then a few warm up sets, then workout. I had gotten into the habit of really stretching and foam rolling afterwards and found it made a huge difference in reducing the DOMS.

i use empty-bar warmups as well, as a way of checking to see how in-the-game my head is wrt my form before i get started for real. stretching sets up mobility, but the light reps during warmup are more for kind of initiating all the muscles i'm planning to use.

i could justify it with something technical like 'priming them with a bit of lactic acid' or getting the neurons firing or something, but i just think of it as the same thing that happens when i unplug my ip modem and then plug it back in. seventeen different cycles of different combinations of lights going on and off while it checks all its own circuits, and then it kicks in.