How to Warm Up for Strength Training

Some people really overcomplicate their warm-ups.

I’m not sure if this is a global trend or just isolated to Japan, but I get questions in the comments about it often enough that it makes me think we have a worldwide issue.

Take the gym I train at as an example. They’ve just expanded the matted flooring area for stretching due to such popular demand. It’s now not uncommon to find an equal number of bodies lying on there as there are down the iron end of the gym.

Do they all have issues that require a 30-minute complex of body pretzeling before hitting the weights?

I think not.

The majority are just mimicking others, avoiding getting the real work done.

I’m going to throw out a hot take: if your warm-up takes you longer than 20 minutes, you’re doing it wrong. Almost certainly, you’ve got some unnecessary stuff in there, unless you have some unique issues.

How To Warm Up

Here’s the low-fuss version of how to warm up (and how I do it myself).

1. Do some light cardio until you break a sweat.

I do 6.5 km/h on a 7-degree inclined treadmill. This takes me ~5 minutes in summer, ~8 minutes in winter, and it passes in the blink of an eye as I answer Instagram comment trolls. The increase in body temperature will help with blood flow and flexibility, and reduce injury risk.

2. Stretch any tight areas as necessary to gain a full range of motion.

You may find that you can skip this. Many people will find that performing a few warm-up sets will work to stretch them sufficiently well. If you feel a difference from using a lacrosse ball or foam roller for ‘myofascial release,’ feel free, but don’t spend so long on the floor doing it that you get cold.

3. For each exercise, perform as many warm-up sets as needed so that you’re ready for your working sets, but avoid being fatigued in a way that detracts from them.

This will typically be 2–4 warm-up sets for the squat, bench, deadlift, and similarly complex compound exercises.

Once a muscle group is warm (you’ve already trained it in that session), 1–2 warm-up sets will typically be sufficient. This will also help build the ‘mind-muscle connection,’ so do it even if you feel you don’t need it. So, for example, if you’ve just squatted and your next exercise is the leg press, two warm-up sets will likely be sufficient, assuming you’re familiar with that piece of equipment. Similarly, if you’ve just done a set of chin-ups, you don’t likely need more than one (or possibly two) warm-up set(s) for your rows.

Keep it simple. Add something in only when necessary to get the job you came to the gym for done.

For a more detailed look at warming up, here’s an excerpt from the 3rd edition of The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training, which I co-authored with Dr. Eric Helms and Andrea Valdez.

The Purposes of a Warm-Up

The purposes of a warm-up are to prepare you for the training to come, potentially enhancing performance, and hopefully reducing injury risk. One of the primary mechanisms by which a warm-up achieves this is by raising body temperature, which has beneficial physiological effects that include increasing muscle blood flow and oxygen availability, and also increasing the speed and sensitivity of the neuromuscular system [1].

Does Stretching Have a Role?

While stretching to enhance flexibility is traditionally performed as part of a warm-up, static stretching to the point where flexibility increases acutely prior to training can reduce strength and power [2]. This makes sense if you think about it: making a muscle-tendon unit more compliant and forcing it to “relax” so that it elongates intuitively conflicts with the goal of making it contract forcefully. Some have argued that this short-term performance drop may be worth it if stretching reduces injury risk, but while warm-ups in general (including stretching of any type) reduce injury risk [3], a 2025 meta-analysis of 15 trials with over 9,000 participants found no independent effect of stretching alone [4].

On the other hand, ‘dynamic’ stretching warm-ups (active bodyweight stretching drills) can actually slightly increase muscular performance. However, static stretching may be useful in cases where you want a targeted improvement in flexibility for a specific joint prior to training that is challenging to achieve with a dynamic warm-up. For example, if tight calves prevent a full ROM squat without rising onto the toes or causing an early “butt wink,” static calf stretching has a clear application.

Fortunately, the data also indicates that combining static and dynamic stretching in warm-up routines, if dynamic stretching is performed last, also improves performance. This approach is especially useful for athletes with high mobility demands, such as weightlifters, where greater depth in the snatch or clean & jerk allows heavier lifts, or powerlifters who need extra ROM to achieve pain-free bar positioning (e.g., tight pecs or shoulders in the low-bar squat, or tight triceps/forearms in the clean-grip front squat). In each case, static and/or dynamic stretching prior to training may be appropriate. So long as stretching concludes with a dynamic approach, there will be no harm and likely a small benefit.

In practice:

• If you need flexibility in a muscle you aren’t training (e.g., pecs and delts during low-bar squats), static stretch freely, as its reduced contractile force won’t matter.
• If you need flexibility in a muscle you are training: if the ROM requirement is minor, brief static stretching (<60 s) not taken to discomfort is fine, but it won’t meaningfully increase flexibility. For greater needs, follow static stretching with dynamic stretching, or use an extended, lift-specific warm-up, gradually increasing ROM each rep.
• Foam rolling for ~60 s with moderate pressure can also increase ROM and, like dynamic stretching, may slightly boost performance [5].

Thus, you can do static stretching, dynamic stretching, or foam rolling in a warm-up, so long as it doesn’t conclude with long-duration static stretching, to get beneficial effects on performance and slightly reduce injury risk. Ultimately, however, stretching (of any type) is only necessary if you have specific mobility requirements that lifting itself doesn’t address.

Lifting as Stretching

Lifting itself improves ROM. Full-ROM lifting is essentially loaded dynamic stretching. A 2023 meta-analysis of 55 studies involving 2,756 participants found no significant difference in ROM improvements between resistance training and stretching [6]. Ironically, or perhaps obviously, in most cases, lifting through a full ROM is all you need to maintain or develop it. The key is to perform warm-up sets with gradually increasing loads until you reach the desired ROM, rather than jumping straight into heavy sets before mobility is sufficient (which can lead to compensation at other joints).

There are, however, situations where lifting isn’t ideal for improving ROM. In certain lifts, especially for those with limited mobility, performing the movement at all, even with light loads, may be impossible. This is common in weightlifting variations like cleans, snatches, overhead squats, front squats with a clean grip, or squat jerks, where the bar cannot be kept over the center of mass without adequate mobility. Even if a lifter can move the weight while out of position, doing so is counterproductive, as it ingrains poor technique in these skill-dependent lifts. In such cases, static stretching, dynamic stretching, dowel-based dynamic warm-ups, foam rolling, or a combination of these strategies may be needed before warm-up sets.

Finally, in competition (e.g., weightlifting or powerlifting meets), foam rolling, static stretching, and certain dynamic stretches may be preferable to lifting as a way to improve ROM. This can reduce the number of warm-up sets needed, helping preserve maximal strength and minimize fatigue.

Optimizing Your Warm-Up for Performance

Again, the main mechanism by which a warm-up improves performance (and potentially reduces injury risk) is physiological changes directly and indirectly related to raising body temperature (both core and tissue-specific temperature). Traditionally, this has meant doing a general warm-up (e.g., light jogging or cycling) followed by a sport-specific warm-up (e.g., dynamic stretching and warm-up sets). In reality, this sequence is only necessary if it’s what it takes to get warm.

Dynamic stretching alone has been shown to consistently improve performance when it lasts ~7–10 minutes, likely because it’s enough to raise temperature. If you warm up slowly or train in a cold environment, adding 5–10 minutes of low-intensity aerobic activity beforehand can help.

A dynamic warm-up consists of bodyweight, active-movement drills that move joints through their range, gradually increasing ROM and force. If you skip the general aerobic warm-up, make sure your dynamic warm-up is full-body and takes 7–10 minutes.

For strength and physique athletes, the “sport-specific” portion of the warm-up is your warm-up sets. Perform more warm-up sets on the first exercise for each muscle group. Then, a single warm-up set is often all that’s needed for subsequent free-weight exercises for that muscle to familiarize the movement, and on machines, you may not need any more warm-up sets. Again, your warm-up could conceivably consist of only these sport-specific warm-up sets with no general or dynamic warm-up. This, however, depends on the person, the time of day they train, their climate, gym environment, presence or lack of DOMS, and personal preference. Consider that sessions are generally organized with multi-joint, free-weight exercises first, and even warm-up sets are loaded, so sport-specific warm-up sets can get you warmer more quickly than dynamic stretching. Thus, if you perform your warm-ups with intent (increasing ROM and concentric speed as you go), it’s often enough to get the job done.

Research supports specific warm-ups for lifting, though the effects are mixed. Some studies find no improvement [7, 8, 9], while others show slight gains in velocity, total work, or reps to failure, with the most consistent benefit occurring after 1–2 warm-up sets with a moderate load (60–80% of the working weight) [10, 11].

Another related concept is post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE), which refers to the acute improvement in sprint, jump, or resistance training performance 5–15 minutes after a heavy set (e.g., squats for several reps at ≥80% 1RM). A 2025 systematic review by Botton [12] summarized the effects of PAPE on subsequent repetitions to failure in the squat, bench press, and leg press. They reported enhancement in six of nine included studies, with reps to failure improved by ~1–7 when an effect was observed. However, in most studies, the improvement was only ~1–2 reps.

Taking a broader look at athletic task performance after PAPE, Xu and colleagues [13] concluded that PAPE can lead to small performance improvements in their 2025 meta-analysis of 62 studies with a collective 1,039 participants. However, they noted the effects likely overlap, at least in part, with warm-ups broadly.

The underlying mechanisms behind PAPE are still being investigated, but PAPE may improve performance independent of a warm-up effect by enhancing neuromuscular, metabolic, or energy conditions in muscle, or psychological readiness, ultimately enhancing force production [13, 14]. Protocols that most consistently enhance resistance training back-off set performance consist of 1–2 sets of 1–3 reps with ~85–90% of 1RM. The good news is that the singles performed in our Strength Progression System fit this bill, likely providing a slight boost to subsequent sets.

Considering all of this, the table below is a sample warm-up to perform before training. Feel free to personalize it — the goal is to increase core temperature and prepare your muscles for the forces and range of motion your working sets require, so treat several of these components as optional depending on your own physiology, preferences, and training environment.

» Reference List

1. Shellock, F.G., Prentice W.E. Warming-up and stretching for improved physical performance and prevention of sports-related injuries. Sports Med, 1985. 2(4): p. 267–78.
2. Li, F.Y., Guo, C.G., Li, H.S., Xu, H.R., Sun, P. A systematic review and net meta-analysis of the effects of different warm-up methods on the acute effects of lower limb explosive strength. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil, 2023. 15(1): p. 106.
3. Bunn, P.D.S., Sodré, R.D.S., Matos, M.I., et al. Effects of prevention programmes on injury risk in military personnel: a systematic review with meta-analysis. BMJ Mil Health, 2024. 170(6): p. 529–36.
4. Afonso, J., Martins, R., Thapa, R.K., Lohmann, L.H., Andrade, R., Behm, D., et al. How effective is stretching for injury prevention? A large-scale systematic review with meta-analysis. OSF Preprints, 2025.
5. Konrad, A., Tilp, M., Nakamura, M. A Comparison of the Effects of Foam Rolling and Stretching on Physical Performance. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Physiol. 2021;12:720531.
6. Alizadeh, S., Daneshjoo, A., Zahiri, A., et al. Resistance Training Induces Improvements in Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med, 2023. 53(3): p. 707–22.
7. Ribeiro, A.S., Romanzini, M., Schoenfeld, B.J., Souza, M.F., Avelar, A., Cyrino, E.S. Effect of different warm-up procedures on the performance of resistance training exercises. Percept Mot Skills, 2014. 119(1): p. 133–45.
8. Lisboa, F., Kassiano, W., Stavinski, N., et al. Effects of static stretching and specific warm-up on the repetition performance in upper- and lower-limb exercises in resistance-trained older women. Aging Clin Exp Res, 2024. 37(1): p. 14.

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