Warm-Up Exercises: The Easy Guide for Weightlifting, Cardio, and Calisthenics
Warming up before a workout is an essential activity that is often skipped, yet it plays a crucial role in the principles of exercise. A proper warm-up increases heart rate and body temperature, promotes joint fluidity, and prepares the nervous system. If you are lifting weights or doing a cardio or calisthenics routine, a proper warm-up reduces the risk of injury and early fatigue and improves performance.
A proper warm-up increases blood circulation and blood to the muscles and joints. Research demonstrates that while stretching is important, a more active warm-up prepares the body better for the work ahead. For most workouts a combined warm-up of stretching and targeted active movements for around five to ten minutes works best to achieve maximum performance. The content below breaks down exactly how to do this for three categories of workouts: weightlifting, cardio, and rep-only/calisthenics.
Common Warm-Up Mistakes to Avoid
Even dedicated gym-goers and athletes undermine their warm-up routine by making these errors:
- Skipping the warm-up entirely: Going from rest to heavy exertion shocks the muscles and joints and results in immediate injury that can take months to recover from.
- Only stretching before training: Long passive stretches before a workout can reduce strength and stability and are best saved for a post-workout wind-down.
- Warming up too fast: Warming up too fast can wind you before you have even started your first exercise.
- Using the wrong exercises: Your warm-up must match the movement patterns of your workout.
- Not activating stabilizers gradually: When loading for major lifts, if you go too high too soon, you can risk injury to stabilizer muscles.
Warm-Up for Weightlifting
Weightlifting demands stability, mobility, and joint readiness, especially in the shoulders, hips, and core, depending on the muscle group you are targeting. A proper lifting warm-up prepares your body to generate enough force for the lift safely without injury.
- Step 1 - Basic Cardio Warm-Up: A Treadmill Jog or a two-interval Interval Sprints is the most basic requirement before hitting the weights. If you are only doing upper body exercises, the rowing machine is also an ideal candidate.
- Step 2 - Exercise Specific Warm-Up Sets: Depending on how much weight you lift, one or two warm-up sets at 25% and 50% of your one-rep max for that exercise are ideal before you start putting on the increased weight loads.
- Chest Specific Warm-ups: International Chest Day is usually the first day of any standard workout routine and is prone to neck pain and rotator cuff injuries. Read our guides on how to prevent rotator cuff injuries during chest workouts and avoid neck pain on chest day
Warm-Up for Cardio
- Walk or Slow Jog: The gold standard before any cardio routine is a brisk walk or a slow Treadmill Jog for five minutes.
Warm-Up for Calisthenics
- Full Body Movement Warm-up: Air Squats or Jumping Jacks are good full-body warm-ups if you don't have access to a treadmill for a home workout. Also acceptable is a brisk walk around the block.
Stretching
A note on stretching: Stretching is best done before cardio or in-between weightlifting or reps only exercises or sets because as you contract your muscles, stiffness will set in.
Conclusion
Warming up before a workout is a small but important time investment. Sometimes it's easy to skip because of busy schedules; however, the investment is worth it to prevent injury, which could set your workouts back for months while recovering. If you commit to a focused warm-up before every workout, your strength and performance are guaranteed to improve.