Heavier warmups

[Dror]

Hi,
I’ve recently took another look in the book and realized I am not choosing my warmups as it says.

I got a couple of years of experience weight training (nothing crazy but also not a true newbie) so I just continued doing what I was used to because I was stupid and didn’t read some parts from the back before getting back on the program.

So basically my warmups have been looking like so:

2X5X20 KG (empty bar)
1X5X60
1X5X100
1X5X120
1X5X135
1X5X142.5
3X5X147.5

This is copied from my note I wrote before the workout but in fact the last 3 warmup sets I go for 3-5 reps depends on how I feel.
On that specific session I had a good day and felt really good so all of the sets until 142.5 were 5 reps, and then I did 3 reps for lest warmup.

Back then even before LP my reason for those warmups selections was that I felt the best getting as close as possible to my work set weight but not too close.

Now after I read that part on the book + going through a few threads here on the forum I’ve realized I am doing too much and even fatiguing myself before my actual worksets.

Now my question is, everything been going really good and I really feel good on those warmups selections, but am afraid that eventually when squats actually get really hard that I will get stuck before what I can squeeze out of the program, but my concern is that worksets will feel much harder and maybe even fail because I am not used to such big jumps when the weight get closer to my worksets weight.

I will also add that up until the last 2 weeks, last warmup was 7.5 kg under worksets weight and that when I reduced it to 5 kg jump from last warmup (done for 3 reps or less) it actually started feeling better or “easier”.

Should I worry if everything feels fine? Or is it ok as long as I keep progressing?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Now my question is, everything been going really good and I really feel good on those warmups selections, but am afraid that eventually when squats actually get really hard that I will get stuck before what I can squeeze out of the program, but my concern is that worksets will feel much harder and maybe even fail because I am not used to such big jumps when the weight get closer to my worksets weight.

You think your work sets will be harder because you will not be as fatigued when you do them?

[hill.1338@osu.edu]

You might be gifted genetically and able to get away with that up to this point, but there is no way that’s sustainable. You’re going to run into a brick wall eventually.

My warm ups:

45 x 2 or 3 x 5
135 x 5
225 x 3
315 x 2

My working set was 345x3x5

Started doing this back at 275. Immediately go from 135 to 225 and then up to to about 20-30 lbs off my work set. Never more than two reps on my last warm up and I often do only 1 rep of it feels smooth.

Also, have no idea how old you are... but I’m 30 and if I did that shit I don’t know if I could beat the inflammation from all of that volume... especially considering you’re likely doing the same amount on the other exercises as well. As you get older I think you will want to avoid volume like that.

[Dror]

You think your work sets will be harder because you will not be as fatigued when you do them?

I’m afraid to be overwhelmed from my worksets weight having the last warmup not actually feel really heavy for me.

You might be gifted genetically and able to get away with that up to this point, but there is no way that’s sustainable. You’re going to run into a brick wall eventually.

My warm ups:

45 x 2 or 3 x 5
135 x 5
225 x 3
315 x 2

My working set was 345x3x5

Started doing this back at 275. Immediately go from 135 to 225 and then up to to about 20-30 lbs off my work set. Never more than two reps on my last warm up and I often do only 1 rep of it feels smooth.

Also, have no idea how old you are... but I’m 30 and if I did that shit I don’t know if I could beat the inflammation from all of that volume... especially considering you’re likely doing the same amount on the other exercises as well. As you get older I think you will want to avoid volume like that.

I’m 21 which is probably an obvious to why I can handle that much of a workout before my actual workout, but would like to know how much “shock” do you feel from the jump of last warmup to worksets?
My concern comes from being used to feel for a few reps just a bit away from workset weight, and being afraid that the last jump from not really heavy to actual workset will be too overwhelming.

[Dror]

Update:
Gave it a shot today’s workout, went like so:

Squat:
2X5X20 (bar)
1X5X60
1X5X100
1X3X135
3X5X150

60 and 100 was accidental fives just because I am used to.
It felt ok and definitely save a few minutes overall, but I did find myself struggle more with balance, but I also struggled focusing today + there was a lot of pepold in the gym that didn’t help, will see how it goes on.

Press:
2X5X20
1X5X30
1X4X40
1X3X50
3X5X57.5

Realized here how fatiguing it actually is when the worksets weight is close to failure.

Deadlift:
2X5X60
1X5X100
1X3X120
1X2X140
1X5X155

Had the most benefit here because I usually get to deadlift when I’m already drained, I will use this thread to also ask, recently deadlifts felt much harder because until I finish the squats and press I’m drained and cold again, as you can see my deadlift and squat weight are really close with squats almost catching up, and although I don’t really care at the moment about balancing them, I’m afraid the in the close future deadlift will get stuck just because I’m already drained when I get to them, what can I do about it?

[neilc1]

there's a warm up app,
started using it and things seemed easier than doing what I was doing which was what you were doing

[g4string]

You're doing way too much volume for a warm up. I limit my warm up to

empty bar x 5
45% x 5 (45% of target weight to be lifted)
65% x 3
85% x 2
95% x1 (optional, but I like doing this when things are heavy)

wait 5 mins, then lift 100% weight RX'd to lift