First rep blues

[Michael Wolf]

Rip's advice to just nut up is probably the simplest and best. And if you're still fairly early in the LP, just do that.

But if you're towards the end of LP or later, you may want to play with your warmup. I've seen a lot of people stick to the 40% x5, 60%x3, 80%x2 warm-up scheme that we tell beginners to do because it's simple and easy to follow and good enough for just about any beginner. But as you get stronger, that 80% jump can become rather big and taking out and doing the first rep is a bit of a system shock if you jumped from 325 to 405, where 405 is the most you've ever had on your back in your entire life. A 565 squatter can do the 315 to 405 jump no problem, but when 405 is your new lifetime PR, or even if it's just close to it, jumping from 80% is not really preparing your system for it.

Using the 405x5 work-set weight as an example, try something like 135x5, 225x4, 315x3, 365x2, or 135x5, 225x4, 295x3, 335x2, 375x1. You get a few extra total reps, so are a little warmer overall, and the last rep at 90-93% of the work weight isn't going to prematurely tire you out cause it's a single anyway.

Ultimately the guideline for warm-up is still "Get ready to perform the work-set(s) without getting fatigued or tired in the process of doing so." Jumping from 80% to 100% may not be fulfilling the first part of that guideline if you're already kinda strong. Just make sure you don't overdo it and mess up the second part of the guideline.

[Geedubu]

Thanks much Michael- I like your thoughts on focusing on and tweaking the warm up a bit-