Warm up issue or psychological
I am a complete novice when it comes to lifting as I am just beginning my 9th week of LP but I had a question.
The issue seems to only be isolated to squats which makes me think it might just be a warm up issue but what happens is that my first working set is always the most difficult and the remaining two sets actually appear to be easier to lift.
Here is what I did this morning for squat (all in pounds):
- 2x5 Empty Bar
- 1x5 105
- 1x3 160
- 1x2 210
- 3x5 265 (working set)
Breaks between warm up sets is equal to the amount of time it takes to adjust the weights except for the final warm up, there I'll take 5 minutes. And I'll do 5 minutes between working sets as that seems to be the amount of time for me to be ready to go again. The first couple weeks I did 3 minutes, but it just wasn't cutting it once I got to 240ish.
This equates to, approximately due to being limited to 2.5 pound weights, 40%, 60%, 80% of working sets (following the stretching/loosening with the empty bar). Just to give some perspective, my initial starting weight for squats was 145 so I'm up 120 pounds now. It should be higher but with getting the flu and with kids getting sick, I've missed a handful of sessions.
If this is only psychological due to being a novice, then I'm not too worried about it, but I know injuries can occur if I'm not warmed up properly and thus the post.
Any thoughts are welcomed.