How to Warm Up Before a Workout
Updated
Short answer
A good warm-up takes 5 to 10 minutes: a few minutes of easy cardio to raise your heart rate and body temperature, then dynamic movements for the joints you are about to use, then one to three lighter "ramp-up" sets of your first exercise. A systematic review found that warming up improved performance in most of the measures studied.
The three parts
- General (2–5 minutes): bike, rower, brisk walk or skipping until you are lightly sweating.
- Dynamic (2–4 minutes): leg swings, hip openers, arm circles, bodyweight squats, lunges with a reach, inchworms.
- Specific (2–5 minutes): ramp-up sets of your first lift, such as the empty bar for 8 reps, then about 50 percent for 5, then 75 percent for 3, before your working sets.
Example: strength day
3 minutes on the bike; 10 leg swings each way, 10 bodyweight squats, 5 inchworms; squat with the empty bar ×8, 40 kg ×5, 60 kg ×3, then working sets at 70 kg.
Example: HIIT day
5 minutes of easy cardio building to moderate; 30 seconds each of high knees, butt kicks, lateral shuffles and jumping jacks; two 15-second pickups at about 70 percent effort before the first hard interval.
What about static stretching?
Holding long static stretches right before lifting or sprinting is not needed for most people. Save longer stretches for after training or another time of day, unless your sport needs a lot of range of motion.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a warm-up be?
Usually 5 to 10 minutes, a bit longer on cold days or before heavy or explosive work.
Is it OK to skip the warm-up?
It is a false saving. Warming up improved performance in most of the outcomes measured in a systematic review, and ramp-up sets let you check your technique before the heavy sets.