How to Warm Up Before Lifting: Science-Backed Routines for Strength and Safety

Want better lifts and a body that cooperates? Then it’s time to learn how to warm up before lifting, the right way.

Raise your hand if your warm-up consists of walking from your car to the squat rack.

I see you. We need to have a little talk.

A good warm-up gets your blood flowing, your joints lubricated, and your brain connected to your muscles. And no, a few arm circles isn’t a good warm-up.

In this article, you’ll learn why warming up before lifting is a good idea and how to do it effectively without wasting time.

What Is a Warm-Up?

A strength training warm-up is a short routine you do before lifting weights to prepare your muscles and joints.

Warm-ups can include stretches, dynamic movements, and easier versions of the lifts you’ll be doing, so your body gets warm and used to the motion.

There are two main categories of warming up: passive warm-up, and active warm-up.

• A passive warm-up is when you raise your body’s temperature without having to do any of the work. You’re basically outsourcing the “warming” part to a sauna, hot shower, or heating pads, for example.
• An active warm-up is probably what you picture when you think of warming up. It involves exercise, moving around, and getting your blood flowing and your muscles ready for your workout.

Passive warm-ups can be useful for athletes to stay warm between events in a competition without using up energy and getting tired. But an active warm-up is your go-to option to prepare your body and mind for the demands of a workout.

Feature	Active Warm-Up	Passive Warm-Up
Your Role	You’re the one warming yourself up by moving your body.	You’re a bystander, letting external sources do the work.
Energy Use	Burns calories and uses some of your energy stores.	Conserves your energy.
Nervous System	Wakes it up and gets it ready for your training session.	Doesn’t have the same neuromuscular priming effect.
Best For	Pretty much every workout and sport.	Maintaining warmth and keeping you limber during a sporting event or competition.

In this article, I’m talking about active warm-ups specifically.

General vs. Specific Warm-Up

There are two parts to an active warm-up: the general warm-up and the specific warm-up.

The general part usually consists of up to 20 minutes of light cardio, while the specific part focuses on priming your body with increasingly heavy work in the movements you do in your first exercise.

Both have potential benefits for your lifting performance.

General Warm-Up

The first is the general warm-up. It usually consists of 5–15 minutes of light-to-moderate cardio, getting your heart rate up a bit, maybe breaking a light sweat.

Examples:

• A brisk walk on the treadmill
• A steady pace on the elliptical or stationary bike
• A few rounds on the rowing machine
• Jumping jacks or skipping rope

The main goal of a general warm-up before lifting is simple: to get warmer. You raise your body’s core temperature and increase blood flow everywhere.

It makes your muscles less stiff, speeds up nerve signals, delivers more oxygen to your muscles, and gets the synovial fluid moving in your joints, making them feel less creaky.¹

Do You Have to Do a General Warm-Up?

No, you don’t have to do cardio before lifting. I’d say the majority of lifters don’t. And the evidence for doing so isn’t overwhelming.

That being said, several studies suggest a benefit.

• One study found 3–4% improvements in leg press 1RM after 15 minutes of low-intensity cardio compared to no general warm-up.²
• In another trial, adding 20 minutes of moderate cardio before a series of ramp-up sets improved leg press 1RM by more than 8% compared to only doing the ramp-up sets.³

Those are not small differences.

• On the other hand, another study found no difference in squat, bench press, or bicep curl performance from doing a bit of cardio first.⁴
• And in a 2017 trial, a general warm-up offered only minor benefits for high pull performance, and doing both a specific and general warm-up was not more effective than doing a specific warm-up only.⁵

If you have the time, there is nothing wrong with a general warm-up to kick off your strength workouts. There might be some performance benefits to be had, and no real downsides (besides the time investment). As long as you don’t go all-out and exhaust yourself.

But it does take time, and it adds up. If you do 15 minutes of cardio before each workout four times per week for a year, you’ll have spent 50 hours. And because they’ll have been low-intensity hours, they probably won’t have benefited your cardio capacity all that much.

So, if you’re short on time and must pick between a general and a specific warm-up, I suggest you go with the specific.

Specific Warm-Up

This is where you get down to business. The specific warm-up prepares your body for the movements you’re about to perform in your workout.

Your goal here is to activate the specific muscles and grease the neuromuscular grooves you’ll be using.

Basically, you perform the actual exercises of your workout, but with much lighter weight, typically ramping the weight up in a series of sets until you are fairly close to your work set weights.

What it looks like:

Let’s say you’re going for a squat PR (personal record): 225 lb. Your specific warm-up might look something like this:

The table above is taken directly from the Warm-up for max attempt calculator in the StrengthLog workout tracker.

Load it up, and the app will crunch the numbers for you, taking the guesswork out of your warm-up. You can also import the warm-up directly into a workout.

The calculator is free, as is the StrengthLog app itself.

Your last warm-up sets should feel snappy, not tiring.

If your workout doesn’t call for a 1RM test (and most workouts shouldn’t), you can do fewer ramp-up sets.

For example, if you’re doing 12s at 70% of your 1RM, you can get away with only a few coordination sets, especially if you’re not doing compound exercises like squats or deadlifts.

Does a Specific Warm-Up Improve Lifting Performance?

Yes, doing a few warm-up sets for the lift you’re about to do can give you a small but meaningful boost in performance.

• In several studies light ramp-up sets (~40% and ~80% of that session’s load) allowed trained lifters to move the weight faster and increase force production.^{6 7}
• Research reviews suggest (with the caveat that studies are small and often relatively poorly designed) that a specific warm-up alone is often enough, and recommend doing one for each exercise if you have time. Adding a general warm-up isn’t always superior or necessary.^{8 9}
• A 2026 review of 19 studies found that warming up improves both 1RM strength and the number of reps you can do at 70–75% of your 1RM.¹⁰

The stronger you are, the more important a specific warm-up becomes, and the more sets you want to do on your way to your working weights.

Benching 100 lb for 12 reps does not require as many warm-ups as benching 300 for 12, even with an equal effort. And a 2025 (not yet peer-reviewed as I am writing this) study found no special benefits at all of doing specific warm-up sets when using a load of 10RM (the weight you can do max 10 reps with).¹¹

In addition to pure performance, heavy compound days also benefit from a near-top “check set” to gauge bar speed/RPE and adjust, which is less critical at lighter loads.

Does Warming Up Prevent Injuries?

Maybe. Probably. But it’s much more of a grey area than you might think.

In fact, not a single study shows that warming up before lifting reduces the risk of injury.

However, the absence of evidence is not proof. In this case, the fact that no studies show that warming up reduces injury risk doesn’t mean there is no such effect.

What we do have is (a) plausible mechanisms and pretty clear performance benefits, and (b) data from team-sport warm-up studies, which regularly show lower injury rates.

Of course, team sports are not the same thing, and those results don’t automatically transfer to lifting.

Even then, some studies show fewer injuries, and some don’t.¹²

Why the Wishy-Washy Evidence?

First, it’s a logistical nightmare to study. What even is a warm-up? The term is used so broadly.

Are we talking about five minutes on the treadmill? A few half-hearted arm circles? A 20-minute, multi-phase dynamic routine with strategic ramp-up sets?

There is no standardized, universally accepted warm-up protocol, which makes comparing studies a real headache.

Tweaking your back while deadlifting could be due to a number of things: cumulative fatigue, poor form on that one rep, or your focus not being 100%.

Or maybe you just slept funny.

Pinpointing the fact that you didn’t warm up as the culprit would be very difficult.

Besides, the injury risk in strength training is ridiculously low to begin with. It’s one of the safest sports you can do. A 2024 review estimates ~1.0–4.4 injuries per 1,000 training hours in powerlifting.¹³

Regular strength training with lower intensities is likely even lower-risk.

You’d need large-scale, long-term studies with control groups of lifters that do zero warming up; studies like that cost too much and simply don’t happen in strength-training research.

Lastly, if the hypothesis is that warm-ups reduce the risk or frequency of injuries, would it be ethical to try to provoke potentially career-ending incidents?

So, Is Warming Up Useless for Injury Prevention?

Hold your horses.

Just because the evidence isn’t a slam dunk doesn’t mean you should go from zero to hero on your first set of squats.

There’s still a strong physiological basis for doing at least some kind of warm-up, and a mountain of anecdotal evidence from lifters and coaches that it makes a difference.

Sports medicine and exercise science organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) strongly advocate for warming up before lifting.

Besides the time warming up adds to your training session, there are no downsides to doing it.

Even if there is no definite proof when it comes to injury prevention, why would you not?

Potentially lower risk, plus performance benefits, sounds good to me.

Warming Up Becomes More Important the Stronger You Get

The stronger you get, the more important it becomes to prepare your body by warming up before heavy lifts.

Again, speculation, but bear with me.

Even without the study Injury Risk in Cold Max Lifts: A Comparative Analysis of 150 LB vs. 450 LB Squatters, the logical conclusion, based on biomechanics and physiology, is that warming up becomes exponentially more important as you get stronger.

Let’s take the example of a 150 lb squatter vs. a 450 lb squatter.

The 150 lb squatter is like a Honda Civic. It’s a reliable car. You can pretty much start it and drive it without much fuss. But it wasn’t designed to operate at the limits of automotive engineering.

The 450 lb squatter, on the other hand, is like an F1 car. Hopping in and hitting the gas without a warm-up procedure would be foolish. And destructive.

More Weight on the Bar, More Load on Your Body

The key thing here is the absolute load you place on your body’s structures.

When the 150 lb squatter goes for a 1RM, their muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones are subjected to 150 lbs of force (plus their body weight).

While that weight feels equally challenging to them as 300 lb more feels to a 450 lb squatter, it’s a relatively low absolute force in the grand scheme of what human tissues can handle.

Your system has a decent buffer zone. A slight technical imperfection or unprepared tissue might not lead to disaster when you’re squatting 150.

Squatting 450 lb (or more) is a different thing entirely.

When this person squats their max, their body is dealing with massive compressive and shear forces.

Even though the weight itself might feel as heavy as it did for the 150 lb squatter, the stress on the spinal erectors, knee ligaments, hip cartilage, and tendons will be immense, with virtually no margin for error.

The Vanishing Margin for Error

When your muscles, joints, and connective tissue are cold, they’re less pliable.

Gently pulling on a cold, thick rubber band is probably OK. That’s our 150 lb squatter. A little knee wobble or your chest dipping forward might look bad, but the forces are low enough that you’ll likely get away with it.

Trying to stretch that same rubber band to its absolute limit is asking for it to snap. That’s our 450 lb squatter going in cold.

The same minor technical flaw becomes a failure point because the torque on your joints and the shear force on your spine are much higher.

A good few ramp-up sets groove your motor pattern before you get to the “no mistakes allowed” zone.

Stretching Before Lifting

Back in the day, up to the late 1990s, stretching was considered an essential part of any workout.

Not only did it help you perform better, skipping your pre-workout stretch was a sign of laziness or ignorance, a surefire way to get sidelined with an injury.

You can still see people in gyms everywhere spending a lot of time stretching before hitting the weights. Probably way too much time for the wrong reasons.

Over the past couple of decades, research has poked holes in the pre-workout stretching theories.

Static vs. Dynamic Stretching

There are two main types of stretching, static and dynamic:

• Static stretching is when you stretch a muscle and then hold that position for ~15 to 60 seconds or longer.
• Dynamic stretching is when, instead of holding a position, you move your joints and muscles through their full range of motion, like arm circles, leg swings, and torso twists.

Static Stretching Before Lifting: Why to Avoid It

You generally want to avoid static stretching before lifting for two main reasons:

Number one: Holding a muscle in a stretched position can acutely decrease your strength.¹⁴

The effect is temporary, but why would you want to intentionally weaken yourself before a big lift?

That said, the “risk zone” is roughly >60 s per muscle, so it’s not that big of a deal; most lifters will not hold stretches for minutes on end before a set.

Number two: If you routinely do static stretching immediately before your strength workout, it may slightly blunt your strength gains.¹⁵

Doing the same stretching away from your lifting sessions avoids the issue.

Static stretching isn’t useless. It improves flexibility and range of motion, but save it for after your workout or do it on a separate day altogether.

If you do it at all. Chances are you don’t need to stretch for flexibility at all, not if you lift weights.

Strength training through full a full range of motion increases flexibility as effectively or even more effectively than any stretching.¹⁶

When Static Stretching Before Training Can Be Useful

Now, some people do need some static stretching before lifting.

If you lack the mobility to do an exercise, stretching might feel great and limber you up enough to perform it safely in the first place.

I know plenty of older lifters who are still strong and can do most exercises perfectly fine, but only if they stretch first.

So, being able to do an exercise with a good range of motion and proper form beats trying to do it unsafely or not at all and outweighs a potential slight strength decrease.

I recommend working on your mobility so you can do the exercises you want to do, but things aren’t as black and white as “don’t stretch before training” for everyone.

A Better Way: Pre-Workout Dynamic Stretching

So, if static stretching is out, what’s a better idea?

Dynamic warm-ups. It helps performance, and it does not make you weaker.

Meta-analyses find that dynamic stretching boosts explosive performance, with 7–10 minutes of dynamic work often being ideal, and recommend a dynamic warm-up over static ones to improve  flexibility, joint mobility, and muscle activation.^{17 18}

Focus on dynamic stretches that are similar to the movements you’ll be doing in your workout.

If it’s a leg day, prioritize dynamic stretches and movements for your hips, glutes, and hamstrings. Examples:

• Walking lunges
• Leg swings (front-to-back)
• Leg swings (side-to-side)
• Hip circles
• High knees
• Butt kicks
• Bodyweight squats
• Lateral lunges
• Toy soldiers (straight-leg kicks)
• Skater jumps

For an upper body day, focus on your shoulders, chest, and back. Examples:

• Arm circles (forward and backward)
• Shoulder rolls
• Arm swings (across chest and overhead)
• Scapular wall slides
• Inchworms
• Push-up to downward dog
• Band pull-aparts
• Torso twists
• Cat-cow stretch
• Y-T-W shoulder movements

Simple And Effective Sample Warm-Up Routines

Here are three effective warm-up routines for a push day, pull day, and leg day workout.

Each routine take approximately 10–15 minutes. If you don’t have time and have to cut something, skip the general cardio warm-up.

They will:

• Increase your core body and muscle temperature
• Lubricate your joints with synovial fluid
• Improve your mobility and range of motion
• Activate the muscles and neural pathways you’re about to use
• Mentally prepare you for the workout to come

The warm-ups are designed for relatively heavy workouts where your working sets are 4–6 reps.

If your first set is 10–12 reps to failure instead of ~5:

• Use slightly lighter ramp-up jumps so you don’t fatigue before the first working set
• Do a couple more reps in the early warm-up sets
• Keep the last warm-up set far from failure so you don’t burn out before the first big set

If you’re going for a max attempt instead of sets of four or more reps, I suggest you use the 1RM calculator in StrengthLog.

Extra Tips (All Days)

• Rest ~45–90s between warm-up sets; enough to keep your heart rate up without rushing.
• Stop any stretch that produces pain; your warm-ups should feel smoother each set.
• Training in a cold gym? Do the optional general warm-up for sure and add 1–2 easy ramp sets.
• Note which percentages/reps made work sets feel best and repeat that sequence. You can add easily add comments each sets in StrengthLog.

Sample Push Day Warm-up

This is a complete warm-up for a push day workout, perfect before training chest, shoulders, and triceps.

• Warm-Up Focus: Chest, shoulders (including rotator cuff), triceps, and thoracic spine
• Assumed First Exercise: Bench Press

Part 1: General Warm-up (5 minutes)

Choose one of the following:

• Rowing Machine: 5 minutes. My number one pick as it warms up the back muscles you need for stabilization during the bench press.
• Cross-Trainer / Elliptical: 5 minutes.
• Jumping Jacks: 3–4 sets of 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off.

Part 2: Dynamic Stretches (5 minutes)

Perform each movement in a controlled manner.

• Arm Circles: 15 seconds forward, 15 seconds backward. Start with small circles and gradually make them larger.
• Band Pull-Aparts: 2 sets of 15–20 reps. Use a light resistance band. Pull-aparts activate the rear delts and upper back, creating a stable “shelf” to press from.
• Band Pass-Throughs (or “Dislocates”): 10–12 slow reps. Use a band or PVC pipe. Keep your arms straight as you bring the band from your front over your head to your back.
• Wall Slides: 2 sets of 10–12 reps. Stand with your back against a wall. Press your forearms against the wall in a “goal post” position. Slide them up and down slowly, keeping contact with the wall.
• Push-up to Downward Dog: 10 reps. Perform a push-up, and at the top, push your hips up and back into a downward dog position to stretch your shoulders and lats.

Part 3: Specific Bench Press Warm-Up & Ramp-Up Sets

Let’s assume your working sets will be five reps to or close to failure.

TW = Training Weight.

Set 1	Empty bar × 12–15 reps
Set 2	45% TW × 8 reps
Set 3	60% TW × 5 reps
Set 4	80% TW × 3 reps

Dumbbell bench first? Ramp a bit quicker: ~30% TW×8, 50%×5, 70%×3 → TW.

Rest ~2 min, then do your first working set (5 reps to failure).

Sample Pull Day Warm-Up

Do this warm-up to get ready for a pull day (back and biceps) workout.

Focus: Lats, upper back (rhomboids, traps), biceps, hips, and hamstrings.

Assumed First Exercise: Deadlift (If your first exercise is pull-ups, do the same dynamic stretches, but the specific warm-up would be lat pulldowns or assisted/body weight pull-ups instead of deadlifts).

Part 1: General Warm-up (5 minutes)

• Rowing Machine: 5 minutes. This is the best option for a pull day, as it grooves the pulling and hip-hinge mechanics you’ll be using in the workout.
• Cross-Trainer / Elliptical: 5 minutes.

Part 2: Dynamic Stretches (7 minutes)

• Glute Bridges: 2 sets of 15 reps to wake up the glutes.
• Bird Dog: 10 reps per side for core stability and connecting the opposite hip and shoulder.
• Scap Pull-Ups: 8–10 reps
• Cat/Cow: 10–12 cycles for spinal control.
• Band Pull-Aparts: 2 sets of 15 reps to activate your upper back.
• Lat Sweeps: Stand and reach one arm up and slightly behind you, then “sweep” it down and across your body. 10 reps per arm.

Part 3: Specific Deadlift Warm-Up & Ramp-Up Sets

Deadlifts are very taxing, so ramp-up sets use fewer reps than other lifts to prevent grip/low back fatigue. Rest 60–120 seconds between sets as the weight increases.

Let’s assume your first working set is 1×5.

Set 1	40% TW x 5 reps
Set 2	55% TW × 3 reps
Set 3	70% TW × 2 reps
Set 4	80–85% TW × 1–2 reps

If first lift is the barbell row instead, TW 30%×8, 50%×5, 70%×3, 85%×1 → TW.

You are now ready for your working set of 5 reps.

Leg Day Warm-Up

This warm-up prepares you for a leg day workout.

• Focus: Hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads, ankles, and core
• Assumed First Exercise: Squat

Part 1: General Warm-Up (5 minutes)

Choose one of the following at a low-to-moderate intensity. Your goal is to get warm and maybe break a light sweat, not to get out of breath.

• Rowing machine: 5 minutes. Hits the entire body, including the legs and hips.
• Exercise bike: 5 minutes. Pure lower body.
• Incline treadmill walk: 5 minutes at a brisk pace. Walking on an incline activates the glutes and hamstrings more.

Part 2: Dynamic Stretches (5 minutes)

Perform each movement in a controlled manner.

• Leg Swings (Forward & Backward): 10–12 swings per leg. Hold onto a rack for balance.
• Leg Swings (Side-to-Side): 10–12 swings per leg to open up your adductors and abductors.
• Bodyweight Squats: 15–20 reps. Go as deep as you comfortably can, and pause for 2–3 seconds at the bottom of the last few reps for improved hip mobility.
• Walking Hip Cradles: 10 reps per leg. Step forward, lift your knee, grab your shin with both hands, and pull it towards your chest and across your body until you feel a stretch in the glute and hip rotator. Repeat for the other side and keep moving forward.
• Cat/Cow: 10–12 cycles. Cat/cows mobilize your spine and helps you maintain a neutral position during squats.
• Ankle Rolls: 10 circles in each direction for each ankle.

Part 3: Specific Squat Warm-Up & Ramp-Up Sets

Now it’s time to prepare your body for the movement pattern of your first heavy set by ramping up to your working weight.

The following assumes your working sets will be sets of five reps to or close to failure.

Set 1	Empty bar × 10–12 reps
Set 2	40% TW x 8 reps
Set 3	60% TW × 5 reps
Set 4	80% TW × 3 reps
Set 5 (Optional Primer)	90% TW x 1 rep (helps your nervous system acclimate to a heavy load).

Leg press first instead? TW 30%×8, 50%×5, 70%×3, 85%×1 → TW.

Rest ~2–3 min, then do your first working set (5 reps to failure).

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Warm Up Before Lifting

Final Rep

Warming up before lifting improves performance and might even help prevent injuries (although the scientific jury is still out on that part).

Skipping your warm-up is like using ABC123 as your password. It feels fast and convenient, but leads to nothing but regret.

A good warm-up, on the other hand, is like foreplay for your workout. Rushing into the main event without it is neither smart nor satisfying.

Show your warm-up some love, and it’ll pay you back in gains, performance, and maybe even injury-free lifts.

Last reviewed: 2026-01-20

References

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