Are you Warming Up or Ramping Up?

Everybody has probably heard that; a proper warm-up before beginning any exercise routine is important, right?

Almost every Beachbody workout has some form of a warm-up as part of the daily routine. Some more extensive and intense than others, but in general you expect that is some kind of warm-up period. However, that type of warm-up that is necessary will vary from program to program, workout to workout. In this case, I’ll be referring to weight lifting and the right way to “warm-up”.

Warming up with weights can be done in a variety of ways; of course, you don’t want to do too much and exhaust the muscle group before even getting started, but also don’t want to do too little and not properly prepare your muscles for the work ahead. A systematic/planned approach to your warm-up sets can ensure that you leverage them and get the most of your working sets. By “ramping up” instead, you can take away the guesswork.

In general, resistance/strength workouts are usually broken up into two types of sets (a group of repetitions or “reps”). In the post that details my 10 week physique competition training plan one thing that you might notice here is the utilization of warm-up sets and working sets for every exercise. What’s the difference between a warm-up set and a working set?

Warm-up sets

The purpose of these sets is to prepare for the working sets. As such, these are usually not performed with high intensity.

Working sets

These are the sets that you aim to improve over time, because they drive increases in strength and/or muscle.

Because warm-up sets often don’t have prescribed weights or reps, it’s easy to warm up too little or too much. Luckily, strength and conditioning coach Dr. John Rusin developed a method called “ramping up” which includes a set of rules that take away the guesswork. He explains ramping up:

“Ramping up involves doing a specific number of sets of an exercise, each set decreasing in reps but increasing in load, before hitting your work sets. The way you choose to ramp-up an exercise can be the difference between packing on muscle or fizzling out.

Ramp-up sets aren’t programmed solely for performance purposes either. When done correctly, ramp-ups will keep your body healthy, enhance your neural output, and allow you to reach levels of muscularity and strength you never thought possible.” – Dr. John Rusin

Want more detailed information about ramping up?

Click the link below for full details on the concept, along with a chart to help you calculate your warm-up weights and reps to focus on.

The Most Intelligent Way to Warm Up | T-Nation

Looking for a simple warm-up routine?

Check out this 2-minute warm-up that will help get your body and mind ready to start ramping up!

Download as PDF

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