HOW TO DO YOUR WORKOUTS

HOW TO DO YOUR WORKOUTS

You want to do the exercises one at a time, in the order given.

So you start with the first exercise and do your warm-up sets, followed by your 3 heavy sets (with the proper rest in between each, of course), and then move on to the next exercise on the list, and so forth, like this:

Exercise 1: Set 1

Rest

Exercise 1: Set 2

Rest

Exercise 1: Set 3

Rest

Exercise 2: Set 1

Rest

And so on.

THE “SECRET” TO A PROPER WARM-UP ROUTINE

What if I told you that with one simple technique you could immediately increase your strength on every lift while also reducing the risk of injury?

Well, you can, and the “secret” lies in how you warm up each muscle group before hitting the heavy weights.

Warm up incorrectly, and you can reduce your strength and set yourself up for muscle strains or worse. Here’s an example of an ineffective warm-up routine:

Put 135 pounds on the bar and do about 10 to 15 reps. Rest a few minutes and then go to 185 pounds for 12 reps. After another short rest, go up to 205 pounds for 8 reps, which is done to failure. A few minutes later, it’s 4 to 6 reps with 225 pounds, followed by a longer rest and finally a monumental struggle with 275 pounds for 2 reps.

What’s the problem here? Well, by the time you get to the heavy, muscle-building sets, you’re so fatigued from what you’ve already done that you can’t handle the heavy stuff nearly as well you should be able to. This leads to subpar workouts that fail to overload the muscles adequately and thus produce lackluster results over time.

Another common warm-up mistake is doing too little. Many guys are anxious to start loading the plates and thus only do one light warm-up set before hitting the heavy stuff. This can lead to muscle strains, joint impingements, or worse.

Warm up correctly, however, and you will find that you can tap into your maximum strength without increasing the risk of injury. This helps you maximally overload your muscles without having to worry about getting hurt, which in turn safely stimulates the maximum amount of muscle growth.

A proper warm-up routine has two simple goals: to introduce blood into the muscles to be trained and to progressively acclimate them to heavy weight without causing fatigue. You want your muscles fresh and ready for the heavy sets—the muscle-building sets—and not burned out from too much warm-up work.

Here’s how you do it:

First Set:

In your first warm-up set, you want to do 12 reps with about 50 percent of your heavy, 4- to 6-rep set weight and then rest for 1 minute. This set should feel very light and easy.

For instance, if you did 3 sets of 5 reps with 225 pounds on the bench last week, you would start your warm-up with about 110 pounds and do 12 reps, followed by 1 minute of rest.

Second Set:

In your second warm-up set, you use the same weight as the first and do 10 reps, this time at a little faster pace. Then rest for 1 minute.

Third Set:

Your third warm-up set is 4 reps with about 70 percent of your heavy weight, and it should be done at a moderate pace.

This set and the following one are done to acclimate your muscles to the heavy weights that are about to come. Once again, you follow this set with a 1-minute rest.

With a working set weight of 225, this would be about 155 to 160 pounds.

Fourth Set:

The fourth warm-up set is the final one, and it’s simple: 1 rep with about 90 percent of your heavy weight. Rest 2 to 3 minutes after this final warm-up set.

This would be about 200 pounds if your heavy weight were 225.

Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sets:

These are your working sets performed in the 4- to 6-rep range with about 85 percent of your 1RM.

Moving on to the Next Exercise:

Generally speaking, you don’t need to perform more warm-up sets in a workout beyond the four laid out above. For instance, if you start your workout with the flat bench press and then move to the incline press, you don’t have to do a new round of warm-up sets.

That said, I do like to do a 10- to 12-rep warm-up when moving on to an exercise that targets muscles that aren’t sufficiently warmed up. For example, when I’m moving from shoulder presses to side or rear raises, I like to do a 10- to 12-rep warm-up set on the raise as I find the medial and posterior delts aren’t always ready for heavy weight after pressing.

WARMING UP ON ARMS DAY

When warming up for an Arms Day, I like to do a warm-up set for biceps immediately followed by a warm-up set for triceps, followed by a 60-second rest.

I don’t superset my heavy sets like this, but as we’re not trying to lift as much weight as possible while warming up, we don’t lose anything by doing it here.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line is that warming up correctly is an important part of training with heavy weight and building muscle. Trust me—it’s worth spending your first 10 minutes warming up instead of just rushing into the heavy lifting.