Five Ways to Warm up Before Lifting Weights

Posted on February 25, 2025 by resourcefulman

Lifting is about as simple as the exercise: you pick up an object and set it down. But that doesn’t mean you go to the gym and just pick up the item. A proper warm-up can help you prepare for the lift, so let’s talk about how to create the best warm-up routine.

Why warming up is important (and when it may not be necessary)

First, let’s talk about why we are warming up. People often talk about warm-ups as if they magically prevent injury or that skipping one will lead to some other disaster. This is not necessarily the case. They also won’t make much of a difference to your chances of being sore (or not) after your workout. If you’re comfortable walking straight from your front door to your squat rack, you don’t need to add a warm-up.

You will likely benefit from a warm-up if any of the following apply to your strength training:

At the beginning of your workout you feel pain or creaking.
The first few sets always feel harder than they should.
You find it difficult to get into the position you need to train (such as the bottom of a squat).
You do exercises that make you pant, like circuit training or anything where you rush through reps on a timer.

Warming up can solve one or all of these problems, preparing you for lifting weights. Your muscles will work better when they are warm (like literally warmer temperatures). You must also be prepared to move in all the ways the lift requires. For example, if your ankles are tight, moving them will help them flex better during squats.

If you’re worried that your warm-up will take forever, good news: you only need to include the parts of the warm-up that you personally need. Two people may warm up completely differently for the same workout. So let’s talk about the different components of a warm-up and how to figure out which ones you need.

Cardio will keep you warm and ready for work.

Before lifting, many people like to jump on a treadmill or rower for five to 10 minutes, or perhaps do a few jumping jacks. A cardio warm-up like one of these has several benefits:

Physically warms up the muscles
This causes at least some of your muscles and joints to move.
It forces your energy systems (enzymes, etc.) to work to supply additional energy to your muscles.

Remember how when you run , the first mile (or the first 10 minutes or so) feels sluggish? This is because your body activates these energy systems so you can use them more efficiently during the rest of your workout. If you keep your heart rate high during a strength workout (as is the case with a CrossFit-style WOD), this cardio warm-up is essential to making sure the rest of your workout doesn’t suck.

If you’re just going to work out at your own pace, cardio isn’t necessary, but the heat and movement can still help you feel better and serve as a mental and physical introduction to the work you’re about to do.

Mobility prepares you for specific jobs

We’re not (just) talking about stretching here. If you want to work on your flexibility by doing long, deep static stretches, it’s best to save them for after your workout. When preparing to lift, you can work on your mobility instead.

In this context, mobility means being able to move as your workout requires . If you’re going to squat and your calves and ankles tend to be stiff, and that stiffness is preventing you from squatting as deep as you’d like , then you should spend some time before you squat working on your ankle mobility. (We have several specific proposals in this regard .)

Apply the same principle to any exercise you plan. If you have trouble arching your back on the bench press, work on upper back mobility first (I like to lie on my back on a foam roller). If you’re going to be doing snatches or overhead squats, you might want to do some shoulder stretches . Stretching before a workout can give you a temporary increase in flexibility that will last throughout your workout.

Foam rolling and dynamic stretching can help at this stage. Foam rolling can help relax the muscle, like a gentle massage. And dynamic stretching are warm-up movements that force your joints through whatever range of motion you ask them to do later. Google “mobile work for ___” and you’ll get a lot of ideas.

Ultimately, what you use in this section of the warm-up should be what will best help you succeed in the rest of your workout. Experiment with adding or removing moves.

Activation exercises prepare the muscles.

Sometimes it’s helpful to do an exercise that targets the same muscles you’ll use in your main workout, but with lighter weights or even a completely different movement. For example, glute bridges with bands can help you prepare for a workout that focuses on squats or hip thrusts.

To be completely clear, you do not need to “activate” muscles to be able to use them later, even if resistance band suppliers will try to convince you that this is an important step. These exercises simply give your muscles an idea of what they will do in the main exercise and can help you complete the warm-up sets of the main exercise (see below) a little faster. For more information on what activation exercises actually do, check out my explainer .

Technical exercises will help you improve your skills.

If you are performing an exercise that requires precise technique, you may want to practice exercises that will help with that particular exercise. For example, before doing snatches, I like to do barbell-only exercises: maybe some hanging snatches, or overhead squats, or high snatches . Again, select exercises for this stage based on what technique you need to work on. For example, goblet squats can be a good foundation for barbell squats.

Your warm-up sets with an empty bar or lighter weights.

This step is important if you are doing heavy work. Let’s say you’re going to squat 200 pounds today. Just because you’ve warmed up with cardio or movement exercises doesn’t mean you’re ready to load 200 pounds on a barbell and go for it. Instead, you’ll do a few squats with an empty bar, and then maybe 95 lbs, 135 lbs, 155 lbs, and 185 lbs.

While the other warm-up components we’ve discussed are negotiable, most weight lifting coaches will agree that these barbell warm-up sets are a must. They can often even replace most of the steps above because if you do enough warm-up sets, you’ll warm up your body, perform the necessary movements, activate your muscles, and practice the technique of the lift you’re about to do.

Start by performing a set of the same number of reps as the work sets, or even more. So if you’re going to do five reps with 200 pounds, start with a set of 5-10 reps with just the barbell. Then add some weight, then some more, and then some more until you reach your target weight for the first working set of the day. Precise weight jumps are not important if you have several stops along the way to a working set throughout the day.

How to set up a warm-up

I like to think of warming up before lifting weights as a combination of my warm-up sets (as described in the section above) plus whatever else I need that my warm-up sets can’t adequately cover.

So if you feel like you need more mobility work than warm-up sets alone will give you, you can go to the gym, do five minutes on the treadmill to warm up your legs, and then do a few foam rolls and ankle stretches before you start squatting. You haven’t done any technique or activation work, but it’s okay if you don’t feel like you need to.

Or, if you have good mobility but are planning on doing circuit training and hate that you’re constantly out of breath between exercises, you might benefit from a more thorough cardio warm-up to make sure you’re ready for the fast pace of your workout.

The warm-up for each workout may be different or change over time – this is normal. Older athletes often find that they need more time to warm up than when they were younger, and we can all need more time to warm up in cold weather than in hot weather. Determine what makes sense for you and structure your warm-up accordingly.

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