Anyone Warm-up with Partials?

i actually discovered a effective way to warm up when i was weightlifting som years ago. instead of doing 2-3 lighter warm up sets, i would rather put on more weight than i would lift for my work set. for example if my work set was 100kg, i would load on 140kg and just do some partial reps. that way the 100kg would feel so much lighter.

based on that experience, i think that the traditional way to warm up isnt the best way. preparing the nervous system for heavy lifting this way is very effective.

anyone else tried this too?

I’ve used that method extensively on the bench press in my late teens and twenties. I thought I was onto something glorious… until my shoulder problems started. To this day, my shoulders remind me of the foolish practices of an overzealous youth.

I understand the concept of the heavy weight before the light. When I threw Shot put back in high school we would routinely practice with heavier shots than we used in practice (baseball players add a weight to their bats before stepping up to the plate in a similar vein). Still, I would imagine that not going through an entire ROM can set you up to find something ‘uncomfortable’ when you actually begin your ‘real’ sets. I always think that it’s better to find a ‘kink’ when you still have light weight on the bar than if you’re actually under a weight that can cause a serious injury.

S

Bad practice.

Light progressive sets are the best way to go to warm the muscles up. Remember you want to move blood throught the muscle AND work on mobility and flexibility before you start your work sets. After getting up through a good warm-up and a light work set you may wish to do a set or two of partials before your next full ROM work set, but it is a very bad idea to warm-up mostly or purely with partials.

I start light, then gradually work up to a comfortable single or double. I then drop this down by around 10-15% and use that as my working weight. Very simplified explanation but that’s the general theme for me most of the time. I am very careful to NOT tire myself out doing this, I am just preparing myself for the main event.