Warm-up Sets for Full Body Workout?

Hey fellas, I was wondering how I would go about doing a warm up? I’m starting with a 3x5 and being humble and just starting with the bar for my work sets and increasing weight weekly. How would I warm up if I am beginning my program with just a bar? Or is that too humble, should I put some weight on there?

try body weight stuff to warm up?

A few thoughts…

Being humble doesn’t necessarily mean using the bar as a start point unless you are very weak to begin with. Is a set of 5 squats with the bar easy for you? It is totally fine if you are particularly weak or small, but if you can, say, squat 225 already I think you’d be okay to start a little heavier. Do you have an idea what your strength level right now is?

There’s a lot of varying opinions on this. When I was doing a 3x5 program I always warmed up with the bar for a few sets and worked up to my work sets. For deadlifts it would look like 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, Work set 315x5.

For press I would make smaller jumps. Bar x 5. 75x5, 105x3, Work sets 135x5, 135x5, 135x5.

I use warm up sets as easy sets that lead me up to the real work. What you don’t want to do is get fatigued by needlessly high rep warm-up sets or doing too many of them. Save it for your work sets, which should be hard to do.

you would have to be very weak for the unloaded bar to be a decent weight for your work sets. I’ve never seen anyone as weak as that.

If you’re just doing it to learn good form then I do understand the logic, however probably the most important part of learning good form is learning good form while lifting heavy weights.

So get some weight on the bar.

That’s what stronglifts 5x5 says you have to do. Which, on it’s own, is enough to make it a dumb as fuck program.

OP, start with a weight which causes you to slow down in the last rep or two of the last set. It shouldn’t be a grinder, you should just notice the bar speed change.

That’s a good weight to start on.

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It definitely depends on what your working weight is. The higher it is, the longer warm up you’ll need.

If I’m going to mid 100s, my warm up might look like
Bar x3, Bar x3, 95x2, 95x2, Working sets

If I’m going 200s, it might look like
Bar x3, Bar x3, 135 x3, 135 x3, 185 x2 (maybe another 185 if I need to get loose), working sets
If I’m going high 200s, I’ll do a set at 225

For 300s:
Bar x3, bar x3, 135 x3, 225 x3, 275 x2, working sets - maybe a set with 315/365 if I’m going high 300s or low 400s

My deadlift warmups start with 135 because I can’t get the same movement pattern on an empty barbell.

I also do most of my accessory before my main lifts because I know I won’t do it after. So this is when I’ll do hip circle, hand-assisted GHR for lower body stuff and lat-pull down/band pull-apart/face-pull for upper body stuff.

Personally, I do a lower body movement, then an upperbody movement so:
Lowerbody warm up/accessory
Warm up sets
Working sets
Upperbody warm up/accessory (gives me a good break between big lifts)
Warm up sets
Working sets
Other accessory

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I didn’t know that. So is that just 5s with the bar? What a waste of time.

When I was a PT I mostly worked with women aged 30-50 and not a single one of them was squatting just the empty bar, even on their first go. Bench, maybe, but not squats or deads, and I was a bit of a form nazi with my girls.

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Stronglifts recommends 50% of a 5RM if you’ve done the lifts before, but the bar for squat/bench, 65 for row, and 95 for deadlift if you haven’t. Source: StrongLifts 5×5 workout: Get Stronger by Lifting 3x/Week

I’m a big fan of bending the rules, and I think if people are doing this, they should play around with ramping sets up/down throughout the workout here and there. To either push limits and test strength safely (pretty much building towards a 5RM at that kinda weight), or to get past a plateau if they can’t hit straight sets of a weight.

In this case, It is my opinion that somebody new should just try adding weight here and there and dial back if they went in too deep.

Ever since I turned 40, I’ve started my warm up squats with an empty bar just to get blood flowing into my knees and to overcome stiffness, then I jump to 135, then 225, etc,

Meanwhile, I warm up my bench with 135, then 185, and then up to the work sets, and I warm up for my dead lifts by doing light weight Olympic training lifts first. My upper back is always ready to go so I jump straight to the work sets. The only exercise I have trouble warming up for is the dip. I do some shoulder circles, but that first set of dips is always the worst for range of motion.