Warm-up

Warm up by doing the exercise itself, lighter. It rehearses the movement and gets you ready for heavier sets.

A warm-up that takes 5–10 minutes

1. 3–5 minutes of easy movement: brisk walk, bike, rowing machine. You should be warm, not tired.
2. Warm-up sets of your first exercise: 2–3 sets with lighter weight before your working sets, e.g. empty bar × 8, then about half your working weight × 5, then about 75% × 3.
3. For the next exercises, one lighter set is usually enough.

What you can skip

Long stretching routines before lifting aren’t needed for the beginner program. Warm-up sets do the job.

Warm-up sets don’t count toward the sets in your program.