Muscle Gain Forum

Morning crew - I keep getting minor tweaks (a tight shoulder, a cranky knee) early in sessions and I think my warmup is too lazy. What does your real, actual warmup look like before you touch the working sets?

Five minutes general (bike or rower) to get warm, then ramp sets on the first big lift - lots of small jumps from the empty bar. The ramp sets ARE the warmup. Most tweaks come from jumping to heavy weight cold.

I definitely under-do the ramp sets and get to my working weight in like two jumps.

That's the culprit right there. Add more, smaller ramp sets. They cost you nothing and they wake up the pattern under progressively more load.

A few minutes of dynamic mobility for whatever's cranky - band pull-aparts and shoulder dislocates for pressing days, leg swings and bodyweight squats for leg days. Targeted, not a 30-minute yoga session.

For the cranky knee specifically, some bodyweight squats and a couple of light leg extensions to get blood in before you load the squat. Joints like to be warmed gradually, not shocked.

My rule: the first working set should feel easy because I've ramped properly. If set one feels like a grind, my warmup was too short. That mindset alone cut my tweaks right down.

That's a great gauge. Sounds like the fix is just more ramp sets and a bit of targeted mobility. Trying it this morning, cheers.

Let us know how it feels. Nine times out of ten 'I tweak early' is just 'I warmed up in two jumps'. More ramp sets fixes it.