Enter the weight of your first work set and get a warm-up ramp that gets you ready without
tiring you out: each set's weight, reps and the plates to put on each side. For squat, bench
press, deadlift and overhead press, in kilograms or pounds.
Why warm up with the bar you are about to lift
General warm-ups like cycling raise your temperature, but the sets that make your work sets
better are lighter versions of the lift itself. They rehearse the groove, let you feel whether
today is a good day, and get your joints used to load before it gets heavy.
The trick is to arrive warm, not tired. That is why the reps fall as the weight climbs: a set
of 10 with the bar, then 5, 3, 2 and a single near your work weight adds up to very little
fatigue while still taking you close to the real thing.
Strength or muscle
For heavy work of 1 to 5 reps the jump from warm-up to work set matters, so the strength ramp
takes more, smaller steps and finishes with a heavy single. For sets of 8 or more the work
weight is lighter, and two or three warm-up sets are plenty.
Warm-ups in SigmaGains
Mark a set as a warm-up in the app and it stays in your log but out of your volume, personal
records and estimated max, so your progress charts show what you actually trained.
Questions
How many warm-up sets should I do?
Enough to reach your working weight without tiring yourself: usually 3 to 5 for heavy compound lifts and 2 or 3 for lighter or higher-rep work. The heavier the work sets compared with the empty bar, the more steps you need. Isolation exercises after a compound lift usually need one light set or none.
How heavy should warm-up sets be?
Climb from the empty bar to about 85 to 90 percent of your working weight, with the reps falling as the weight rises. A common ramp is the bar for 10, then about 40 percent for 5, 60 percent for 3, 75 percent for 2 and 85 to 90 percent for a single.
Do warm-up sets count toward my training volume?
No. They are too light and too far from failure to drive progress, which is why SigmaGains marks them as warm-up sets and leaves them out of your volume, personal records and estimated max.
How should I warm up for deadlifts?
Start from the floor with the bar at its proper height, which usually means the bar with a full-size plate on each side (60 kg or 135 lb), then ramp up as for squats. If that first weight is already heavy for you, warm up with Romanian deadlifts or pulls from blocks instead.
How long should I rest between warm-up sets?
Only as long as it takes to change the plates for the first few sets, then a minute or two before the heaviest warm-ups. Rest your normal time before the first work set.