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How to Warm Up for Lifting (The Right Way)

How to warm up for lifting — general warm-up, ramp sets, and mobility work. The complete pre-workout routine that saves your joints and adds kg to your top set.

Pasha Mor

Founder, 1RM.fit · October 23, 2026

How to warm up for lifting the right way saves you from injury and adds real kg to your top set. The correct warm-up is 10-15 minutes — not 30 — and it goes in a specific order.

I'm Pasha, founder of 1RM.fit. Here's the complete pre-lifting warm-up protocol.

The 3 Phases of a Lifting Warm-Up

Phase 1 — General Warm-Up (3-5 min)

Rowing machine, bike, or brisk walk
Goal: raise core body temperature, break light sweat
Don't exhaust yourself — you're warming up, not doing cardio

Phase 2 — Mobility & Activation (3-5 min)

Focus on joints you'll load: hips + ankles for lower, shoulders + T-spine for upper
Bodyweight movements: air squats, glute bridges, cat-cow, band pull-aparts, arm circles
Skip static stretching before lifting — it reduces max strength

Phase 3 — Specific Warm-Up Ramp (5-8 min)

Empty bar work (5-8 reps)
Ramp to working weight in 4-5 sets
Each set: 50% × 5, 65% × 3, 75% × 2, 85% × 1, 90% × 1 (optional single)

Specific Warm-Ups by Lift

Squat (100 kg working weight example)

Bar × 10
60 kg × 5
75 kg × 3
85 kg × 2
92.5 kg × 1
Working sets @ 100 kg

Bench Press (80 kg working weight example)

Bar × 10
50 kg × 5
65 kg × 3
72.5 kg × 2
77.5 kg × 1
Working sets @ 80 kg

Deadlift (140 kg working weight example)

60 kg × 5
100 kg × 3
120 kg × 2
135 kg × 1
Working sets @ 140 kg

Barbell bench press ramp — the specific warm-up progression that adds weight to your working set — The ramp is the most important part of the warm-up. Empty bar → percentage-based build to your top set.

Common Warm-Up Mistakes

Skipping mobility: Tight hips + ankles = shallow squats and back pain
Static stretching before lifting: Kills 5-10% of max strength for 30+ min
No specific warm-up ramp: First working set feels wrong, form breaks down
Warm-up too long: 30+ min of "prep" leaves you tired before you start
No warm-up at all: First rep is the heaviest, cold, unstable — injury risk

Do You Need Foam Rolling?

Optional. Research shows minimal performance benefit but subjective feel-good improvements. If you have specific tight areas (upper back, glutes), 2-3 minutes of targeted rolling is fine.

Should You Warm Up Every Exercise?

Compounds (squat, bench, DL, OHP): Yes, full ramp
Secondary compound (incline, RDL): 1-2 warm-up sets
Isolation (curls, extensions): Skip, just do a lighter first set

A 10-minute warm-up saves you a 10-week injury. The ramp isn't optional — it's where you find the day's strength.

Track Warm-Up Sets

1RM.fit auto-fills your warm-up ramp percentages based on your working weight. No math in the gym.

Download 1RM.fit free.

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