Warm Up And And Sets? What Do You Do?

Too many reps on sub maximal weights for me.
I typically do if benching 140 for working sets:

Bar x 20
60 x 10
100 x 5
120 x 2
140 x programmed reps

 

My main point was you need to do what's most efficient for you, but i didnt make that clear and i agree with how it is different for various reasons (age, niggles etc)
For me i try to do the least amount of reps possible to be sufficiently warmed up to do my top sets.
Squats i'd do more reps at lower weights as my knees arent the best. E.g. If squatting 200:

Bar x 20
60 x 10
100 x 8
120 x 6
140 x 4
160 x 3
180 x 2
200 x for x reps x sets

Deads i do even less than bench:

60 x 5-8
100 x 3-5
140 x 2-3
180 x 1-2
200 for reps x sets

Before working with Dig I used to do say if was benching 100 as a top set

40 x 10
60 x 10
75 x 10
90 x 10
100 x reps and sets

Dig changed my warm ups to a format more in line with what i do now as he told me it was wasted energy. However if on a day i felt i needed more reps id do them.

 

Warm up sets are massively overlooked and are more important than just getting your body warm, particularly for hypertrophy
You should give as much attention to the warm ups as working sets, they should probably be called priming sets
As the objective is to stimulate the muscle fibres and get that mind muscle connection to get the most out of your working sets
Most people just go through the motions and I'm guilty of that too in the past but then you realise doing 20 reps with light weight is doing fuck all compared to heavier controlled warm ups

 

what i found better for me as I got older was high reps at the low end, ie 20 reps empty bar, and a couple more sets increasing weight a little with high'ish reps ie 1x 40kg x 15, 1x 60kg x 8 then onto more what I'd term feeder sets where the weight increased but the reps kept quite low, 1x 80kg x 3, 1x 100kg x 2, 1x 120kg x 2 then my top set of 140kg for target 8+ reps.. kinda thing.
felt that my warming up was done at the low weight higher reps range, then it was more priming myself for the heavier weights but not taking anything from my top set by doing lots weighted reps prior.

Also though it all depends on the day too, some days you just know you need a little bit more blood moving, getting the joints warm, feeling the movement, I think you need to listen to your body more as you get older, not every session is going to go as the note book planned it, but thats OK.

 

Agree with that, good post mate

 

I've never done any static stretching before training unless a muscle is particularly tight and that's usually only hamstrings
I've always understood that it's not beneficial to static stretch prior to weight training but there is value to it after or away from your sessions
But, that doesn't mean that's the same for everybody
If its working for you then absolutely keep it in