How to Warm Up Properly (and Why I Stopped Skipping It)
For years I treated the warm-up as an optional extra, something for people with too much time on their hands. I would walk into the gym, load up the bar, and start lifting cold. Then one day I tweaked my lower back on a set of deadlifts I had done a hundred times before, and I spent the next three weeks barely able to train. That injury taught me a lesson I now take seriously: a good warm-up is not wasted time, it is insurance for your workout. What a warm-up actually does A proper warm-up does exactly what the name says. It raises your body temperature, gets blood flowing to your muscles, and prepares your joints and nervous system for the work ahead. Cold muscles are stiff and more prone to strains. Warm muscles are pliable and ready to produce force. The difference is not just about avoiding injury either. When I warm up properly, I lift better, feel more coordinated, and my first working sets no longer feel like a shock to the system. The two parts of a good warm-up A complet...