The Best Way to Warm Up for Lifting (do not do this...)
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Never use 2.5 lb plates . . .
Specifically, never use 2.5 lb plates in your warm-ups . . . mostly . . . kind of.
using 2.5 lb plates in your warm-up? Let’s not be crazy here, folks.
Some elaboration is warranted here, but we’ll keep this short and quick.
The Three Criteria for a Good Warm-up
Remember that there are three criteria for a good warm-up. First, the warm-up needs to prepare you for your work sets, so the weight needs to get heavier throughout the warm-up, and this will typically be done in roughly equal increments.
Second, the warm-up should not exhaust you by the time you get to your work weight, so you’re typically going to taper your warm-up reps from one set to the next. Once you’ve put weight on the bar, something like 5-3-2-1 works pretty well as you’ll see in the example below (with 225 lb as the work weight):
45 lb x 5 x 2 (empty barbell)
95 lb x 5
135 lb x 3
185 lb x 2
205 lb x 1
—————
225 lb x 5 x 3 (work sets)
Could Julie do 90b for a warm-up? sure, but it takes two 10 lb plates and one 2.5 lb plate per side. 95 lb (i.e., one 25 lb plate per side) is far simpler.
Third - and this is what we’re talking about today with the absence of 2.5 lb plates - the warm-up should bow to convenience whenever it’s possible and reasonable to do so. It’s very convenient to choose your warm-up weights so that they end with the number five, e.g., 85 lb, 95 lb, 105 lb, etc., and if you do this, you don’t need to use 2.5 lb plates when warming up (if you use 2.5 lb plates, your weight selection will end with a zero such as 90 lb, 100 lb, 110 lb, etc.).
“Are You Sure This is OK?”
This works well because, in general, you don’t need to be nitpicky with your warm-up weight selections, and by avoiding 2.5 lb plates, we’ve now simplified the process by reasonably reducing the options we choose from when warming up.
Two Exceptions
This is a general recommendation, and as such, there are some exceptions.
First, you might want to be slightly more picky with your last warm-up set, and if that’s the case, you might choose to use 2.5 lb plates so that your last warm-up weight can end with a zero.
Second, if your work weight is less than 100 lb, you might need to use 2.5 lb plates in some of your warm-ups. For example, if you’re pressing 87.5 lb for the work weight, your warm-up might contain some weights ending in the number zero such as 70 lb or 80 lb, and you’ll need 2.5 lb plates to load those weights. However, if your work weight is 100 lb or more, most or all of your warm-up weights can end with a five, and thus you can skip the 2.5 lb plates.
Keep it simple, ditch the 2.5 lb plates in your warm-ups (with an exception here and there), and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better . . . and train more efficiently.
-Phil
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