The Warm-Up & Primer: What I Do Before the First Working Set

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The warm-up isn't a box to check before the real workout. It's the first part of the real workout.

A good warm-up does three jobs. It raises your body temperature. It wakes up the muscle you're about to train. And it lets you practice the exact movement before the weight gets heavy. Think of it like starting your car on a cold morning. You don't turn the key and floor it onto the highway. You let it run, check your mirrors, then pull out.

Here's how I break it down:

• General Warm-Up: a few minutes of easy cardio to get warm. Before legs, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Active Warm-Up: one or two movements picked for your issue, like flyes for chest activation or external rotations for shoulder stability.
• Ramp-Up Sets: lighter sets of your first lift, building toward your working weight.
• Primer: extra activation work, used only when a person needs it.

Your First Step: Before your next session, pick one active warm-up for the first muscle you're training. Do two sets with real effort and clean form, then start your ramp-up.

The Breakdown

Warm-Ups Are Part of the Workout

A warm-up is not throwaway work. Warm-up drills are activators. They aren't easy, but they have a purpose: cues, blood flow and activation. They're never careless. Every rep gets the same attention as a working set: S.S.I. on every rep (Setup, Stabilize, Initiate), the target muscle doing the work, full control.

A warm-up is also not a working set. Working sets stop a rep or two short; the last hits true failure. Warm-up sets get you ready for them and don't count toward your total. Working sets are moving with the purpose of growth. For the full line between the two, read What Counts as a Working Set (& What Doesn't).

The General Warm-Up: Get Warm First

Warm muscle works better. A review of 32 high-quality studies found that warming up improved performance in 79% of the outcomes measured (Fradkin et al., 2010). The warm-ups varied a lot, but skipping it is rarely the smart move.

For upper-body days, a few minutes on a bike, an elliptical or an Arc Trainer is usually enough to get the blood moving. Before legs, I want 5 to 10 minutes.

The Active Warm-Up: Pick It by the Problem

Generic warm-ups give everyone the same arm circles. I'd rather pick a movement that fixes what goes wrong for you on the lift that's coming:

• Chest Won't Fire on Presses: flyes first, so you feel the chest stretch and squeeze before you press.
• Shoulders Feel Unstable: band external rotations for the rotator cuff. I like bands such as Theraband or Crossover Symmetry here.
• Back Doesn't Engage on Rows: pullovers to prime the back.
• Can't Feel Your Lats on Pulldowns: cable pullovers to learn the lat cue.
• Knees Cave on Squats or Leg Press: lateral steps with a hip band at or above the knees to wake up the glutes and the muscles on the outside of the hip.

If you're not sure what breaks down for you, film your first working set and watch it.

Ramp-Up Sets: Practice the Lift Before It Gets Heavy

Once you're warm and the right muscle is awake, build up to your working weight on your first big lift. Lighter loads, same execution.

The research is mixed, but it leans one way. A review of upper-body warm-ups found the strongest support for heavier, movement-specific loads, while light, general movement did little for strength (McCrary et al., 2015). A review of resistance-training warm-ups found inconsistent results, with some studies showing that a specific warm-up near working loads helped strength and reps to failure (Ribeiro et al., 2021). Practicing the lift with real but lighter weight is worth it.

How many ramp-up sets? It depends on the day. I follow a program, and everything I write down for myself is working sets. The warm-up and activation sets I adjust, because I know what it takes for me. On a particular day, I might need more warm-up sets to get to my working sets.

Later lifts usually need less. One lighter feeler set is often enough.

The Primer: Used on Purpose, Not by Default

A primer is extra activation or mind-muscle work before the lift. It's a tool, not a requirement. I use it for people coming back from an injury or whose target muscle just won't turn on.

The foundation of every primer is S.S.I.: Setup, Stabilize, Initiate. Priming isn't about jumping the weight, adding sets or switching exercises. It's about locking in a movement pattern. Take a biceps curl. Cheat curl, dumbbell curl or barbell curl, the goal is the same: activate the biceps. If you don't know what that feels like, you won't know how to stabilize your arm, palm up, without swaying. And if you're swinging your arm around, you'll never really feel the biceps work.

Once you know the cue, the exercise or machine doesn't matter. You can be honest with yourself: that machine hit it better than that free weight, or that cable beat that machine. You start to program your own technique off your own body and your own feedback.

That's why a number on a primer is irrelevant to me. I'm not inside your head or your body. I can tap the muscle while you work, help you squeeze, cue you and critique your form. I always give people a range. But I can't snap my fingers and make you feel it. I'm not Thanos. You have to try it and tweak it yourself.

Most people don't need a separate primer forever. The Foundation block does a lot of that job.

What I Do Before My First Working Set

Here's what I do myself. It's not a prescription. Your issues decide your version.

On a hamstring day, I start with a quad warm-up. I put a hip band on my knees, cinch myself down with the seat belt on a leg extension and knock out 30 to 50 reps with both legs. Then I go to a lying hamstring curl, my favorite for the stretch. I warm up at about 65 pounds (29 kg) for 20 to 25 reps, add a couple of 10s, and scale up again, and again, until I'm at about 135 pounds (61 kg). That's where my working sets start: 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12, big stretch, big squeeze.

On an upper-body day, I start with a little cardio to get the heart rate up. With clients, I'll often hop on a piece of cardio equipment next to them for a couple of minutes so we can talk. Then the bands: shoulder internal and external rotation and shoulder activation, Crossover Symmetry style. Then ramp-up sets on the first lift before the working sets.

What About Stretching?

I don't do much static or ballistic stretching. It's all about range of motion after the warm-up: some light soft-tissue work, then move through the full range to get everything going.

For anyone who does stretch before lifting, length is what matters in the research. Holds of 60 seconds or longer per muscle group lowered performance by about 4.6%, compared with about 1.1% for shorter holds (Behm et al., 2016).

Bro Science Check: "Stretching before you lift kills your strength."

What the Research Says: Holds of 60 seconds or more right before testing caused small drops in performance, shorter holds caused very little, and adding dynamic activity afterward mostly removed the effect (Behm et al., 2016).

Verdict: Cut. Long holds are what cost performance, not stretching in general.

Common Mistakes

• Skipping the warm-up to save time. Your first working set turns into a warm-up, and you lose it.
• Warming up to failure. If your ramp-up sets leave you tired, they're eating into your working sets.
• Counting warm-ups as working sets. I only write down working sets. Your log should too.

If something hurts during your warm-up, not just feels stiff, stop and have it checked by a doctor or physical therapist. A warm-up shouldn't hurt. Not medical advice.

Once you're warm, every rep after that should look the same. Next: What Counts as a Working Set (& What Doesn't).