Is It Necessary To Warm Up For Resistance Training?

by Drew Baye

Although a warm up should be performed prior to participation in any athletic activity involving high velocity, high force movements, it is unnecessary to warm up prior to resistance training if exercises are performed using smooth, controlled movements for moderate or higher repetitions or set durations. Many people believe they must warm up before resistance training to prepare their body for intense work and reduce the likelihood of injury, however, for most healthy people a warm up is unnecessary for either purpose.

Most of the physical benefits of a warm up, increased blood flow to the muscles, enhanced metabolic reactions, reduced muscle viscosity, increased extensibility of connective tissue, improved conduction velocity of action potentials, etc., are obtained during the first few repetitions of an exercise. If a moderate or higher repetition range or set duration is used, the first few repetitions of an exercise warm up and prepare the muscles and joints involved for the harder reps later in the set. Additionally, each exercise performed helps prepare those muscles and joints for any subsequent exercises they're involved in.

Injury occurs during exercise when a tissue is exposed to a level of force that exceeds it's structural strength. This typically occurs due to excessive acceleration, improper body mechanics, or some combination of the two. As long as the exercise is performed with proper body mechanics and direction is reversed smoothly and without a high level of acceleration between the lifting and lowering movements, the likelihood of injury is very low. A separate warm up is not necessary to minimize the risk of injury to healthy joints, muscle, or connective tissue if excessive acceleration is avoided during exercise.

Stretching is often considered part of a warm up, but is a separate activity. Stretching prior to a workout does not prevent injury, and should not be performed prior to resistance training since it may reduce the muscles ability to produce force.

If an exercise is going to be performed using much heavier than normal weights, such as when using high intensity methods like rest-pause, negative-only, hyper, or Max Contraction, or for very-low repetitions (singles, doubles, triples), the demand on the muscles, joints, and connective tissues involved will be very high right from the start. While most healthy people should be able to perform these without a warm up provided strict form is used, some may find they experience less muscle or joint discomfort during or after when they perform a brief, light (50%) warm up set first.

People with some types of physical conditions or joint problems may find they tolerate certain exercises better or experience noticeably reduced joint discomfort if they warm up prior to training. In this case, the best warm up for a particular exercise is often a set of the same exercise with a much lighter weight, or another exercise which involves the same joint or joints. For example, some people's knees tolerate exercises involving extension better if they first warm them up with knee flexion, and some people whose elbows tend to lock during pulling movements find it helps to perform a pushing movement first.

Although a warm up is most often performed for physical reasons, some people like to perform one or more warm up sets prior to certain exercises to prepare themselves mentally for the intense work to come, or to practice the movement.

Some individuals may perform better during their work set after a light warm up set. This can be determined by performing a simple test: Select one upper body and one lower body exercise that can be performed with one limb at a time, such as arm curls and leg extensions. Perform a light warm up (about 50% of what you would normally use) for your weak side only. Then perform a work set to failure with your strong side, followed by a work set to failure with your weak side. If the weak side performs significantly better than the strong side, you may want to perform a warm up set before each exercise. If it performs significantly worse, you should not, unless it is necessary for reasons mentioned above.

If a separate warm up activity or warm up sets are performed it is important to ensure it is not overdone. A warm up or warm up sets that are too long or too demanding may produce enough fatigue to prevent a high intensity of effort during the work out or work sets. Warming up is not necessary for healthy individuals if a moderate to high rep range or set duration and strict form are used, but if you prefer to warm up before working out keep it brief, and keep it light.

References:

Darden, Ellington. The Nautilus Book: An Illustrated Guide to Physical Fitness The Nautilus Way. Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1981

Hutchins, Ken. SuperSlow: The Ultimate Exercise Protocol, 2nd Edition. Casselberry, FL: Media Support. 1992

Enoka, Roger. Neuromechanics of Human Movement, 3rd Edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 2002

Herbert RD, Gabriel M. Effects of stretching before and after exercise on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review. BMJ 2002; 325: 468-470

Shrier I. Stretching before exercise does not reduce the risk of local muscle injury: a critical review of the clinical and basic science literature. Clin J Sports Med 1999; 9: 221-227

MacAuley, D., Best, T. M (2002). Reducing risk of injury due to exercise. BMJ 325: 451-452

Fowles, JR. Sale, DG. MacDougal, JD. Reduced strength after passive stretch of the human plantarflexors. J Appl Physiol 2000 Sep;89(3):1179-88.