Before a heavy lift, do two to four warm-up sets of the same exercise: start around half of your working weight for about 10 easy reps, then climb in bigger jumps with fewer reps each time, so your first working set feels like a working set, not a shock.
Why bother with warm-up sets
Every gym has someone who loads the bar to their working weight and grinds out the first set cold. Sometimes it goes fine. More often the first set feels heavier than it should, the groove is off, and the best set of the day turns out to be the third one.
Warm-up sets fix that. They move your joints through the exact range of the lift, let you rehearse the technique with a weight that forgives mistakes, and get your nervous system used to a load before it has to handle the real one. The goal is to arrive at your first working set ready, not tired.
General warm-up and warm-up sets are different things
A general warm-up comes before you touch a bar: a few minutes of light movement to raise your pulse and wake up the hips, shoulders and back. It warms you.
Warm-up sets (also called ramp-up sets) are lighter sets of the exercise you are about to do. They warm up the lift. Five minutes on a bike will not teach your body where the bar should touch your chest; a set with half the weight will. You want both, in that order.
How many warm-up sets
It depends on how heavy you are going and where the exercise sits in your workout.
- The first big lift of the day needs the most: usually two to four sets.
- Heavier work needs more steps. A working set of 60 kg can be reached in two jumps. A 160 kg squat needs four or five, because jumping from 60 kg straight to 160 kg is not a warm-up, it is a surprise.
- Later exercises need less. By the third exercise your body is already warm. One lighter set is usually enough, and small isolation moves after big lifts often need none.
How much weight, and why the reps go down
Start light with more reps, then add weight and cut reps as you climb. The early sets are there to move; the later ones are there to feel the load.
The reps drop because a warm-up set should never feel hard. Ten reps at half your working weight is easy. Ten reps at 85% would be a working set, and it would take energy from the sets that actually count. So as the weight gets closer to your working weight, you do just enough reps to feel it: three, two, one.
Rest about a minute between light sets, and a little longer before the first working set.
A worked example: 80 kg working weight
Say your working sets today are 80 kg on the bench press or the squat. A full ramp could look like this:
| Set | Weight | Reps | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up 1 | Empty bar, 20 kg | 10 | Range of motion, groove |
| Warm-up 2 | 40 kg (50%) | 8-10 | Easy reps, technique check |
| Warm-up 3 | 55 kg (70%) | 3-5 | First feel of real weight |
| Warm-up 4, optional | 65-70 kg (about 85%) | 1-2 | For heavy days of 1-5 reps |
| Working sets | 80 kg | as planned | The sets that count |
For a day of 8-12 reps, sets 1-3 are plenty. Keep set 4 for heavy days, when the working weight is close to your max. If your working weight is much higher, add a step in the middle rather than making the jumps bigger.
Not sure what your working weight should be? The 1RM calculator turns a recent hard set into weights for every percentage, and the bench press and squat pages have a warm-up ramp tool that does this maths for your own number.
Once your warm-up is sorted, pick a week to train: the free gym programs lay out every exercise with its sets, reps and rest.
How Coach.AI does it
This is one of the things the app handles for you, so you don't have to calculate it standing at the rack.
Before the first two exercises with weight in a workout, Coach.AI puts two warm-up sets in front of your working sets: 50% of your working weight for 10 reps, then 70% for 5. From the third exercise with weight on, you get one set of 60% for 8 reps, because by then you are already warm. For the same 80 kg:
| Exercise in the workout | Warm-up sets the app suggests |
|---|---|
| 1st and 2nd exercise with weight | 40 kg × 10, then 55 kg × 5 |
| 3rd exercise with weight and later | 47.5 kg × 8 |
A few details:
- Weights are rounded to the 2.5 kg plate step (5 lb in pounds), so 70% of 80 kg becomes 55 kg, and a warm-up is never heavier than your working weight.
- With a kettlebell, the app picks a bell that exists: under a 16 kg working bell, the ramp is 8 kg, then 12 kg.
- The rep counts are fixed on purpose. A strength day of 3 reps would otherwise warm up for 3 reps, and a 20-rep set would warm up for 20, which is just another set.
- Timed exercises and moves with your own body weight get no ramp, since there is no weight to climb.
- In a superset, every exercise of the group gets its ramp before the first round, so you never drop back to a warm-up mid round.
- Tapping your first working set skips the ramp if you have warmed up your own way.
Before the session the app also runs a short general warm-up: bodyweight moves on a timer, one to raise your pulse, then a squat, a push-up or dip, core work and a pull, plus extra moves for the muscles you are about to train. You can skip it too.
If your top set is very heavy and two warm-up sets feel like too big a jump, add one in between yourself. The ramp is a sensible default, not a rule against common sense.
Questions people ask
Do warm-up sets count as working sets?
No. They are too light to count toward your training volume. In Coach.AI they are tracked separately from your working sets, so they don't inflate your totals or your records.
Do I need warm-up sets before every exercise?
No. The first one or two heavy lifts need a proper ramp. After that, one lighter set is usually enough, and small isolation moves later in the workout often need none.
Should I do cardio before lifting?
A few minutes of easy cardio is a fine general warm-up. A long, hard session is not, because it eats into the energy you need for your working sets. Keep it short and easy, then go to your warm-up sets.
How long should a warm-up take?
Around 5-10 minutes for the general part, plus a few minutes of warm-up sets for your first lift. On a heavy day it can take longer, and that is time well spent.
