As it is starting to get colder in some parts of the country, I think it’s appropriate to talk about gym apparel again. Warmup pants are a necessity when the temperature goes down. Why? I always wear mine to protect my knees. A warm knee is a happy knee, a happy knee is a safe knee. As the temperature outside goes down, longer warmups are needed in order to be safe while lifting heavy weights. The warmer your knee is to begin with, the less likely you will be to hurt it when you forget that your warmup needs to be longer now that it’s cold outside.

What does wearing warmup pants do? It keeps your knee warm, of course. When the knee joint is kept warm it is more pliable and therefore less likely to tear under load. Pants, in addition to knee sleeves/wraps, are crucial in keeping your knees warm, safe, and happy. Even if the temeprature inside the gym is appropriate, even a short walk to the gym will probably be enough to make your knees cold enough to be injured. Don’t be that guy, wear your warmup pants and keep your knees safe. I usually keep my pants on for most of the workout just to insure that my knees stay safe and warm.

What is the best time of the day to train? The answer to this is usually whenever you can. However, some people may be blessed with the ability to chose the time of day when they are able to train. Personally, if I have the option of training at any time of the day I will always choose the early afternoon.

What’s wrong with the morning? The first reason is that I am never awake enough to focus very well in the morning. Crawling out of bed and chugging a cup of coffee does not set me up for optimal performance. An hour, food, and a few cups of coffee can really increase my ability to focus on technique. Furthermore they can get my mind out of survival mode and into work/attack mode.

Perhaps the most important part of training in the afternoon is the movement that takes place between when I wake up and when I workout. Movement is not a reference to a specific top secret training protocol, movement is just the general walking around that happens during the day. This general movement helps to loosen up joints and will make the warmup process much easier. Early morning warmups need to be longer than usual in order to account for the stiffness that follows being inactive for a long period of time, ie. sleep.

Overall the afternoon is a much better time to train, but when I can’t tweak my schedule to make that happen I take an extra long warmup before my workout and bring a travel mug full of strong black coffee.

Next step, putting weight on the bar. This step is more specific to the workout you are trying to do so let’s break it down. If you are trying to do some silly workout like 300 squats with 95lbs for time then you can probably jump right to that weight. For a heavy workout it’s much better to make several jumps before reaching your working weight.

The classic 5×5 program might warrant 2 sets of 5 reps, 1 of 4, a triple and a double building the weight each set up to your final working weight for the 5×5. There is no magic percentage warm-up for this kind of workout and the first few sets typically follow the easiest way to load the bar without using small plates (eg. 135, 225, 315…). The smaller jumps come as the weight approaches your working weight and the reps are reduced to limit the volume of the warm-up sets.

If you are attempting a max effort squat for reps (eg. 5RM) you may need to modify your warm-up to fit the needs of the task. First comes the empty bar to grove the movement and then a set of 5 regardless of the number of reps in your effort. After those sets I will use the number of reps planned for the effort if it is less than 3 for all subsequent warm-up sets. Special note: for a 5 rep max warm up like you would for the 5×5 but add a few more doubles as needed to get to the planned weight. The reason that I use the number of reps in the effort to warm up is that it prepares the body mentally and physically for the specific task ahead. You know what each rep feels like for that number and you are able to anticipate the max set with each set of your warm-ups.

In addition to an initial guess at the proper working weight you can use the warm-up sets to determine the weight that you will attempt by feel and by feedback from spotters. As the weight gets heavier you should feel out your technique and make corrections between sets. If for some reason you just can’t seem to get the perfect squat you may want to reduce the weight you had initially planned. Typically if your technique is spot on there it is usually not a good idea to raise the amount of weight for your attempt. Any increases should only happen if the weight feels like it is moving easily; here is where the spotters come in. A good spotter will be giving you technical feedback as well as an evaluation of bar speed. If the bar is moving quickly relative to how you have moved it before (here is where having a regular training partner helps) then you may be able to attempt a higher weight. Typically if the weight you planned to lift is already a pr you should avoid greed and rep out a solid personal record.

Now on to the 1 rep max; this IS your squat, the only measure that truly counts….

“Take account of the difficult while it is still easy
And deal with the large while it is still tiny
The most difficult things in the world originate with the easy,
And the largest issues originate with the tiny”
-The Dao de Jing (Ames and Hall Translation)

This will be a 3 part post about how to warm-up for squatting. I hope the cliffhangers don’t tear you apart during your agonizing wait…

So it’s squat day and you’re faced with a horrid Westside/Bulgarian/German Volume mash up and you need to be warm and ready for the hard physical task ahead of you. Let’s tackle the general warm-up first before moving on to specifics. The first thing you want to do when you get to the gym is sit down in a deep squat position.

Let yourself relax into it and try and loosen up all the hip tightness caused by your overly stressful desk job (read: sitting on the couch watching tv, melting your brain). After the initial discomfort goes away try pushing your knees out or shifting your weight to one side then the other to try and generally loosen up the bottom of your squat. This step can be followed by other mobility work if your hips are super duper tight (try mobilitywod); however I typically move on to the barbell after I feel my hips are loose enough.

The first set of squats with the barbell should be done with no additional weight. These squats should be perfect. Cue yourself with any errors you are prone to, and have a partner watch you to make sure that these squats are the most beautiful thing in the world. With no weight on the bar you should be able to squat with perfect technique. If you can’t there is absolutely no way you will survive when you load the bar up with all the weight in the gym and everyone is screaming at you to blow it up.

Next step, putting weight on the bar…