Warming Up & Neurological Recruitment

[Gus]

Hi Joe

What are your guy’s thoughts of keeping warm up sets in a given Rep range building up to your top set in that given Rep range? For instance

Bench Press
Set 1: 135×10
Set 2: 225×10
Set 3: 315×10
Set 4: 405×8-10 *work set

Any benefits on accumulating a bit of local fatigue on the way up? Why do I feel stronger this way as opposed to your method of building up in no more than 4-5 reps? Is it better motor pattern recruitment? Better neurological adaptations to the movement?

I don’t know if its happened to you guys but have you guys been stronger on say a squat when you perform it 2nd or 3rd as opposed to first in the session? Shouldn’t you theoretically be stronger when you’re fresh?

[BryceBahm]

[Gus]

Thank you Bryce for your response,

I know this is just minutiae. At the end of the day what matters is proximity to failure on your working sets and progressing over time… regardless of how you choose to do those things. For me personally I just like to extend the warm ups a bit by having a given Rep range in mind. It might come with a bit of junk volume and some fatigue but I feel it has its benefits. I also feel this is like a built in log book. If you’re doing Incline Bench for sets of 6 you know that once you’re able to get 8 on a given weight you can go up (and that would be the progression).

Psychologically I feel that this is easier for most people as opposed to not really knowing how many reps to do on previous sets.

This could also be a good way of preventing injury and knowing if you’re under recovered. Because if your working set is 315×8 but you do 275 and are really struggling to get to that 8th Rep range you know you might need to back off.

Would also be interested in hearing Joe’s perspective on this! 🙂

[Gus]

Bumping this thread as it looks like it got lost

[Joe]

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