Warm-Up Design and Session Structure

The warm-up is the most frequently written and least frequently specified part of a training programme. "Warm up properly" appears in almost every plan and instructs nobody, which is why in practice it becomes five minutes on a bike followed by whatever the athlete remembers.

A warm-up has three jobs, and a good one does all three in ten to fifteen minutes: raise tissue temperature, take the joints through the ranges the session will demand, and prepare the nervous system for the specific intensities that follow. Anything that does not serve one of those is occupying time the session needs.

Key Principles

1. The warm-up is specific to the session, not generic

A session of heavy squats and a session of interval running need different preparation. The general portion can be shared; the specific portion cannot.

The rule of thumb: the last third of the warm-up should look like the first exercise of the session, performed lighter and faster.

2. Static stretching before, dynamic during, is the wrong order

Prolonged static stretching immediately before training transiently reduces force and power output. The effect is modest and recovers, but it is a cost paid at exactly the wrong moment.

Dynamic work — movement through range, progressively larger and faster — achieves the range without the cost. Static stretching, where the athlete wants it, belongs after training or in a separate session.

3. Ramp sets are part of the prescription, not part of the warm-up

Working up to a heavy set is training, not preparation, and it should be written down. A squat prescribed as "4 × 5 at 85%" without ramp sets is under-specified: the athlete either invents the ramp or walks up to 85% cold.

A workable default for a heavy compound lift: 5–6 repetitions at roughly 40%, 5 at 55%, 3 at 70%, 1–2 at 80%, then the working sets. Ramp sets are not counted toward working volume.

4. Preparation time scales with intensity and with age

A session of light accessory work needs little. A session of maximal singles, sprinting, or plyometrics needs a great deal — and the athletes who need the most are the ones training the highest intensities and the ones over forty.

For sprint and plyometric work, the warm-up frequently takes as long as the session itself. That is not inefficiency; it is what makes the session possible.

5. The warm-up is also the diagnostic

It is the first honest signal of the day's readiness. A ramp that feels heavier than usual, a joint that objects, a range that is not there — all of it arrives during the warm-up, before any decision that costs anything.

Programmes that autoregulate use it as such: the plan is confirmed or adjusted at the end of the warm-up, not at the end of the first working set.

Guidelines & Recommendations

General structure, 10–15 minutes

Phase	Duration	Content
Raise	3–5 min	Low-intensity cyclical work — bike, row, easy jogging, skipping. Enough to raise temperature and breathing rate, not enough to fatigue.
Mobilise	3–5 min	Dynamic movement through the ranges the session will use. Hips and thoracic spine for lower-body days; shoulders and thoracic for upper.
Activate	2–3 min	Low-load work for the muscles the session will demand, especially those the athlete tends not to recruit — glutes, mid-back, rotator cuff.
Potentiate	2–3 min	Progressively faster and more specific: jumps before squats, throws before pressing, strides before running.

Session-specific additions

• Heavy strength: longer ramp, more specific potentiation, no fatigue accumulation.
• Power and plyometrics: the longest warm-up of all. Full joint preparation plus progressive intensity jumps before anything reactive.
• Sprinting: progressive strides building to near-race pace before the first maximal effort. This is where hamstring injuries are prevented.
• Endurance: shortest warm-up; the first ten minutes of the session serves the purpose. High- intensity intervals still need progressive build-up.
• Return from injury: longest and most conservative, with the affected area given specific, gradual loading before the session proper.

What to leave out

• Long static holds before power or strength work.
• Extensive foam rolling as a substitute for movement; it can precede the warm-up but does not replace it.
• Anything creating meaningful fatigue. A warm-up the athlete needs to recover from has failed.
• Novel exercises. The warm-up is not the place to learn a movement.

Cool-down

The evidence for cool-downs improving next-day performance or reducing soreness is weak. What they reliably do is provide a controlled return to rest and a slot for the mobility work that would otherwise never happen.

Prescribe them when there is a reason — an athlete who needs range work, a session ending at very high intensity — and do not pretend a five-minute walk accelerates recovery.

Exercise order within the session

1. Power and explosive work, when technique and nervous system are freshest.
2. Primary compound lifts.
3. Secondary compounds and unilateral work.
4. Isolation and accessory work.
5. Grip, trunk, and conditioning last, because each compromises what follows.

Position in the session is a form of prescription: an exercise placed fifth receives less than the same exercise placed first, whatever the sets say.

Key Takeaways

• Write the warm-up. "Warm up properly" is not an instruction.
• Three jobs in 10–15 minutes: raise temperature, take the joints through range, prepare the nervous system.
• The last third should resemble the first exercise, lighter and faster.
• Ramp sets are prescription, not preparation, and belong in the plan.
• Static stretching goes after training, not before power or strength work.
• Preparation scales with intensity: sprints and plyometrics need the most.
• Use the warm-up as the day's readiness check, before any expensive decision.