Warm up

bgast1 · Number of posts: 458 Age: 58 Registration date: 2007-04-07

I've been told that I need to warm up before strength training. What would be considered a sufficient warm up. I have been typically doing 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.

Kit · Number of posts: 154 Age: 20 Registration date: 2009-06-16

Sounds good to me. Whole point of warming up is to get blood flowing into the muscles, so that they're prepared to take some strain. 20 minutes might be a little long for a warm up. 10 minutes should be just about right. If you're going to do some upperbody, some relaxed pushups would be great for a warmup.

_________________
"When I get hold of the big bad wolf
I just push him under to drown
Then I bite him in a million bits
And I gobble him right down"

-Animal Crackers in My Soup by Shirley Temple... brutal

**arttieTHE1manparty** · Subject: Re: Warm up Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:58 am

I'm in the 10 to 15 minute camp, but I rarely do cardio to warm up. I just do light sets on the muscles I will be using that day.

Arttie

_________________
Constitutional separation of church and state is a lie; it is a figment of the secular-progressive's imagination.

"If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."--Ronald Reagan

"Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America."--George W. Bush, Sept. 11, 2001

bgast1 · Number of posts: 458 Age: 58 Registration date: 2007-04-07

arttieTHE1manparty wrote:

I'm in the 10 to 15 minute camp, but I rarely do cardio to warm up. I just do light sets on the muscles I will be using that day.

Arttie

I'm at very light weights right now. Not very strong at all, but I think some improvement in that will come quickly. Consider me to be a 245 lb fat weakling for now. Would your comment still apply if maybe using no weight at all?

**Tall Tyrion** · Subject: Re: Warm up Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:09 pm

bgast1 wrote:

I'm at very light weights right now. Not very strong at all, but I think some improvement in that will come quickly. Consider me to be a 245 lb fat weakling for now. Would your comment still apply if maybe using no weight at all?

Yes, the bar itself weighs 45 pounds, so if you use that with no weight and practice the motion, it is a good warm up. Don't try to rush it, pretend that it is heavy and use slow smooth movements as though it were a "real" set. I always used to stretch out a few minutes before starting as well.

_________________
“If you make less than $250,000 your taxes will not go up. Not one dime.” BH Obama

''Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year -- now,'' Candidate Obama in 2007

bgast1 · Number of posts: 458 Age: 58 Registration date: 2007-04-07

Tall Tyrion wrote:

bgast1 wrote:

I'm at very light weights right now. Not very strong at all, but I think some improvement in that will come quickly. Consider me to be a 245 lb fat weakling for now. Would your comment still apply if maybe using no weight at all?

Yes, the bar itself weighs 45 pounds, so if you use that with no weight and practice the motion, it is a good warm up. Don't try to rush it, pretend that it is heavy and use slow smooth movements as though it were a "real" set. I always used to stretch out a few minutes before starting as well.

I'm not using free weights yet. All machines and some at as low as they will go anyway, others heavier. My legs are pretty strong for me, but my arms are pretty weak, at least when I work my chest. I now have 2 routines to work on my chest muscles and my legs. Nothing else yet. They say my muscles need 72 hours to recover.