Warm-Up Sets: How Many to Do and How Heavy (With a Ramp-Up Chart)
Warm-up sets do two jobs. They prepare your body for heavy weight, and they let you practice the exact movement you're about to load up. Too few and your first working set feels like a max. Too many and you've tired yourself out before the real work starts.
How to warm up for lifting: the two parts
1. General warm-up (3–5 minutes). Light activity that raises your body temperature and heart rate: brisk walking, a rower or bike, or a few bodyweight movements. You should feel warm, not tired.
2. Specific warm-up (ramp-up sets). Lighter sets of the exercise you're about to do, climbing toward your working weight. This is where warm-up sets come in, and it's the part that matters most for lifting.
The ramp-up chart
Use this for your first compound lift of the day. Percentages are of your working weight (the weight for your first real set), not your 1RM.
| Warm-up set | % of working weight | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Empty bar (or ~30–40%) | 8–10 |
| 2 | ~50% | 5 |
| 3 | ~70% | 3 |
| 4 | ~80–85% | 1–2 |
| 5 (optional, heavy days) | ~90% | 1 |
The pattern: weight goes up, reps go down. You want to feel the heavier loads without accumulating fatigue. These percentages are common coaching practice, not a research-derived formula, so adjust them to feel.
Example: squatting 140 kg × 5
| Set | Weight | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up 1 | 20 kg (bar) | 10 |
| Warm-up 2 | 70 kg | 5 |
| Warm-up 3 | 100 kg | 3 |
| Warm-up 4 | 120 kg | 1–2 |
| Working sets | 140 kg | 5 |
Example: bench pressing 60 kg × 10
Lighter working weights need fewer steps:
| Set | Weight | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up 1 | 20 kg (bar) | 10 |
| Warm-up 2 | 40 kg | 5 |
| Warm-up 3 | 50 kg | 2 |
| Working sets | 60 kg | 10 |
How many warm-up sets do you need?
It depends mainly on how heavy the working set is and how warm you already are.
| Situation | Warm-up sets |
|---|---|
| First heavy compound of the day (1–6 reps) | 3–5 |
| First compound, moderate weight (8–12 reps) | 2–3 |
| Second compound for the same muscles | 1–2 |
| Machine or isolation exercise later in the session | 0–1 |
If you squat and then leg press, the leg press needs maybe one feeler set. Your quads are already warm. A bench press after squats still needs a full ramp, because your upper body hasn't done anything yet.
What the research says
The evidence on warm-ups is more mixed than gym wisdom suggests, and it's worth being honest about.
- A 2010 systematic review by Fradkin and colleagues found that warming up improved performance in 79% of the criteria examined, with little evidence that it was harmful.
- A 2014 study by Ribeiro and colleagues had 15 men do bench press, squat, and arm curl sets to failure at 80% of their 1RM after no warm-up, a specific warm-up, an aerobic warm-up, or both. Total reps didn't differ significantly between conditions.
So for moderately heavy sets to failure, a warm-up may not change how many reps you get. But that study didn't test very heavy singles, complex barbell technique, or how the first rep feels. Ramp-up sets are cheap insurance. They take a few minutes, let you rehearse the movement, and tell you whether today is a good day before you commit to your working weight.
Don't count warm-ups as working sets
Muscle growth is driven by sets taken reasonably close to failure. A 2024 analysis of proximity to failure by Robinson and colleagues found that hypertrophy increased as sets ended closer to failure. Warm-up sets are deliberately easy, so they don't belong in your weekly hard-set count.
Mixing them into your log causes two problems:
- Inflated volume. Four warm-ups plus three working sets looks like seven sets. Only three were productive.
- Muddled progress. If a 70 kg warm-up and a 140 kg working set sit side by side with no label, your history is harder to read.
Label warm-ups separately in your log, whether you're using paper, a spreadsheet, or an app.
Common warm-up mistakes
- Too many reps on warm-ups. A set of 10 at 85% isn't a warm-up. It's a working set that leaves you tired.
- Jumping straight from the bar to your working weight. The big jump makes the first working set feel heavier and gives you nothing to calibrate against.
- Long static stretching before heavy lifts. It isn't needed. Save it for after training or a separate session.
- Skipping warm-ups when you're short on time. Cut an accessory exercise instead.
Warm-up sets in ForgeLyte Lift
ForgeLyte Lift lets you mark any set as warm-up, working, or failure, so your log shows exactly which sets counted. A "W" identifies each warm-up row. The row also displays the weight and repetitions saved for that position in the preceding workout, which helps you reconstruct your ramp without searching through history.
Frequently asked questions
How many warm-up sets should I do?
Should warm-up sets count toward my weekly volume?
Do I need to warm up before lifting at all?
Should I stretch before lifting?
How long should I rest between warm-up sets?
Sources
- Fradkin AJ, Zazryn TR, Smoliga JM. Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis (2010). J Strength Cond Res.
- Ribeiro AS, et al. Effect of different warm-up procedures on the performance of resistance training exercises (2014). Percept Mot Skills.
- Robinson ZP, et al. Exploring the dose-response relationship between estimated resistance training proximity to failure, strength gain, and muscle hypertrophy (2024). Sports Med.
Written by the developer of ForgeLyte Lift, a workout tracker mentioned in this guide. This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk to a qualified professional before starting a new training program, especially if you have an injury or health condition.