How To Warm Up Before Weights

As you ladies know, warm up exercises before a workout is a MUST. It helps to prepare your body physically and mentally for your workout, it can help your body to move better and it can reduce the chance of an injury. 

If you’re weight training, then warming up is even more important. You are about to lift heavy weights with your body, so you need to get the blood flowing and wake up your muscles.

Jump to:

• Warm up before a workout
• Warm up for an exercise

Here’s how you can warm up before weights:

Warm up before a workout

Start with an overall warm up. A few minutes of cardio, whether that is a jog on the spot, a walk on the treadmill or some skipping, can help to get your heart rate up. By doing 5-10 minutes of cardio, you’ll gradually increase your core body temperature and signal to your nervous system that it’s time to switch on. 

Next, it’s time for some stretching to get your muscles ready. Remember, there is a difference between static and dynamic stretches, and I like to use dynamic stretching as part of my pre-workout warm up. Dynamic stretches are movement-based stretches, meaning that you move as you stretch, rather than holding the stretch for 30 seconds or more. These stretches can help to activate your muscles, increase your range of motion and help your balance and coordination too.

Warm up for an exercise

When you’re weight training, your muscles need to use a wide range of movements, and it is important for all of your muscles to work as well as they can. Making movements similar to the exercises in your workout can help to prepare the specific muscles and joints you will be using.  

The exercises will vary depending on the type of weights workout you are going to do, but some you might use are bodyweight lunges and squats before a leg workout, or push ups and rows (with low resistance) before an arm workouts. You’re trying to lightly exercise the muscle groups you are targeting in your workout — do them slowly, maintaining form and remember to breathe while you do them!

Now that you’re all warmed up for weight training, you might want to check out how to workout with weights! It has some examples of exercises you’ll find in my High Intensity Strength program (formerly BBG Stronger) and it is a great way to ease into doing weights. 

Say it with me ladies: I will warm up before EVERY workout! I know I talk about the importance of workouts all the time, but there’s a good reason. I want you ladies to be at your fittest and healthiest, so don’t neglect warm ups.