Warm-ups for Powerlifting
I had hoped to uncover the secrets hiding deep within the literature about optimal warm-up load selection for completing a 1RM single on the squat, bench press and deadlift. Even just one relevant or maybe even intriguing search result for “powerlifting warm-up” on Google Scholar but unsurprisingly, those hopes were crushed.*
We know that the research on powerlifting is very slim, and even where present, it often can’t be liberally applied to the individual. Individual differences account for vast variability in nearly every aspect of powerlifting such as effective programming, effective coaching practices, communication, technique, attempt selection and today’s topic:
*Apart from one study titled “Are Strength Indicators and Skin Temperature Affected by the Type of Warm-Up in Paralympic Powerlifting Athletes?” super interesting, however still irrelevant to today’s discussion.
Warm-ups for Powerlifting
A short while ago, coach Andrew Roe made a TikTok regarding selecting warm-up loads for a topset and I’ve decided to expand on that a little!
I guess it would first of all be useful to define what a warm-up is.
Warm-up Definition:
“To prepare for physical exertion or a performance by exercising or practicing gently beforehand”
Warm-ups are done in preparation for whatever activity is to follow them. The majority of the literature surrounding warmups either addresses the efficacy of certain types of warmups versus other ones (dynamic stretching vs static stretching) or addresses a particular warm-up activity’s effect on a particular sport or exercise. There is a strong consensus however on the general goal of a warm-up:
To raise the body’s core temperature and to raise the temperature within the musculature used within the main activity.
This will accomplish two particular things:
Reduces muscle viscosity. Muscle tissue has viscoelastic properties meaning it exhibits both viscous and elastic characteristics when it is subjected to tensile and compressive forces.
Enhances enzymatic activity to improve muscle contraction.
Sounds pretty simple right? Well, that’s because it is. Move at a rate that is above resting while performing movements that are likely to increase your preparedness for the main activity. The movements you select should probably be quite specific to the activity that you are performing. While warming up for a field based team sport for example, your warm-up might be fairly elaborate considering the variety of things you’ll be doing, running, jumping, moving in different planes etc. While warming up for Powerlifting however, your warm-up is probably going to be quite simple given the simplicity of the squat, bench press and deadlift. Using light weight for the exercise you’re about to do will probably suffice in achieving the overarching general goal of warming up in most cases. Of course, as we previously mentioned, individual difference is a big factor in what will be “effective” for a particular person. While I would never prescribe cycling on a stationary bike for 5-10 mins or rolling on a lacrosse ball (or some other typical warm-up protocol that isn’t supported by evidence), if the athlete deems them to be useful, effective or even if something just feels good, then it is justified in being included in their warm-up.
Pillars of Warm-up Load Selection
Powerlifting is a fairly unique sport in that warm-ups will always come to a point. In rugby for example, you will warm up but then have to perform an array of movements in non-patterned intervals at a wide variety of intensities. At a powerlifting meet on the other hand, assuming your first warm-up is the bar, you’ll start at ~5-20% of your max output and the goal is generally to get as close to 100% of your max output on your third attempt as possible. This simplicity and predictability allows us to really zero in on what exact warm-up protocol to use and why.
In Andrew’s before mentioned video he outlines what I feel are some of the pillars of selecting warm-up loads.
Step 1 - Set a range for your topset/attempts
This is a very important step in allowing you to create intent coming into each session. Training with intent is something that will never lose its value throughout your powerlifting career, but will change somewhat as you become more advanced. It’s likely as a beginner that you will be able to go into a session with the intent to hit x amount more than last week and allow that intent to carry you to your goal. As you advance however this will become more difficult. Instead, intent will act as a motivator that allows you to extract the best possible outcome from your training session even if it doesn’t meet the desired outcome. You will be okay with this because at this point you will understand that there is a certain amount of variability to strength and the adaptations you are looking to make will occur regardless of this variability.
Step 2 - Be realistic
This one is fairly cut and dry but we are not machines, we are affected by emotions in the moment and can be liable to making fairly rash decisions particularly when confronted with an extended period of stressful training and the ensuing decision fatigue*. Developing good habits with regards to the ranges that you set for yourself before the session, establishing a case dependent plan of action and establishing a last warm-up that gives you plenty of options.
*Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.
Step 3 - Use a variety of means of interpreting intensity
Internal difficulty rating, rating set difficulty via video, taking training partner’s difficulty input, these are all means of interpreting intensity and this can be particularly useful for last warm-ups and second last warm-ups in order of importance. Unlike step two however, it’s not so cut and dry and there’s a large amount of individual variance in the efficacy of using any one of the above-mentioned means of rating exertion. For certain people, video will be the key to selecting the correct loads as they work towards topset/3rd attempt, for others they should never even think about looking at training footage while in the gym. I find it difficult to give any general advice on this one, but I think if you have yet to expose yourself to a number of these options, try it, see how you feel about it, keep what works, get rid of what doesn’t. Having a coach here will probably help with zero-ing in on a strategy that works for you
Most Common Warm-up Mistakes
The biggest mistake I still see people making is somewhat a relic of the Supple Leopard, Limber 11, McGill Big 3 days of past (mostly);
Spending a lot of time achieving very little.
The large majority of us work powerlifting into our busy lives, so making our sessions as timely and effective as possible will only stand to benefit both. Spending an hour doing “movement prep” or “prehab”* that has very little basis in the evidence is probably ill-advised for a sport as simple as powerlifting with the consensus goal of a general warm-up in mind. As explained above:
“ Your warm-up is probably going to be quite simple given the simplicity of Powerlifting. Using light weight for the exercise you’re about to do will probably suffice in achieving the overarching general goal of warming up in most cases.”
*Prehab is a particularly problematic turn of phrase in my opinion. The idea that it is necessary to pre-habilitate injury pushes a narrative of catastrophization of pain that is actually likely to worsen your pain symptoms and lead to injury. [1,2]
Simply put, shit happens. Sometimes you’ll need to adjust your warm-up protocol. Maybe you’ll have done a random hike up a mountain with little physical readiness for that task, which may affect your preparedness for a particular session. In this instance, you might find yourself feeling the need to do a few extra warm-up sets or even brushing the dust off the foam roller or whatever device you think may help you feel more prepared the session ahead. Don’t be rigid in the face of confounding circumstances, allow yourself to change the plan on the fly as you see fit. Picking a last warm-up that could also act as a topset for the session could work particularly well in instances like these where confounding factors are likely to affect session outcomes.
Stop watching TikTok for 20 minutes in between sets. Whatever your rest time vice is, chatting, rage-tweeting or other, it’s probably not going to help your training efforts to be resting for longer than twelve minutes at the very most. There is no point having done any kind of a warm-up if you plan on being sedentary for long periods of time mid session.
Picking Warm-up Weights
While you may be tempted to bust out a complicated warm-up calculator that gives you the perfect incremental jumps on paper from bar to topset, there is one surprisingly under-considered factor that I think should ultimately dictate your decisions;
Your lifting environment.
Competition, gym environment, training partners, environment temperature are to be considered in that order in my opinion.
There is absolutely no point taking 15 warm-up sets with 90 second rest times in training when on comp day this is going to be pretty much impossible given the typical constraints of a warm-up room. You’ll have to consider the realities of working in with up to 7 other people depending on the number of racks present. With a little bit of collaboration and a friendly approach, people will be very willing to help out but will also be very quick to frustration if you’re consistently delaying the progress of warm-ups and the general warm-up room flow. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to try and base your training around the realities of competition day for the sake of not only your own meet day experience but also the experience of those around you. It’s likely you’ll be brushing shoulders with these people for the entirety of your lifting career and having a reputation for being difficult in the warm-up room will heavily affect your long term experience. I couldn’t find any literature to support this, but in my own experience, people generally need far less warm-ups than they think.
Try cutting your warm-ups down to some of the typical landmark warm-ups relative to your class, with the last warm-up being where there is room for deviation based on your opener. (I like the increment between last warm-up and opener to be the same as the increment between opener and planned 2nd attempt).
If you don’t plan on competing, then the warm-up room will not be as important to you, however you will still have to contend with typical constraints of a gym environment such as availability of equipment and gym etiquette. Gym management probably won’t take too kindly to you hoarding all of the equipment you need for a session in a squat rack for 3 hours, so some of the above ideas will still apply.
Your training partners will affect your warm-ups for both good and bad from time to time but it’s important to now allow bad habits to creep in here. In short, keep the goal the goal. If your goal is to compete, then warm-up as if you were in a competition warm-up room.
Environment temperature is another thing I will generally consider in warm-ups, if you’re in a cold environment it can be useful to warm up 1-2 minutes quicker than usual, to ensure you maintain the body's core temperature and the temperature within the musculature as per warm-up consensus.
Warm-up Examples:
Competition day
93kg Male
Planned squat attempts - 210kg, 220kg, 230kg
70kg x 3-10
120kg x 3-5
170kg x 1-2
190kg x 1 (optional and time dependent)
200kg x 1
Competition day
57kg Female
Planned deadlift attempts - 142.5kg, 150kg, 155kg
70kg x 3-10
100kg x 3-5
120kg x 1-2
127.5kg x 1 (optional and time dependent)
135kg x 1
Training squat topset
74kg Male
Topset range - 190-200kg x 3
Last warmup - 187.5kg x 3
Previous week’s topset - 190kg x 3
Notable factors - Poor sleep coming into session, work stress high this particular day
75kg x 3-10
125kg x 3-5
155kg x 3 (optional and time dependent)
175kg x 3
187.5kg x 3 (today’s topset due to confounding factors)
Training deadlift topset
76kg Female
Topset range - 150-155kg x 2
Last warmup - 147.5kg
Previous week’s topset 147.5kg (difficult set as a result of life stressors and poor sleep)
Notable Factors - Great night’s sleep and low life stress headed into this session, athlete feels optimistic
70kg x 3-10
100kg x 3-5
120kg x 2
130kg x 2 (optional and time dependent)
140kg x 2
147.5kg x 2 (move phenomenally well, decides to go for high end of topset range)
155kg x 2 (hits planned RPE for session)
In conclusion..
Keep your general warm-up simple but don’t be afraid to try things if the situation calls for it.
Be realistic and use what you deem to be effective for you when rating RPE.
Don’t turn rest times into cooldowns.
Last warm-ups matter. Pick a last warm-up that gives you as many options as possible, not one that you think will “preserve your energy” for your topset.
Keep the goal the goal. If you’re competing in powerlifting, train like it.
References:
[1] Meints, S M, and R R Edwards. ““Evaluating psychosocial contributions to chronic pain outcomes.”” Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, vol. vol. 87,Pt B, 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6067990/.
[2] Quartana, Phillip J et al. ““Pain catastrophizing: a critical review.” Expert review of neurotherapeutics.” vol. vol. 9,5, 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696024/.