- ...c. To practice concentration and mentally rehearse for the hard sets to
come.
d. To prime the muscles and body as a whole for heavy work.. On the heels of building up concentration during the warmup stage of a
workout, is the sustaining of it throughout the session. Review Chapter , in
the segment Focus and Mental Ferocity, to help you deliver the focus needed
to train intensively enough to get terrific results.. When rehearsing the groove of each exercise prior to the work set(s), you
probably cannot do a good job if you use very comfortable weights. You need
or more of your work set weight on the bar. is especially applies to
low-rep work. Here you have no room for technique error if a work set is to
be a success. Preparation must be . For the exercises you use your big-
gest weights in, you need multiple warmup sets. e final one will be with
up to or so of your work set(s) poundage, but for just a few precision
reps. It would be for only a single rep if you were doing very low reps in your
work set(s).. If you do not warm up well enough, especially for low-rep work, you may
find that your second work set (with the same weight as for the first work
set) may actually feel no harder, if not a tad less difficult than that first set.
is assumes that you rested well between the first and second work sets.
Your body needs something fairly taxing in order to prime itself for the very
demanding work set(s) to follow.. You may find that a warmup set with or so of your work set weight will
sometimes feel as heavy if not heavier than the first work set. is is part
of the process of preparing yourself for your heaviest sets, so do not be too
alarmed if your warmup sets feel heavier than you think they should. So
long as your form is good, and you are feeling fine, all should be well.. Dropping too hurriedly into your heaviest sets, under the assumption that
you are saving energy, can backfire. It can make the work sets harder than
they would have been had you warmed up in a better way and spent more
energy on it. Some individual experimentation and experience will help you
to discover what you need to do to best prepare yourself for your work sets
for each exercise. is will almost certainly vary among different exercises
and rep counts.