The special warm-up in bodybuilding

The special warm-up is called to prepare athletes for the heavy workload. You can’t just press 100kg barbell from the "cold start" - the probability of injury is very high.

Right before the training of certain muscle group you should work out with light weights and gradually increase it. For example, when performing chest exercises you should gradually increase the operating weight in the most basic exercise (exercise in which more muscles are activated) for the chest - dips or bench press.

Here’s the warm-up plan for bench press: a set with empty barbell, then set with a light weight, after that a set with weight for 14-17 reps. But never do the warm-up to "failure" and warm-up one muscle group twice. This means that if you have completed the bench press workout, in all other chest exercises warm-up is not needed. Yet it should be noted that the warm-up for chest or back can replace warm-up for hands. Warm-up of the upper body can’t replace the warm-up of legs and vice versa.