Why Warming Up is Crucial

The warm up is a crucial element of any training session, this is no different when we are training the bench press. Often when individuals are training the upper body the warm up is considered a lot less important than for the lower body. This is not the case and the warm up is just important when training the upper body. The role of the warm up is to both improve performance through thorough preparation and to prevent injury by loading the body when it is not prepared.

General Warm Up

The general warm up usually consists of three exercises and aims to increase body temperature and improve neuromuscular activation (the contraction of muscles). During the general warm up for the bench press there will typically be at-least one exercise that strives to warm up the pectorals in order to prepare them specifically.

The general warm up also consists of a core exercise, this is especially beneficial for the bench press as the core will play a key role in creating enough tension to lift heavy weights. Below I have designed a typical general warm up I would perform before doing the bench press. This is an advanced warm up and should not be done by beginners. I have added in an alternative example of a warm up for beginners below the advanced warm up.

Sample General Warm Up

Specific Warm Up

The specific warm up will involve using the bench press in order to progressively load the bar toward the working weights. The specific warm up starts with an empty bar, then two or more sets building up towards your working weight. This means that you will perform three sets prior to your first working set. These are just guidelines, some people may prefer performing a few more working sets. For me it depends how heavy I am lifting, if I am doing high level strength work I would often do 4+ warm up sets to progressively build up to the heavier working weight. Whereas when I am doing hypertrophy or a deload I may only do 2 warm up sets.

Sample Specific Warm Up

In this example the training session is 5 x 3 @85% of 1RM bench press. This will require a relatively long warm up as we are working at high percentages.

Empty Bar x 10

50% of 1RM x 5

70% of 1RM x 4

80% of 1RM x 3

Working Sets

Fast Warm Up

When I am very pressed for time and I need to reduce the length of my session, I typically merge the general warm up and the specific warm up. This means that I put the specific warm up into the general warm up. This saves a lot of time, it is important you do not do this with very challenging sessions where you will likely need a more extensive warm ups. But if your’e in the middle of a cycle and the session isn’t too hard plus your running low on time, this can be a great way to cut a few minutes off your training session.

Individualised Warm Ups

Some individuals may need to work on specific areas of technique, or need to try and gain some mobility in their shoulders in order to progress their bench press technique. If this is the case then you may want to add these specific elements into the warm up. This could mean focusing on a specific technical point on the bench press during your warm up, or adding in a specific mobility drill in your general warm up. Either way the warm up for the bench press is a great time to work on these elements that over the long term will result in beneficial adaptations.

Sample Warm Up Exercises for The Bench Press (horizontal press)