How long should a warm-up be?

Long enough to raise your temperature, open the ranges the session needs and switch on the tissue that has to work — usually 10 to 15 minutes before heavy or technical lifting, and about 5 when time is short. A short warm-up that covers all four phases beats a long one that is all stretching.

What should a warm-up actually include?

Raise, mobilise, activate and potentiate: get warm, open the specific ranges the session demands, switch on the muscles that have to hold position, then a short sharp effort to prime the nervous system. After that, ramp into the lift itself with build sets.

Should I stretch before lifting?

Long static stretches immediately before heavy or explosive work can blunt force production for a while afterwards. Moving through range — squat holds you keep moving in, leg swings, wall slides — buys the same range without that cost.

Can I warm up if something hurts?

Often yes, and the warm-up usually needs to change rather than be skipped: drop what provokes the area, add work that prepares it, and build into the lift in smaller steps. That is general training information rather than medical advice.

Build today's warm-up

Drag in today's lifts, add your conditioning piece, say whether you're running and where anything hurts, and get a 5, 10 or 15-minute warm-up built for that exact session: raise, mobilise, activate, potentiate, then the ramp sets into the bar. Build a different version any time. Free, no login.

Put today's session on the board and get the warm-up that prepares it, not a generic list. Up to five lifts, your conditioning piece, whether you're running, and anything that hurts. Every drill you get back says which lift put it there, and you can build a different version whenever you want one.

How long have you got?

5 min
10 min
15 min

Pick your lifts

Back Squat: Ankle range decides your depth: open it before you load it, not after.
Front Squat: The rack position fails before the legs do: buy wrist and t-spine range first.
Overhead Squat: The most range-hungry lift there is: every restriction you have shows up in it.
Sandbag Lunge: The bag pulls you into flexion for 100 m: the trunk has to be awake before it does.
Deadlift: Hamstrings and lats set the start position. Get both switched on before the first pull.
Kettlebell Swing: It is a hip snap, not a lift: the glutes need to fire before you ask them to be fast.
Sled Push: Everything happens through push-off: the calves and Achilles take the whole load.
Farmers Carry: Grip fails first and posture follows it: wake the hands and the trunk together.
Clean: You have to catch it in a rack position you can actually hold: wrists and t-spine first.
Snatch: Overhead range is the whole lift: if the bar can't sit over the shoulder, nothing else matters.
Clean & Jerk: Two lifts stacked: the rack position has to survive long enough to jerk out of.
Strict Press: Anything the shoulder can't reach, the lower back lends it: buy the range first.
Push Press: The dip is a vertical leg drive: legs and overhead range both have to be ready.
Bench Press: The bottom of the range is where shoulders get sore: warm the range, not just the muscle.
Ring Dip: Rings punish an unprepared shoulder at the bottom: earn that depth before you drop into it.
Handstand Push-Up: Wrists and overhead range carry your bodyweight: prepare both or the neck compensates.
Wall Ball: Squat and press in one rep, for a hundred reps: the shoulder is what quits, not the legs.
Pull-Up: Hanging is a shoulder position, not just a grip: set the scapula before the first rep.
Muscle-Up: The transition needs shoulder extension you almost never train: open it deliberately.
Barbell Row: The hinge holds the whole set together: if it goes, the row becomes a back extension.

Conditioning piece

Optional, and it changes the prep: a rowing interval wants hamstrings and a t-spine that holds at rate, a ski erg wants overhead range, sled sprints want calves and adductors.

Rowing intervals: Rowing at rate is a hinge you repeat a hundred times: the hamstrings decide whether it stays one.
Bike / assault bike: The bike hides nothing and warms nothing: hip flexors go from cold to flat out in one interval.
Ski erg: Every stroke starts overhead, so overhead range is the thing that runs out first.
Running intervals: Intervals ask for top-end speed early, which is exactly when a cold hamstring lets go.
Sled sprints: A sled is a sprint you can't cheat: ankles, calves and adductors take it all.
Double-unders: Hundreds of small elastic landings, which the calves and Achilles pay for if they arrive cold.
Burpees & mixed metcon: Floor-to-standing under fatigue loads wrists and shoulders in positions nothing else warms up.
Swim: The catch happens at end-range overhead: the range you have on deck is the stroke you get.
Hills / stairs: Uphill work is calf and glute work with the range squeezed: both want waking first.

Anything hurting today?

Optional, and it changes the plan rather than just adding a warning: drills that would provoke the area come out, drills that prepare it come in, and your ramp gets adjusted.

Knee
Shin, calf or Achilles
Hip, groin or hamstring
Lower back
Shoulder
Elbow or wrist

Example: back squat, deadlift, a run and a rowing interval: the 10-minute version

11 drills · about 10:10 before you touch a bar

1 · Raise

Squat-to-stand flow: 8 reps. Warm and mobile at the same time: hamstrings on the way down, hips and chest on the way up. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Rowing intervals, Running)

2 · Mobilise

Kang squat with an empty bar: 6 reps. Good morning into squat and back: the hinge and the squat rehearsed in one loaded shape. (Deadlift, Running, Rowing intervals, Back Squat)
Passive bar hang: 30 s. Lets the lats lengthen and gives the grip a first look at the bar. (Deadlift, Rowing intervals)
Ankle bounces: 30 s. Wakes the Achilles up elastically rather than stretching it cold. (Running, Back Squat)
Couch-stretch rock: 30 s/side. Squeeze the back glute first, then rock, without that you stretch the front of the spine instead. (Running, Back Squat, Deadlift)

3 · Activate

Banded glute march: 10 reps/side. Holds a bridge while the other leg moves, which is the exact job the glute has in a run. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Running, Rowing intervals)
Goblet squat, paused: 8 reps. Loads the bottom position lightly, which opens it further than holding a stretch does. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Rowing intervals, Running)
Scap pull-up: 10 reps. Teaches the shoulder blade to take the load before the arm does. (Deadlift, Rowing intervals)
Single-leg glute bridge: 8 reps/side. Running and lunging are single-leg jobs, and almost nobody switches the glute on one side at a time. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Running, Rowing intervals)

4 · Potentiate

Rotational med-ball throw: 5 reps/side. Fast rotation from the mid-back, which nothing else in a strength session ever asks for. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Rowing intervals)
Low box jump, step down: 5 reps. Trains the leg to produce force fast; stepping down keeps the landing cost at zero. (Back Squat, Deadlift, Running)

Then ramp into the lift

Back Squat: Empty bar × 8 · ~50% × 5 · ~70% × 3: short rests, keep the bar moving fast.
Deadlift: ~40% × 5 · ~60% × 3 · ~75% × 2, resetting the position on every rep.

This is not the only warm-up that fits: build another version any time and you get a different one, built for the same session.

General training information for healthy adults, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Warm-ups reduce risk, they do not remove it. If something hurts, is getting worse, or is not settling, see a doctor or a qualified physiotherapist rather than training around it indefinitely.