#64: How to Warm-Up and Cool-Down for Weight Lifting

Most people warm up for weight training with 15 minutes of cardio and walk out of the gym without any kind of cool-down. 

There is a better way - and it will enable you to get more out of your session.

Listen to this episode of the podcast to learn more.

Resources mentioned in the episode:
- Upper body warm-up before lifting weights (gentle mobility) >>
- Lower body warm-up before lifting weights (gentle mobility) >>

Transcript

#64: How to Warm-Up and Cool-Down for Weight Lifting

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, and I am a certified menopause fitness coach helping women in perimenopause and beyond to work with their new bodies. So today we are actually going to be talking about how to warm up. And how to cool down. So what do you do kind of around your weight training session?

Because I get a lot of questions about this and I think some people are skipping it altogether and then other people are just spending way too much time doing things. So let's look at what optimally we could do in those two periods of time before and after your session.

But before we get started, I just have to share that it is, I'm recording this on April 23rd, and it is full out snowing outside. I mean, yes, I live in the north in Helsinki, Finland, but Oh my God. It is almost [00:01:00] May 1st, which is like this spring celebration. And often in April, I've been out in a t shirt and whatever.

And now we, we just got a whole bucket load of snow overnight and it's supposed to snow all day. And it's snowing. Yeah, it is like a winter wonderland up there. I'm hoping it will disappear just as fast as it came because I am so ready for winter to be over and start wearing fun spring and summer clothes instead.

But anyway, onto the topic of the day. So let's start with what you should do before you start weight training. So the idea here is really that you want to warm up your body for weight training. So think about what you're going to be training that day. and warm up your body for that. So for me, I do an upper and lower body split.

And [00:02:00] actually for my clients, if you're training, uh, three or four days a week, you will have upper body days and lower body days. And for those who train two times a week or three times a week, you'll also have full body days. So kind of depending on what you're training that day is the thing that you want to get warmed up.

And I know that traditionally a lot of personal trainers have been saying like, oh, 20 minutes on the bike. Well, 20 minutes on the bike, it's not really doing much for your mobility. Hey, it'll get a little bit of warmth to your body, but let's say you're doing an upper body day and you're doing 20 minutes on the bike.

Well, not really going to do anything for your upper body. Now, that's not to say that if you have been like sitting at your desk all day and you're feeling actually cold, that happens to me sometimes I go into the weight room and I'm like, Oh, I'm cold. [00:03:00] Sure. Go ahead and do a little bit of cardio. But if you want to get ready for your session, here's what I recommend that you do.

You start with some gentle mobility. Now what is gentle mobility? Basically you are trying to oil your joints. You can think of it that way, like the parts of your body that you're going to be using. So if you're doing an upper body day, that's going to be your shoulders, your elbows. And your wrist and then some spine twists that you may do some cat cow kind of movements, just really gently.

We are not stretching. This is not to get you to be more flexible. It's just to kind of wake your body up. to the fact that it is going to be doing something and to get the motion going in those joints that you're going to be [00:04:00] using. And especially, you know, probably by this age, you have certain parts that have maybe caused you some grief in the past.

Maybe you've had shoulder issues, maybe you've had elbow issues, knee issues, whatever. This is a really good time for you to kind of feel out. So how is that part of your body feeling that day? So for me, my right shoulder is one that sometimes feels a little bit cranky. And so I'll just really gently do shoulder circles and then bigger shoulder circles and that kind of thing with it.

And in fact, I have some, um, mobility warmup videos that I'm happy to share. So I'll put the link in the show notes and you can check those out. I've got an upper body one and a lower body one. So if you're doing a full body day, you can do them like back to back. Okay. [00:05:00] So after you've gotten the gentle mobility out of the way, so your body is moving, you're feeling like, okay, yep.

Things are waking up a little bit. Then you actually want to get to doing your exercises. Now, hopefully in your program, you have your exercises. Organized in, um, like a logical fashion. So when I set up programming for my clients and customers, it is always going to start with more of a compound exercise where you're using more parts of your body.

And that's generally a really good one for warming up a whole bunch of muscles at the same time. So it might start with, for example, a leg press and there you, you know, if it's lower body day, that is using. Almost all of your lower body muscles, not so much your hamstrings and calves, but still you're [00:06:00] moving most of your lower body.

So if you've done that exercise before you have a working weight in mind, and now let's just make the numbers super easy. So let's say you're working weight is a hundred pounds. So your first set, your first warmup set, I would take it down to about 50 percent of your working weight. So you would do your warmup set with, 50 pounds.

And your warmup set should actually feel quite light. You should not feel like you're getting anywhere near failure or anything like that. It's more a continuation of this, getting the motion. The reason you also want to be warming up with the actual exercises that you're doing is it helps your body to remember those movement patterns. I mean, even after years of lifting, it's a good idea. To not just hop straight [00:07:00] into, you know, the full out set, that is a good way to maybe even pull a muscle.

So if you've got the hundred pound leg press as your working set, you do a set with just 50 pounds. So half of your working weight, and maybe that's 10 or 12 reps. Feel how your body feels. It should definitely not feel tiring or hard or like effort, right? Because it's half the weight that you can do. And some days you might feel like you need to do 15 reps, you know, or some days maybe the 10 is enough.

Okay. And then since there's quite a distance between the 50 pounds and the hundred pounds, go up in steps and just do a few reps. And that's kind of getting your muscles and your body used to that, Hey, I'm going to need to push a little harder and a little harder and a little harder. [00:08:00] And I think also at this age, it is really useful for you to notice if there is any part of your body that's not feeling good.

For me, I have some age related knee issues. So when I'm doing the leg press, I'll go up and jumps moving up to my working weight. And I'm all the time thinking about my knees. Like, how does this feel on my knees today? Is it good on my knees? Are they happy? You know, and all that. Because if it's a bad day for my knees or something has happened to my knees, then I know that I need to take it easy or maybe even skip an exercise that day.

So this is why like warming up with the specific exercises is very, very useful. So if we continue our example, so the first set you've done 12 reps, you know, with the half weight then, and that was at 50 pounds. So then maybe you do 70 pounds. And you do [00:09:00] six reps at 70 pounds. Then you might go up to, uh, 80 or 75 pounds and do a few less reps, you know, and the closer you get to your working weight, the shorter your sets are going to be.

 So as you approach the hundred pounds, let's say your last warmup set might be at 95 pounds or 90 pounds, you're only going to do one rep at that point. And then after you've done these warmup sets, then you take a little bit of a break, maybe one minute.

To kind of let your body recover. So it's not tired because of course the warmup does do a little bit of work for your muscles. Then you come back and you do your first full set of that exercise. Now do you need to do these warmup sets for every exercise that you do? Well that a little bit depends [00:10:00] on what exercises you have.

Now if you've done a leg press, which is warming up your quads and your glutes. Then you've done a full set of leg presses where your quads and glutes have gotten warmed up. Then if you go on to another quad or glute exercise, well, they're pretty warm. So maybe you don't need to do a warmup set. Like if you're going to go do leg extensions next or hyperextensions next.

On the other hand, if you're going to go do an exercise where you feel a little uncertain of the technique, like maybe you're going to go do RDLs next, which is a hip hinge movement, and it's one that is challenging for people to learn. Maybe there you do want to do one warmup set just to remind yourself, yep, that's right.

Butt towards the wall. I don't need to go all the way down, feel how my body is feeling today, and then go to the [00:11:00] working set. Okay, so I hope that makes sense how that progression goes.

All right. So that was what to do at the beginning of your training session. And I'll give you a couple more tips about like how to get yourself kind of going in the mode. Because I know at least for me, because I've been doing this long enough, you know, in the beginning you're like, yes, weight training, oh, this is so exciting.

It feels new and fun and different and all that. But then after a while, it just starts to be like a habit and you will go through phases where. Where you're just like, this is just not so fun. This is like, you know, just getting there and getting it done. One thing that has helped me is a, that I've had this consistent warmup routine.

So when I kind of do that, my body kicks into this mode of, ah, yeah, okay, now we're going to be doing weight training and, and it just kind of clicks into that. And the thing that reinforces that as well [00:12:00] is that I use the same music. in my warmup each time. Now, I've been using the same music for two years and I'm now so sick of that song.

So I am going to swap that out. But for a long time, that music, when I heard it, it was like specific to the weight room. Then my body, you know, just started like, okay, now we're going to do this weight training. And when I've got my same mobility movements each time, then it was really, Quite effective for getting me kind of in the mode.

All right. But then what about after your session? Oh, you're done. Yay. You, and the last thing you want to do is. Stick around the wait room any longer. You just want to head home. You've got a million other things to do, but I will encourage you to spend five minutes still getting your kind of cool down done [00:13:00] now.

First, uh, cool down is really to bring your body back from that fight flight response, which is where it is. When you're doing a training session, you're like pushing heavy loads, right? You're asking your body to go close to its limits. So you want to take it back out of that and remind it, you know, that, Hey, okay, now it's over, you know, danger's over.

You can go back to rest and recovery mode. And then your muscles can start actually. building and growing. So here again, just a little bit of gentle mobility. It might be the same kinds of movements that you've done earlier, or maybe you have some other things that make you feel good, like maybe going into the child's pose.

Uh, doing some trunk twists, something very, very gentle. And here too, you can play some gentle music, [00:14:00] uh, something that makes you feel relaxed or whatever to help your body just understand that danger's over. Now we can go back into rest and recovery mode. And the other thing that really helps there is breathing exercises.

So my favorite is to breathe in for a count of two and out for a count of four. in for a count of two, out for a count of four. And I actually try to do that kind of breathing at the same time as I'm doing my mobility exercises. Um, because that breathing also helps our body to relax, to lower the stress levels.

You can also do box breathing, which is this, you know, breathe in for a count of two, hold for a count of two, out for a count of two, hold for a count of two. So box, right? All four things for the same length [00:15:00] of time. And if you have, uh, the capability to do this at the gym, a nice exercise to do also while you're doing your breathing in this five minutes that you're spending, you know, relaxing after your workout session is to hang.

All right. So if you have a place that you can hang on a bar and I have these kinds of ladder, uh, that's hanging on the wall at my gym. So I started by. Hanging so that my, my feet were on the bottom wrong. So I wasn't just completely hanging with my full body weight because full body weight can feel pretty like heavy at the beginning.

So I would start by hanging so that I was anyway, holding a little bit of my body weight with my toes. And then gradually, you know, as you're able to kind of trust your grip [00:16:00] strength and really relax. Because the, the concept here is to hold on with your hands, but the rest of your body is able to relax.

And it's really good for your shoulder, giving space in your shoulder, also for your spine. So, you know, your back, which is getting compressed when you're sitting all day. So it'll stretch that out. And at the same time, you can do the breathing exercises. And it may be that in the beginning, You're only able to do that for like five or 10 seconds because it feels a bit uncomfortable.

But if each time you do that, you know, you add a few more seconds, ideally, uh, an adult should be able to hang from just their hands. With their full body weight for a minute. So if you think about that as your goal, that a year from now, you will be able to hang there for a whole minute, just holding on with your hands and relaxing your whole body, you know, [00:17:00] just slowly, slowly, slowly work up to that.

And then once you're done with the hanging and the general mobility exercises, it would be wonderful if you have a couple minutes to just lie on your mat and continue the breathing exercises. So if you've ever been to a yoga class, they have sabasana at the end. And Oh my God, it is the best feeling where you just let your body relax for A minute, two minutes.

If you have longer, go ahead. Why not? You know, do that for longer. If it feels good for you. It's also a mindfulness exercise, so it can feel good just from that perspective as well. . Then once you're done with all these things, then go ahead and have your shot of protein. So 30 to 40 grams of protein right after your workout or within a 30 minute window.

So for me, I take my whey [00:18:00] protein powder to the gym with me and then I add the water when I get back to the locker room, shake it up and I start drinking it. So that's the easiest way to get that done. And then I want to say, uh, one more thing about what you can do after, because I get this question a ton, which is what about cardio?

Like where do I fit cardio into my week? So if you want to do cardio and weight training on the same day, then please do the weight training first and then the cardio. So I think especially, let's say you've done an upper body day, then that may be a good day to do pedaling or jogging or whatever it is, something where you're using your legs to do some cardio, 20 minutes. 30 minutes, whatever you feel like you want to do or walking, if you're going to do, um, like middle intensity cardio. So [00:19:00] by that, I mean the biking or the, or let's say a stair master or something like that, where you do raise your heart rate to some degree, do that. You know, after your weight training session, and then do the general mobility and the breathing and the hanging and the sabah sauna after that, because, of course, the cardio would just kind of disrupt all the calming down.

You've just done to your nervous system after the weight training session. 

Okay, so to summarize, before your session, you want to do some gentle mobility and then warm up using the exercises that you're actually going to be training that day. And when you're doing your warmup, start with warmup sets. So you're actually going to be doing that same exercise, start with about 50 percent of your working weight and work up to the 100 percent of your working weight.

Your last [00:20:00] warmup set should be shorter. So your first warmup set could be 10 to 12 reps or even 10 to 15 reps. Slowly increase your weights to get up to your working weight. Your sets will get shorter and shorter. Your last warmup set should be a little bit lighter than your working set and be just one rep.

Okay. 

Then after your weight training session, if you want to do some cardio, go ahead and do that right after the session. Then after that, do your cool down. Your cool down would start with some gentle mobility, very similar to what you did before your session and do the breathing exercises.

So the two, um, counts in four counts out. If you have the possibility, you could hang for part of this breathing part and practice, you know, holding on with just your hands and slowly, but [00:21:00] surely allowing yourself to hang by your full body weight so that you're relaxed and then gradually increasing the amount of time that you hang for and.

If you have time, do a little sabasana, so lying on your mat and just completely relaxing your whole body. And when that's done, you're a shot of protein. Okay, so that was, in a nutshell, well, yeah. What I recommend that you do before and after your weight training session. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out on my Instagram direct messages is probably the best way to do it.

And if you enjoyed this episode, remember to subscribe so you don't miss the future ones. And if you could give a rating and review, I would so appreciate it because that helps the algorithm. Show the podcast to more people who are looking for [00:22:00] 40+ fitness tips for women. Thank you, and I will see you again next week.

In the meanwhile, happy training.