Heated debate on warming up

In the Stronger by Science podcast episode “warming up to build muscle” Milo recommends performing heavy warm up sets before hypertrophy work. Something between 70-90% of 1rm. As is supported generally by the studies he presented. He also recommends performing heavy compounds first as he believes the evidence he presented suggests it may have similar benefits to PAP set. (Also I’ve always seen this as post activation potentiation, but they say “post activation performance enhancement” just thought it was weird). I would like to say upfront that I am a supporter of their show and agree with them more than 95% of the time or I’m simply learning something I didn’t know so I can’t really disagree or agree yet accept rationalizing with other ideas. I do not believe this to be an intellectual thrashing, I lied to you so clearly I am not to be trusted. That said it would be silly to re-write what they said as my own or just say they did a great job with nothing to add. Moving on.

I think the mechanism he suggested is highly unlikely for performing heavy compounds before an isolation. Performing multiple hard sets of a bench day for example I believe is greatly unlikely to improve performance in tricep push downs further than would be accomplished by like they said moderate intensity activity to increase body temperature and or a generally lighter set of tricep-push downs. This is because with an actual bench day and simply one heavy set not taken to failure are very different. Especially when we factor in that as they mentioned this PAP set only seems to improve performance for one maybe two sets. I believe this extrapolation to be counter to what is logical where the fatigue accumulated will likely take away from any neurological benefits and the neurological benefits posed seem to be short term and therefore may not carry over anyway. Also performing heavy set before working sets I truly believe the risk currently does not outweigh the reward. No I do not believe this greatly increases your risk of serious injury but I do believe for most people who are inactive in general and inconsistent with getting to the gym. That some stretching is likely still a good ROI as well as some light preparatory sets before your working weight.

This is just my very ecological and practical perspective for the average person. A non negligible amount of people don’t have the patience to spend 15 minutes on the as well as many has small nagging aches and pains and general stiffness in certain areas. I will get deeper into the specifics in a later post but for here. Try not to be swayed too much as an individual but simply be aware that a spectrum of options is available and please do some critical thinking of what best suits your goals and habits. Finally their is something to be said for be opposite where you perform the muscle you would like to prioritize early on or first in the workout. I originally heard this idea from Mike Isreatel and have done some light study reading on it as well as actual implementation with my own clients. I think it is likely that an individual might not need to be as warmed up for the tricep push down as for bench. This being due to a lower rate of injury on the exercise which I believe to be in part due to ego associated but also that your elbow joint is your only bone on bone stopping point for movement so it is unlilkey to reach that musles limit in the stretch for the tricep psuh down versu for a bench press there is a higher degree of stretchand some individuals may be limited in that ROM at the bottom of a bench press. Simply a balancing Idea to allow you the reader the freedom to actually feel what works as I don’t think this particular topic has great conclusions for the individual to takeaway and apply with certainty. They even have an entire episode on warming up specifically for injury and divng into the literature where they provide great insite into the state of the research and provide all appropriate caveates of defering to physical therapist but I would like to synthesize the ideas on how you comapare and contrasts the two topics. Hopefully I have done that acceptably and succinctly here.