Before you begin your full set of exercises, it is important to warm up. A few warm up exercises will take only minutes, yet will help prevent injury and make your workout more efficient. Warming up prepares your joints and muscles for the heavier work ahead.

Your warm up may consist of 3-4 parts: cardio to increase body temperature, stretching to prevent injury, calisthenics, and exercises.

Start by doing some cardio to raise your body temperature. For 5-10 minutes, run on a treadmill. Or for those who are bodybuilding at home, take a run around the block.

Once your body is warm, do some stretching. This helps prevent injury during your workout. Focus your stretching on the area of your body that you are planning on working that day.

For example, if you are working on your upper body, some stretches for your shoulder you might try are:

- Pectoral/deltoid stretch – lift your arms straight behind you until you feel a pull (Keep chin up and torso straight)

- Triceps stretch – cross one arm across the front of your body, pull elbow with other hand

- Overhead triceps stretch – raise one arm over head, pull elbow with other hand

Be sure to do both stretches that try to measure/extend your range of motion such as the triceps stretch, as well as stretches that can contract and then relax your muscle. Also, be careful not to overstretch – stretch just enough that your muscles don’t feel tight.

You could also choose to do some calisthenics, to warm up different muscle groups and get them prepared to work, and to give your body more of a total body workout before you begin focusing on a certain muscle group. You can try the following:

- Push ups

- Lunges (with small weights in hands, and feet shoulder width apart, step forward with one leg, bending knee)

- Body squats (without weights)

- Chin ups

Once you’ve warmed your body and stretched, you may want to get started right away on your first set. Don’t. Finish your warm up by heading over to the machine you are going to use, and doing a few reps with gradually increasing weight.

For example, if you are planning to bench press 225 today, start by pressing 100 seven to nine times, then increase the weight in increments of 50 – 75 while decreasing the reps (50 x nine, 100 x eight, 150 x six and so on) until you reach your target weight. Once you’ve reached your workout weight, start your first set.

A warm up allows your body to adjust to your workout. This will make your bodybuilding session more effective, as well as preventing injury to your joints.

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