The Ten Minutes Before You Train

A warm-up you can do anywhere, in any gym, before anything — and why the stretching you were taught to do first is the one thing you should be doing last.

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The Ten Minutes Before You Train

First, the bit almost everyone gets wrong

You were probably taught to stretch before you train. Sit down, reach for your toes, hold it, then go lift.

That doesn’t do what you think it does. Holding a stretch for a long time right before you train doesn’t prevent injury — that’s been looked at repeatedly and it just doesn’t hold up. And long holds can leave a muscle producing slightly less force for a while afterwards, so you go into your first set a bit weaker than you turned up.

Stretching isn’t useless. It’s just in the wrong place. Move it to the end — there’s a section on that below.

What a warm-up is actually for

Three things. Get genuinely warm, so tissue moves the way it’s supposed to. Wake up the muscles that switch off when you sit all day — usually glutes and the middle of your back. And rehearse the thing you’re about to do, so the first heavy rep isn’t the first time your body has seen that shape today.

0–2 min

Get actually warm

Anything that raises your breathing a little. Brisk walk on an incline, bike, rower, skipping, or two flights of stairs.

The standard

You should be warm enough that you’d take a jacket off. That’s the whole test. If you’re still cold, you haven’t warmed up — you’ve just started.

2–5 min

Move every joint you’re about to use

Keep moving — no holding. Roughly 10 of each, slow and controlled:

Ankles — knee drives forward over the toes, heel stays down
Hips — leg swings front to back, then side to side, holding something
Spine — cat/cow on all fours, then open-book rotations lying on your side
Shoulders — big slow arm circles both ways, then arms overhead and back down

Why moving, not holding

You’re teaching the joint that a range is available and safe under control. A held stretch tells it a range exists while you’re relaxed. Those aren’t the same thing, and only one transfers to a barbell.

5–8 min

Switch on what sitting switched off

If you sit for work, some things have gone quiet and your back has been covering for them. Two sets of each:

Glute bridges — 10 reps, squeeze hard at the top for a second
Band walks or wide-stance side steps — 10 each direction
Dead bugs — 8 each side, slow, lower back stays flat on the floor
Scapular pulls — hang or lean on a bar and pull your shoulder blades down without bending your elbows, 8 reps

This is the part people skip

It’s also the part that changes the most. If your back is wrecked by 3pm, this block is doing more for you than any stretch will.

8–10 min

Rehearse today’s movement

Whatever the first exercise is, do it light. Empty bar, or bodyweight. Two sets of 5, then one set at about half your working weight.

How you know you’re ready

Your last warm-up set should feel easier than the first one did. If it doesn’t, you need another set — not more weight.

Add two minutes, depending on the day

Squats or deadlifts: bodyweight squats to full depth, and a 30-second deep squat hold to sit into the position.

Pressing or overhead: wall slides and band pull-aparts. If your shoulder clicks, this is the bit not to rush.

Running or anything explosive: build up gradually — jog, then strides at maybe 70%, then a couple near full speed. Going flat out on a cold hamstring is one of the most reliable ways to lose six weeks.

Now the stretching — afterwards

This is where it belongs. After you train, when you’re warm and nothing heavy is coming, holding a stretch for 30–60 seconds is a reasonable way to work on range you actually want to keep. Hips, chest, calves, and whatever felt tight that day.

Do it consistently and you’ll gain range. Do it for two minutes before you lift and you’ll gain nothing except a slightly worse first set.

Two things worth knowing

Ten minutes is the floor, not the target. Cold morning, or coming back from something that hurt? Take fifteen. Nobody has ever been injured by warming up too much.

Sore is fine. Sharp is not. Warming up should make things feel better as you go. If something is sharp, pinching, or sends a signal down a limb, that’s not stiffness and it won’t warm out — stop and get it looked at rather than training through it.

Not sure which bits apply to you?

Tell me what you train and what bothers you, and I’ll tell you which two things in here matter most for your body. Costs nothing and takes me a minute.

Text me Or look at working together

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