Warm-ups that actually matter

A warm-up has two jobs: raise your temperature, and rehearse the thing you are about to do. Everything else is optional and most of it is filler.

Six minutes

• —Two minutes of anything that makes you breathe — bike, rower, brisk walk.
• —Two minutes moving the joints you are about to load, through their full range.
• —Two minutes of ramp-up sets: the first exercise, light, building to your working weight.

That is it. Static stretching before lifting does not prevent injury and can blunt strength slightly. Save it for after, or for days you are not training.