I also understand the stretched muscle pose is where the biggest gains are coming from. So one could theoretically cheese, by doing only a quarter of the exercise. (Don't do this, you will damage yourself).

True for a year or two, but after that your warm up sets get so heavy that you’ll need at least 10 minutes to get up to your working sets.

I've never warmed up before. I'm not a super advanced athlete, but I can put 315 on the bench and I don't weigh very much.

Theres not really much documented benefit of warming up for injury prevention as far as i know. I think it improves performance, but its definitely an area where much time can be saved.

There have been a few research articles showing that in the last few years too that says the same thing. The minutes thing won't be true, for heavy weights you need to warm up and ramp up, but yeah it can cut down your gym time significantly, and if you are fatigued from lifting, this can cut down your fatigue significantly too.

I'm not sure there's a ton of point warming up. It feels good, sure, and if you are doing maximal lifts it's probably a good idea to feel out how close your are to your limit, but otherwise I don't see how warmups help.

I didn't bother most of time when I was training. I might do a couple reps a plate down, or a set with just the bar, but never did more than that.

> There have been a few research articles showing that in the last few years too that says the same thing.

It's been known for decades. I remember 20+ years ago pointing out to people that according to the research, multiple sets are inferior to one set (i.e. load that one set high vs a smaller load so you can do 3 sets).

Yet even today, most exercise advice is 2-3 sets.

I've never warmed or ramped up in over 12 years of heavy lifting. That being said, that could explain my bad back.

That's insane lol.

Why do you think that?

I've been doing it for years with no issue. Intuitively, the idea that muscles/joints require "priming" seems really odd and not very useful from an evolutionary perspective. Cats don't warm up when they jump 5 ft.

Form is the major thing. I have to get used to the exercise, remember good form, get used to the good form, before ramping up to heavier weights. I don't want to go heavy quick and have problems if I have more fatigue on a particular day or I am not concentrating. Honestly, I have never not ramped up, so I don't even know if I could do that, but I am not about to try either lol.

I don't think "priming" your muscles is necessary because it's an evolutionary advantage, but because that's the best muscles evolution has come up with so far.

It's like saying "why would I have to change the oil in my car, why would an engineer make an engine that needs that?".

And jumping 5ft for a cat probbaly is the priming, that's not peak performance for them.

Cats don't sit at a desk for 8-10 hours a day in the same position

I'm curious, have you ever tried the McGill Big 3 for back pain?

>"One-set routines can achieve roughly 60–70% of the muscle growth that higher-volume (3–5 set) routines produce".

Do you have any source for that? I know Mike Mentzer and heavy duty programs, but the devil is in the details.

This is what GPT-4 summarized from deep research.

Krieger, J. W. (2010). Single versus multiple sets of resistance exercise: A meta-regression. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(4), 1150-1159.

This meta-analysis found that multiple sets lead to ~40% more muscle growth compared to a single set. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and muscle growth: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), 1073-1082.

Concluded that higher training volumes (≥10 weekly sets per muscle group) produce greater hypertrophy. Ralston, G. W., Kilgore, L., Wyatt, F. B., & Baker, J. S. (2017). The effect of weekly set volume on strength gain: A meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 47(12), 2585-2601.

Found that strength and hypertrophy improve as volume increases up to a certain point. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2016). Science and development of muscle hypertrophy. Human Kinetics.

Discusses the mechanisms of hypertrophy and the role of training volume. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Position Stand (2009). Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 41(3), 687-708.

Provides guidelines for resistance training and muscle growth. Haun, C. T., Vann, C. G., Osburn, S. C., et al. (2018). A 6-week resistance training study on the minimum effective training dose for muscle hypertrophy in trained men. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 118(3), 593-605.

Found that low-volume training still leads to substantial hypertrophy but not maximal growth. Heaselgrave, S. R., Blacker, S. D., et al. (2019). Effects of resistance training frequency on hypertrophy and strength: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 49(12), 1935-1947.

Concludes that training a muscle 2–3 times per week is more effective than once per week for hypertrophy.