Sifu,
Just wondering how much do you warm up before you go into a working set of bench presses in the 8-10 range. Sometimes I feel like I warm up too much or not enough.

Hello Erich!

I have started doing an extensive series of stretches before every workout, but mostly geared from the waist down! When I work chest (usually 2 or 3 times a week), I go straight into the bench press as my first exercise. There is no specific warmup for my bench prees that I do! In other words, the first set (135lbs.) is my warmup! Hope that helps some!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
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doing some push ups slowly. This will stretch and warm up your arms-shoulders and back.

Kent

I like the following exercise. I think it helps out with my straight punches however, it also works the chest.

you do push ups..with your knuckles on the ground, and keep your hands vertical. This way when your doing push ups its in the same form as your punch. You can do this going slow down and then a hard almost jump of a push up to increase your power of your punches. Just a thought.

How much you warm-up depends on your physical condition, flexibility, any injuries, your goal of working out, etc. Stretching too much before you workout could tire your muscles and you won't be able to workout as hard. For me, I do about 30 seconds of various upper body rotations to get my muscles and limbs loose before I get to the bench press, or whatever is the first upper body exercise that morning. The real warm-up is using lighter weights for the first set or two of the same exercise and get a full range of motion. I stretch between sets (mostly my legs) to save time since I workout before work every morning. At the end of every workout, I do a quick, but thorough, stretch of my whole body so I don't feel all knotted up at work.