I recently started training with one of my friends, and he is opposed to doing warmups with the empty bar, particularly for bench pressing. He claims “it feels the same as if I do this” (then proceeds to do an air bench pressing motion), and that he should instead do, say 95 lbs instead of the empty bar because he is able to feel the resistance. If it matters at all, his bench 1RM is probably ~195.
My argument was that we want our warmup to be as specific as possible to what we are about to perform and that we should start with the lightest equipment that allows us to achieve that, which happens to be the empty bar. I’d like to hear your opinion (and possibly provide evidence) as to why it is preferred to start with the lightest weight available. Is it primarily from an injury-avoidance perspective? Or does it also positively impact performance?
Also, he does the warmup bench pressing as quickly as possible, instead of going slowly enough to contract his muscles in a controlled manner, and I told him that is probably why it doesn’t feel like he is doing anything.