Hey doc
I understand the BBM’s concept of warming up, you simply use the work set rep and slowly build up the weight to the working weight.
bar, 95, 135…, @ 6, @ 7 @8 - all doing 5 reps or whatever rep you are doing on work set
But what about if you are starting off with a 1 @ 8?
Would you warm up but slowly decrease the reps until you warm up with a single before your 1 @ 8? Or would you do your back off reps for your warm up?
ex: 6@6, 6@7 , 1 @ 8, 6@9, 6@8x3
Thanks doc 
Paul,
Thanks for the post. As far as what we do, typically we do the prescribed rep range (3’s, 4’s, 6’s, whatever) for the first few warm up sets and then do 1-2 “warm up” singles before the planned single. This is mostly to feel out and refine the weight selection for the top single rather than to avoid fatigue.
That said, in cases where there’s a lot of volume to do we’ll often times perform one of the work sets prior to the planned single to save some time. Let’s say we’re doing 1 @ 8, 5 @ 9, and 76% of e1RM x 5 x 4 sets. We start off with a planned 1 @ 8 of 500lbs and our warm ups may look like:
Alternatively, you could do the single after the set at 380, depending on if you personally feel warmed up enough. As always, there’s a huge variability of how one can do this stuff and how much we “care” depends on the context, e.g. are you 6 weeks out from a meet?
Hope that helps.
-Jordan
Wouldn’t #8 be 380x5x3 since the plan called for 4 sets @ 76%? You did one set @ 76% as a warmup, that would leave three more sets @76% after #6 and #7. Or am I not picking up exactly what you’re laying down?
Interesting,
If someone wanted to do a “warm up single” before the 1 @ 8, what percentage would you recommend?
Yep, you are correct. I think that was just a mis-type in that long set list!
If you have just done 420 for 5 and 450 is your planned single, you should be quite ready for that, physically and mentally. You COULD do a single between those numbers, but I wouldn’t as that would another heavy single and it’s really not needed. So in the case about, I think it might be a bit more about getting used to that warm up and trusting that you can do the 450 if you just did 420 for 5 reps.
Ahhh I see.
In the example however, one of the work sets was done before the top single to save some time. But what if the lifter does not want to include the work set prior to the top single?
Today I plan on pulling a top single @ 8, then 3 back offs.
Normally for a single I would warm up like this:
135 x 6
185 x 6
225 x 3
275 x 1 - Don’t feel revved up
1 @ 8 - 290
back off
Since Dr. Feigenbaum mentioned doing work set reps for warm up (for singles) I plan on doing this:
135 x 6
185 x 6
6 @ 6
6 @ 7 - 240 - Usually feel revved up after @7’s
1 @ 8 - 290
back off - 6 @ 9, 6 @ 8 x 2
There is a 50 lbs increase from my @ 7 to my single @ 8. What would you recommend me doing in between my @ 7 and top single?
Got it! In this case, you can do a single at 270 as that would be in the range of RPE 6 for a single and it’s a reasonable jump to your working single. Doing a single at that weight/range should also give you some insight in selecting the single @8. If it flies and you smoke it, you might be ready to go for 295, but if you hit 270 and think, hmmm that was pretty close to 8 already today, then you could alter the plan and get 280 for the day (as an example of how to both calculate a plan and use RPE).
Good stuff thanks
Pulled earlier today, I applied the new warm up method and I felt way more charged up than after the old warm up method. I pulled the 270 like butter and hit 295 @ 8 instead of 290.
Thank you so much!!!
Very happy to help, and glad to hear that your DLs went well!