How to Warm Up Before a Workout (The Right Way)

A proper warm-up raises your body temperature, increases blood flow to muscles, and primes your nervous system for the specific movements you're about to perform — all of which can improve performance and may reduce injury risk.

Start with light general movement

Five to ten minutes of easy cardio — walking, light jogging, or cycling — raises your core temperature and gets blood flowing to your muscles before more demanding work.

Move into dynamic stretching

Dynamic stretches (leg swings, walking lunges, arm circles) actively move joints through their range of motion, which research favors over static stretching (holding a stretch still) before exercise, since static stretching held for a long time can temporarily reduce muscle power output.

Rehearse the movement pattern

Before heavy lifts or high-intensity work, do a few progressively heavier warm-up sets of the exercise itself — for example, an empty bar, then light weight, then a set close to your working weight, before your first real working set.

Save static stretching for after

Static stretching is still valuable for long-term flexibility — it's just better placed after a workout, when muscles are warm and you're not relying on immediate power output.