Benching The Bar: Warm Up Week

It feels like everyone is watching me. I'm tired as hell, my face looks like I've been hit by a bus and my hair is an absolute trainwreck. I'm laying down on a bench press machine and making strange faces as I lift the bar. And here's the thing, there are no weights on it! Embarrassing!

This is warm-up week and it is the way I like to ease myself back into the flow of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of worrying about the onlookers I worry about one thing, myself and I don't care how stupid it looks, I dig DEEP.

The reason I was bench pressing the bar without any weights is because after being away from the gym for months, my muscles are not ready to jump back into things. I mean sure, I can probably still lift the old weight (like once), but what is the point? As one of my least favorite sayings proclaims, this isn't a sprint, its a marathon.

If you've ever decided to go from 0-60 in one day you may have had the experience I had. The day after you can't move a muscle in your body. Everything is sore, even muscles you didn't even know you had. By the time gym day 2 rolls around your body won't let you do what you are supposed to do.

To solve this problem I make the first week back at the gym my warm-up week. I make sure to go through each exercise I plan to do, but I do them with little to no resistance. If the gym is crowded that can be very embarrassing (have you ever seen a grown man bench pressing just the bar). Thats one reason to get to the gym early!

The thing I try to avoid is pushing myself to hard. I know that sounds kind of strange when you are trying to push yourself to the limit to improve. But just naming that first week "warm-up week" helps me understand that it is not my typical workout and that it is a run through for the real start the following week. After the week is over my muscles are used to the motions and they can focus on growing.

I have found that doing this reduces soreness. You will still be sore, especially if you've been away for a long time, but this low level should not prevent you from being able to continue after a day of rest. By the end of the week you slowly work your way back into lifting shape and by week 2 you should be ready to get your real workouts on.