Most people waste way too much time in their warm-ups.

Your goal should be to spend as little time warming up for your workout as is required so you can spend as much time actually training as possible.

You don't have unlimited time, so you should spend your time doing the things that will actually move the needle for you.

The RAMP Principle

RAMP is an acronym that stands for Raise, Activate & Mobilize, & Potentiate. [1]

This is a ridiculously overcomplicated series of terms for what it actually calls you to do.

The 'Raise' portion refers to raising your core body temperature and can be done in a variety of different ways.

This increase in body temperature is arguably the most important component.

As your tissues warm, they become "lubricated" to an extent. This is what provides much of that "loose" feeling that a good warm-up gives.

Moreover, many of the enzymes responsible for energy production and muscle contraction work more efficiently at higher temperatures.

'Activate & Mobilize' refers to performing the movement to be trained specifically at a low level.

'Potentiate' refers to gradually increasing intensity until you reach your target workload for the session.

In practice this basically looks like:

• Increase body temperature

• Do your planned thing at a low level

• Do your planned thing at gradually increased intensity

Be specific. Avoid Fluff.

The key to a warm-up routine being both effective and efficient is being specific to the workout that you're warming up for.

There are plenty of other things people commonly do that just don't provide any real benefit.

Stretching is a good example. Evidence has shown time and time again that pre-training stretching does not improve performance nor does it reduce risk of injury. [2]

Foam rolling is the same: commonly done, but no noticeable benefit as a warm-up activity. [3]

I'm not saying these are useless activities overall. There's just nothing about them that will actually prepare you for your workout.

These sorts of activities can add ~10 minutes or more to your session. If there's no reliable benefit to be had, I find that hard to justify.

Strength training example

Let's say you have a lift planned today and the first movement in the session is a barbell back squat.

For the sake of example, let's say the first set of the workout is 185 pounds for 5 reps.

A proper warm-up could look like:

• 5-10 minutes of low intensity cardio (bike, row, incline walk, etc.)

• 10 reps with bar alone (45 lbs)

• 3 reps with 135 lbs

• 2 reps with 155 lbs

• 1 rep with 185 lbs

& that's it. You then perform your first set of squats.

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Presumably, there are other movements you're going to train in the workout.

You would simply perform a set of ascending warm-up sets as this example has done for each movement you're training. Most likely, you'll need fewer warm-up sets the farther into the workout you go.

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Moreover, you don't need to rest in between these sets.

A true warm-up set shouldn't cause any real fatigue. If you feel you need a rest period after a warm-up set, then the warm-up set was probably too intense to be a true warm-up set.

Endurance example

This can look even simpler when applied to endurance training.

Before a run, most people will stretch, do a series of high knees and butt kicks, maybe some bodyweight squats, etc. etc. etc.

In reality: you can quite literally just run slow before you run fast.

The only caveat is that the speed/intensity of your planned run will dictate how much warm-up you need.

In other words, maximum effort running will require more warm-up than moderate effort running which will require more warm-up than easy running.

The faster or higher intensity you plan to run, the longer the 'potentiate' portion should last.

Here's a few examples:

Easy run

For runs that are planned to be truly easy (e.g. "zone 2"), you can simply begin running at your planned pace. There's zero harm to be had from doing this for these sort of sessions.

If you'd like some sort of true warm-up, you could just start a bit slower and pick it up as you feel ready.

Moderate run

Let's say you have a 30-minute tempo run planned (not max effort, but not "easy" either).

I would start this off with ~5-10 minutes of truly easy running before beginning the 30 minute tempo portion.

Obviously this increases the duration of the session by 5-10 minutes, so I often consider the warm-up as part of true session for time-management purposes.

Hard run

Say you were going to perform the following session:

• 2 minutes @ 4/10 effort

• 2 minutes @ 9-10/10 effort

• Repeat ~3-5x

This is a much more taxing workout, and thus requires a longer potentiation period.

An example warm-up could look like the following:

• 2 minute fast walk

• 2 minute easy run

• 2 minute moderate run

• 1 minute hard run

• 1 minute easy run

• 2 minute complete rest

And, just to be clear, this can apply to any sort of endurance training. I just used running to make this more real.

Bottom line

A good warm-up should sufficiently prepare you for training in as little time as possible.

It should be as specific to the task you are warming up for as possible (which usually means using the task itself).

Everything else (stretching, foam rolling, etc.) should only be done if it is your preference.