Enter your working weight to generate a full ramp from the empty bar to your first heavy set.
| Set | Weight | Reps | Rest After |
|---|
A warm-up set calculator generates the ramp of lighter sets you perform on the way to your working weight — starting with the empty bar and climbing through a few percentage-based jumps. The goal is purely preparation: raising muscle temperature, rehearsing your technique, and priming your nervous system for the heavy work ahead, without pre-fatiguing yourself before it counts.
Enter the working weight for your first real set (estimate it with our 1RM Calculator and 1RM Percentage Calculator if needed), then generate your ramp. Each warm-up weight is rounded to the nearest 5 lb or 2.5 kg so it actually loads on a barbell with standard plates.
For heavy compound lifts like the squat, bench press, deadlift, or overhead press, 3 to 5 warm-up sets is the standard range. This calculator uses a reliable default ramp: empty bar for higher reps, then roughly 40%, 60%, 80%, and 90% of your working weight, with reps dropping as the weight climbs. Reps decrease at higher percentages because the goal shifts from movement rehearsal to pure CNS priming — high reps at 80-90% would build fatigue instead of preventing it.
Rest periods scale the same way: 30-45 seconds after the lightest sets, climbing to 90 seconds to 2 minutes as you approach your working weight, so your energy stores are fully replenished before the set that counts.
No. Warm-up sets are submaximal by design and never approach failure, so they don't provide the mechanical tension needed to drive strength or hypertrophy adaptations. Track only your working sets as training volume — warm-ups are preparation, not part of the workout total.
3 to 5 sets, ramping from the empty bar through roughly 40/60/80/90% of your working weight, with reps decreasing as weight increases.
Heavier sets exist to prime your nervous system, not build fatigue — high reps at 80-90% would steal energy from your working sets.
30-45 seconds for light sets, climbing to 90 seconds-2 minutes as you approach your working weight.
No — they're submaximal preparation and don't count as working volume.