This upper body warm-up gets you warm before a push, pull or upper body day, moves your shoulders and upper back through their full range, and finishes with lighter sets of your first lift.
Workout Routine Examples
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Upper Body Warm-Up Example
About 7 minutes, before push, pull or upper body day.
| Move | Amount | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Rowing machine or jumping jacks | 3 min | Raises your body temperature and heart rate. Keep it easy. |
| Arm circles | 10 forward, 10 back | Loosens your shoulders in every direction. |
| Band pull-apart | 2 × 15 | Warms up your upper back and rear shoulders. |
| Band external rotation | 12 per arm | Warms up the small muscles that keep your shoulder steady. |
| Push-up or incline push-up | 1 × 10 | Takes your chest, shoulders and triceps through a press. |
| Warm-up sets of your first lift | 3 sets | Lighter sets that build up to your working weight. |
This is an example, not a prescription or medical advice. If you have an injury, a heart condition or another health condition, check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine.
Warm-up sets, for example
If your working sets of bench press are at 155 lb (70 kg), the warm-up sets before them could look like this:
| Set | Weight | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Empty bar, 45 lb (20 kg) | 10 |
| 2 | 95 lb (43 kg) | 5 |
| 3 | 125 lb (57 kg) | 3 |
Want to track your workouts?
In Somatics, you can save any workout as a template, then log your sets, reps and weight as you go, plus RIR (Reps in Reserve) with Pro.
Who is this for?
This example can work well for you if:
- you're about to train chest, back, shoulders or arms
- you have about 7 minutes before your first set
- you have a light resistance band, or a cable station at the gym
Before leg day, see the lower body warm-up. If your shoulders feel tight on most days, not only before lifting, the shoulder and upper back mobility example spends longer on them.
About this example
Your shoulders do a lot of work in pressing and pulling, so it helps to spend a couple of minutes on them in an upper body warm-up. The band moves are light on purpose, to get blood moving and your joints ready without tiring you out.
If you don't have a band, a light cable at the gym works for both the pull-aparts and the external rotations.
Common questions
Can I skip the warm-up if I'm short on time?
A better trade is cutting the cardio to a minute and keeping the warm-up sets. The warm-up sets matter most, because they're practice for the lift you're about to do.
Is a warm-up the same for pull days?
Mostly. On a pull day, you could swap the push-up for a set of light lat pulldowns or rows.
Why the band external rotations?
They warm up the small rotator cuff muscles that keep your shoulder steady when you press and pull. A light band is plenty, since the goal is blood flow, not a hard set.
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