Warming up after 40

The first goal I assigned to myself when starting working out on a regular basis more than 20 years ago was to avoid injury. I was haunted by several serious accidents sustained while playing soccer in my teens which cost me several lower limb surgeries, months of physical therapy and ensuing physical inactivity, not to mention considerable physical and mental pain.
I must confess that it took me years before I could meet this basic goal of minimizing injury time in my workout routine. In the first 5 years I thus sustained an average of about 2 injuries (typically subluxation-induced back pains or various muscle tears) per year, which kept me away from the gym for at least a couple of weeks annually.

WARMING UP IS TIME EFFICIENT IN THE LONG RUN
My experience has been that most workout-related injuries occur through an inappropriate warm up  (or a total lack thereof). In my case this would translate in something like rushing to the gym a bit too late at night with a
lot of pent-up energy and trying to squeeze a 90-minute routine into the 80 minutes before the gym was to close. In order to achieve this I would give short-shrift to the warm up phase.  After several years of relative recklessness I eventually recognized that "wasting" about 10mn per session for properly warming up was more efficient than not doing it because I dramatically reduced the average number of injuries I sustained, which saved me about 2 weeks of exercise per year, resulting in increased overall efficiency.


KNOWING HOW TO WARM UP IS NOT TRIVIAL
Realizing the importance of warming up was not enough  though to prevent injury. Finding out how to warm up efficiently has been equally important.
There are as many theories about this as there are fitness authors. My approach is largely empirical, the result of more than 10 years of trial and error.
It may not be relevant to everybody (especially young athletes with ultra sturdy ligaments, tendons, muscles who may afford to warm up less) but I believe that it applies to most middle-aged individuals.

The basic principle is that the warm up process should consist of two elements:

• raising  body temperature globally
• warming up a particular muscle group through an exercise-specific routine

The best way to achieve the first part is simply through a 5 to 10 mn aerobic session before starting any resistance training routine. Typically you should have started to sweat slightly before hitting the weights. If you aren't the aerobic warm up has not been vigorous enough. Be careful though to not overdo it. I have seen many athletes already too exhausted after their aerobic warm up (either they did it too long or with too much intensity) to  reach optimal performance in their ensuing workout routine.
Being a bicycle guy I recommend riding a stationary bike for 5 to 10 minutes with a heart rate of no more than about 130. I assume that running on a treadmill is equally efficient.

Now that your body has warmed up globally, you still need an exercise-specific warm up period before putting on a lot of weight. The way to do it is by simply starting each exercise with a weight of no more than 40%-50% of your 1-rep max. I have noticed that I now use 40% of my max for my first set whereas it was more like 50% in my thirties. I actually systematically start each exercise with two warm up sets:

• the first with about 40% of 1-rep max
• the second with about 50%.of 1-rep max

Only then do I start putting on considerably more weight (my third set is typically 75% of my 1-rep max). I realize that I did not mention at this point that I exclusively workout using a pyramidal routine, whereby additional weight is added after each ensuing set. Still, even for those who do not use a pyramidal routine, it is essential not to start any exercise with too much weight at your first rep compared to one's 1-rep max. 

WARMING UP IS ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT AS YOU AGE
Since I adopted this warm up routine my injury time has decreased dramatically. I can now go several years without having to pass up a single training day because of it. This is all the more remarkable that I have reduced my average injury time in my 40's as compared to what it was 20 years ago because every sport physician will tell you that the risk of injury dramatically picks up after 30 or 35, due to age-related alteration of conjunctive tissues. I must really be doing something right then.

STRETCHING BEFORE WORKING OUT IS NONSENSE
I could not wrap up with this topic without debunking a well-established prejudice about stretching and injury prevention. As recent studies have evidenced, stretching BEFORE resistance training to avoid injury is nonsense. This will not reduce the risk of injury, period. Stretching does not elevate your whole body temperature and it is not exercise -specific  It may even increase the risk of injury by making your joints more pliable and thus more prone to over extension during the workout phase. Post-exercise stretching is another matter that will warrant another post in the coming months.