Do a Perfect Set
Warming up is optional
You don't need any specific extra warmup. Just hop into your first exercise light. If you're feeling stiff or beat up, these 3 drills cover almost everything:
If you can barely do these, you'll probably get a tweak or get stuck sooner rather than later. Work them early and the movements in your workout will maintain the range of motion gains.
One single work set
One hard work set per exercise. That's it. But the catch is you have to kick ass at it in every way. 3 total sets for the first movement of a bodypart, but just 1-2 total for the rest.
Set 1
The warmup set
Light and easy. Move blood into the muscle and find your groove. 10-20 reps at half your work set weight. Rest about 1 minute. You can do more of them if your body feels slow to warmup.
Set 2
The feeler set
Wakes up your nervous system. Should feel like weight but nowhere close to failure. 3/4 of your work weight, 5-8 explosive but strict reps. A good feeler set makes your work set feel half as hard. Rest 90 seconds to 3 minutes, FULL recovery before the main event.
Set 3
The work set
Everything else was just to be at your best here. Full work weight, 10-25 reps, push to failure.
No sloppy form, no cheating, no forced reps. Max 2-3 breaths between reps. Nail the technique and nail the intensity. The last rep will be grindy and slow. Beat your previous best performance.
What it looks like
Here's a time sped capture of an entire exercise from warmup set to work set. About 7 minutes of work total.
After the first movement
Second and third movements for the same body part you can skip the warmup set. Just hit the feeler and go. Remember that FULL rest after the feeler set.
First time doing an exercise? Start lighter than you think. 10-25 reps is a lot of reps.
Do NOT do more than 1 work set per exercise. Seriously don't screw with the plan.