The barbell gets heavier across your warm-up sets, but you keep adding repetitions, too. By the time the planned workout begins, your legs already feel spent. The preparation has become demanding work of its own, even though you have not reached the sets you came to perform.
A barbell warm-up should help you rehearse the movement and approach the intended load. That calls for preparation you can use, rather than making every practice set a test of how much effort you can tolerate.
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Rehearse the lift before asking more of it
The National Strength and Conditioning Association distinguishes general preparation from a specific warm-up using less intense movements similar to the activity ahead. Its stated purpose is to help the body adjust to the coming demands without undue fatigue.
For barbell training, that makes the lift itself useful practice. Before a squat, an easy squat set lets you rehearse your stance, balance and movement. Being warm from walking to the gym does not provide that same rehearsal under the bar.
Start with a load you can actually manage. “Empty bar” is not a fixed weight: our guide explains why different bars can change the total load. Identify the bar before planning the steps toward your working weight, and ask gym staff about a lighter option if needed.
Add weight without making every step a test
In Barbell Medicine’s practical training guide, strength coach Hassan Mansour recommends relatively low-repetition practice with the planned movement, followed by gradual increases in load. His examples also use the warm-up to assess how demanding the day’s weights feel.
The progression can therefore do two jobs: rehearse the exercise and give you information before the heavier work. An unexpectedly difficult practice set is a reason to reconsider the next jump, rather than ignore it because a heavier number is already written down.
There is no need to copy another lifter’s exact ramp. A person approaching a heavy single and someone preparing for moderate sets of several repetitions have different tasks ahead. Mansour’s guide shows different warm-up structures for those situations; it does not present one sequence for every workout.
Keep the repetitions controlled and purposeful. Adding another long set merely because you can do it changes how much work you have performed before the main prescription.
Ask whether the extra set still helps
In an October 2026 response about warm-up sets, Barbell Medicine’s Jordan Feigenbaum emphasizes that they still contribute to training load. The useful question is whether the extra time and energy improve your ability to carry out the intended workout.
He also notes that a preparatory set close to the prescribed work can sometimes count as a working set. Calling it a warm-up does not erase its demands. That is a reason to review the whole session, especially if you keep adding hard sets before starting the ones on the plan.
For your next session, identify which sets are easy rehearsal, where the load increases, and when the prescribed work begins. If preparation repeatedly leaves you drained, review those extra repetitions with your coach. Keep enough practice to feel prepared; save the demanding effort for the training you intended to do.