Trying to figure out how to get a proper warm-up without also spending forever on it; for a while I’d only been doing warm-up sets at 5x40%, 5x60%, 3x80% on the big compound lift which goes first in the routine.
I’d added some mobility and dynamic stretching to counter stiffness but even going by the Reddit fitness wiki there’s a ton of options, and I’d like to shave off some time spent at the gym. (The big lift alone is the warmup sets, then 15 reps over five sets, then another back-off set of “as many quality reps as possible at 80%” to reinforce technique.) I usually do Molding Mobility for joints - in the morning when I remember but most of the time only at the gym; then DeFranco’s Limber 11 if I’m starting a back squat or deadlift, his upper body stuff if I’m starting a press, something more targeted before front squats because they’re weird like that.
If my main lift is something Fiddly™ like the front squat or deficit deadlift, the total of nine sets can take up to an hour if I’m not laser-focused. (Which: let’s assume I’m probably not.) The rest of the workout is done rest-pause and usually takes about an hour for the remaining… ~36 sets of accessories and isolation. But adding up say 2x15 minutes in the locker room, 20-30mins warmup, 2h weights; for a grand total of ~3h door-to-door.
What could I do to trim this down? My one thought was that the light warmup sets are probably overlapping in purpose with the mobility stuff I do: the 40% and 60% don’t particularly feel like a load, and seem like they mostly serve to get the joints through the full ROM for a bit. Not sure how much time it’d save, it is only two quick sets and no rest, but chasing down and swapping plates could be a thing that takes longer than it seems.
I’ve also been experimenting with staggering my routine from push/pull/legs into high-frequency-full-body, which opens up the possibility of supersetting the accessories that are now done on different muscle groups; but that will give me around 15 minutes at most. (The rests between the accessories are 15-60 seconds per set, and if I need a machine on the other side of the gym, or if it’s a busy time, there’s no point.)
The other option would be switching routines but I mostly like this powerbuilding one; bodybuilding-focused ones seem faster, but I’m very unsure about losing the strength+technique benefits of the heavy compound lift. One idea I had would be taking what I do and just splitting up the big lifts and the accessory work, and doing something like: bench press on day 1, pull accessories on day 2, back squat on day 3, push accessories on day 4, deadlift on day 5, leg accessories on day 6… (Give or take extra conditioning or mobility work on big push days, I think I can stand to benefit from either and those lifts are significantly less time consuming.) But I feel like this is getting way beyond my pay grade and I’d prefer input from somebody more familiar with how to do routine programming.
