The effect of warm-up in resistance training and strength performance: a systematic review

Abstract

The warm-up is fundamental to optimize physical activity and exercise performance. However, little is known about the effect of warm-up in resistance training and strength performance. We performed a systematic review to synthesize and analyze the effects of different warm-up strategies in maximal and submaximal strength during resistance exercises. A search for studies was performed on four databases (Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and ScienceDirect) for original research published between May 1973 and December 2019. Eleven articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies evaluated the effects of warm-up on maximal strength and the number of repetitions until failure. The results were not consensual regarding the use of general warm-up followed by a specific warm-up. Moreover, while some studies showed that specific warm-up did not lead to different results than without warm-up, others found that performing only the specific warm-up was the best way to obtain maximal strength performance. It seemed that the maximal strength and the number of repetitions could be positively affected when a specific warm-up is performed at loads close to the maximum. Further studies are needed to deepen the knowledge about the preparation procedures for optimizing resistance exercise performances. Keywords: pre-exercise, general warm-up, specific warm-up, strength, performance.