Warm-Up Set Calculator

Your warm-up ramp

Rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg — adjust to the plates you own.

How the ramp is built

The ramp follows the standard progression used by lifters and coaching apps: an empty-bar set to grease the movement, then approximately 40% for five reps, 60% for five, and 80% for three before your working sets. Weights are rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg or 5 lb so every step is loadable with ordinary plates, and any step that would land within one plate jump of the previous set is skipped — small jumps waste energy you want on the top set.

Adjust for how you feel

On cold mornings or for a first exercise, add one extra light set. If you arrive warmed up from a previous lift, start at 60%. Older lifters and anyone returning from a break usually benefit from an extra repetition or two at 40-60% rather than heavier jumps. The ramp is a starting point — never let a warm-up set feel like a grind.

Keep the maths going

Plan the exact loading for any weight with your own plate inventory →

Not sure what your top set should be? Estimate it from a recent set →

Printable plate-loading chart for every common weight →

Worked example: warming up to 100 kg

A 100 kg working set on a 20 kg bar, with the plate loading written out. This is exactly what the calculator above produces, so you can check it against your own numbers.

Notice what the ramp is doing: it earns you the 100 kg single or triple without a surprise somewhere between 80 and 100. Every step is rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg, because that is the smallest pair of plates most gyms own, and a step that would land within one increment of the previous one is dropped rather than listed twice. Change the bar to 15 kg or switch to pounds and the whole ladder rebuilds itself.

When a step gets skipped

Set a light working weight — 40 kg on a 20 kg bar — and the 40% and 60% rows vanish. They are not missing, they are pointless: both would round back onto the bar or onto each other. The rule the tool applies is that a step must be at least one increment heavier than the last one and must stay below 90% of your top set; the last one before the working set is your own decision.

Loading the ramp quickly

Ramp sets are where a plate-dragging home gym loses its patience. Small change plates pay for themselves here more than anywhere else in training: the plate guide covers which fractions are worth buying, and the loading guides show the per-side combination for the weights people actually train at. If your ramp climbs up to a big top set, the bar is being racked and un-racked constantly, which makes the rack guide the safety decision rather than a cosmetic one.

Warm-up questions

How many warm-up sets do I need before a heavy set? Three ramping sets plus the bar is the practical minimum: this calculator builds an empty-bar set, then 40%, 60% and 80% of the working weight, then the working set itself. Each step is rounded to a weight you can actually load.

Why do some warm-up steps disappear from the list? A step is dropped when it would sit within 10% of the working weight, or when rounding puts it less than one plate increment above the previous step. Two consecutive nearly identical sets warm nothing, they just cost you energy.

Are warm-up weights rounded up or down? To the nearest loadable increment — 2.5 kg or 5 lb at a time — using the bar weight you enter. If a step cannot be built exactly, you get the closest weight the plates allow.

How many reps in a warm-up set? Ten reps on the empty bar, then five, five and three as the load climbs, finishing with the working set. Warm-up sets should never be fatiguing; if the last ramp set feels hard, you have jumped too far.