I've got two methods that I use at the start of just about every warm-up that I do to cut warm-up time without compromising quality.

They each take just a few seconds to complete, yet can have a big effect on the quality of the rest of your training.

Plus, you're not spending crazy amounts of time just getting ready to train and not actually training.

The first thing I do in a warm-up is usually just 1-2 minutes on my lateral stepper cardio machine. This gets some blood flowing... I never do more than a couple of minutes, though.

The next thing I do is this "squat push" method... it's an interesting technique that forces blood out of "midsection sequester" so that it gets out into circulation faster.

The next thing I do is a weird one for the upper body that gets the arms and shoulders moving but also wakes up the brain.

I call it the Upper Body Cross-Connection Warm-Up.

This warm-up technique looks absolutely INSANE. However, it is EXCELLENT for warming up the shoulder complex, biceps, triceps and the upper body in general.

As well, it's incredibly good for activating your nervous system, specifically the "cross-connections" between the two sides of your brain.

After that, it's straight into a light set of the first exercise I'm going to be training that day.

I'm all done warming up in about 5 minutes or so and ready to get into the real work.

Depending on the exercise I'm doing, I will likely start with an empty bar, then a light, easy weight, then a moderate weight, then working weight, with minimal rest in between.

Naturally, this may be different for you, but I would definitely recommend giving those first two methods a try, especially if you're short on time to train and want to get to the meat of your workout faster.

-> Squat Push Warm-Up

-> Upper Body Cross-Connection Warm-Up

If you find you always need a LOT of warming up, I might recommend you try out my Time-Volume Training method.

When I'm using that style of training, I find I barely need any warm up at all.

It uses moderate weight (not more than a 10 Rep Max weight) for sets of no more than 3 reps.

It's a volume-based program so it gives you plenty of oportunity to warm up basically within the "work" part of the program before the work gets challenging.

I like to use it when I'm coming off a heavier training cycle where my joints are a bit beaten up and I find it works VERY well for recovering from that while still building muscle.

Check out Time-Volume Training here...

Nick Nilsson
The Mad Scientist of Muscle