How many warm-up sets you do before a heavy set is, in Zyra Workouts, a scheme you choose rather than a number the app decides: one universal scheme, or one per exercise type (compound upper, compound lower, upper isolation, lower isolation, core), with a per-exercise scheme overriding both. The design notes name the schemes but do not fix their percentages or rep counts, so this page explains what a warm-up set is for, how the schemes are organised, and the one rule that never changes — warm-ups do not count as working sets.
Zyra Workouts is in development and not yet on the App Store; the screens described here may change before release.
What a warm-up set is for
A warm-up set rehearses the movement at a lighter load before the working sets. Its job is practical: the first heavy rep of the day should not also be the first rep of the day. A ramp of lighter sets lets you check the setup, feel where the bar sits, confirm the plates add up, and arrive at the working weight with the pattern already grooved.
That is a training rationale, not a claim about outcomes. This site does not say what warm-ups do or do not protect against; it says what they are for in a program and how the app handles them.
What a warm-up set is *not* is a working set at a lower weight. A set you could have taken to failure but stopped early is still a working set; a warm-up is deliberately far from failure and is typed as such (badge W) so the app can leave it out of every count.
Ramping schemes by exercise type (table)
The Smart Warm-Ups feature organises warm-ups as schemes with three scopes. A scheme is a list of steps, each a percentage of the working weight and a rep count:
| Scope | Applies to | Precedence |
|---|---|---|
| Universal | every exercise | lowest — used when nothing narrower applies |
| By type | one of five categories: compound upper, compound lower, upper isolation, lower isolation, core | wins over universal |
| Per exercise | a single exercise | wins over both |
The five by-type categories map from the catalog: core exercises (the plank, hanging leg raise…) form their own bucket; every other exercise is compound or isolation, upper or lower, from its category and primary muscle. So the back squat is compound lower, the barbell bench press is compound upper, the dumbbell curl is upper isolation.
What each scheme's steps *should* be — how many, at what percentages, for how many reps — is exactly what the source design notes leave open (they state no percentage or rep count for any scheme). This site keeps it open too. The warm-up set builder exposes the steps as inputs; type a working weight and a step list and it prints the ramp, rounding every step down to a weight your bar and plate inventory can make, so a step never asks for 63.7 kg.
Two patterns fall out of the categories without anyone fixing a number:
- Heavier, more whole-body lifts get more steps. The gap between an empty bar and a working squat is larger, in kilograms and in what the body has to organise, than the gap between nothing and a set of curls. A compound-lower scheme with several steps and a lower-isolation scheme with none is a coherent setup.
- Light isolation work often needs no dedicated warm-up. The first working set at a light weight does the rehearsal; a by-type scheme with zero steps for that category expresses it.
In plain terms: the app gives you five buckets and a per-exercise override; you decide the ladder, and the builder makes every rung loadable.
In the session
When a scheme applies, the warm-up sets appear above the working sets of the exercise, each typed W. In the session you can add a warm-up on demand or remove one, and once every warm-up is ticked the table can collapse them behind a one-line summary so the working sets stay in view. Removing a warm-up in a session does not change the saved scheme; the next session starts from the scheme again.
Rest after a warm-up set follows the exercise's timer like any other set, though the common practice is to move through the early steps faster than the working rest — another thing the app leaves to you.
Warm-ups do not count as working sets
This is the rule that does not bend. In the dashboard code the working-set filter is a single comparison, setType !== 'warmup', and it is applied everywhere:
- Weekly sets per muscle — a warm-up adds 0 to any muscle, so the landmarks see only working sets.
- Records — a warm-up single at a heavy weight does not set a 1-RM record; only working sets are considered.
- Progression — when the engine looks up what you lifted last time to recommend the next load, it reads the last completed working sets and skips warm-ups entirely.
The practical consequence: type your sets honestly. A heavy set mistakenly typed W disappears from your history's arithmetic; a light rehearsal typed standard inflates your weekly count and can drag the progression engine's last-time value down. The set-types page covers the other four types.
The short version
Warm-up sets in Zyra Workouts are governed by schemes — universal, by exercise type (compound upper/lower, isolation upper/lower, core) or per exercise — and the steps in each scheme are yours to set, because the source notes fix no percentages or rep counts. Heavier compound lifts usually get more steps, light isolation often none. Whatever the scheme, a warm-up counts for nothing in volume, records or progression. Build a ramp with loadable weights in the warm-up set builder.
Educational overview only — training guidance, not medical advice.