Coaching The Warmup Room

Coaching in the Warm Up Room

The warmup room can make or break a lifter's meet day. When coaches act like adults and communicate with each other, everyone performs better. When coaches act like children and refuse to help each other out, it becomes a nightmare for the athletes.

Let me be clear: if you can't handle the warm-up room properly, you shouldn't be coaching at meets.

Do Your Homework Before Meet Day

Before you even step into the warm-up room, you need to know where your lifters fall in the flight order. Are they opening the flight? Closing it? Somewhere in the middle? This matters because it determines when they take their last warm-up.

Once you're in the warm-up room, introduce yourself to other coaches. Powerlifting is a community based sport, not a war zone. These are likely people you are going to be around often in competition and it pays to get to know one another. Find out who's opening at what weight. Match up lifters with similar heights and strength levels. This creates an efficient rotation where the bar keeps going up instead of constantly being loaded and unloaded.

Think about it like the actual competition platform. The weight goes up, not down. When everyone takes turns in order of strength and height, the warm-up room flows perfectly. Everyone gets equal recovery time. Everyone hits their last warm-up at the right moment. It sorts itself out naturally.

Communicate Like an Adult

What ruins the warm-up room? Coaches who can't talk to each other. Coaches who claim a rack as "theirs" and won't let anyone work in. Coaches who act like they're too good to collaborate.

That behavior is childish. It's unprofessional. And it makes the day harder for every single lifter in that room.

Your job as a coach is to look out for your athlete's best interests. Sometimes that means sharing equipment. Sometimes that means helping load someone else's bar. Sometimes it means organizing lifters who don't even have coaches.

If you can't do that, you're not ready to coach at meets.

Speak in Colors, Not Numbers

Here's a simple trick that makes everything faster: organize your warm-ups by plate colors instead of kilos.

Instead of yelling "110 kilos" and watching everyone try to do math in their head, say "red, yellow, black clip." Red is 25. Blue is 20. Yellow is 15. You get the idea.

When you need 265 kilos on the bar, don't make people calculate. Just say "four reds, a blue, and a black." Your meaning is instantly clear. The plates get loaded faster. Everyone stays on schedule.

Write out your warm-up attempts with the colors next to the weights. It takes five minutes of prep work and saves you tons of confusion on meet day.

Load Plates and Run Racks

There's a growing trend of online coaches who show up in fancy polos with clipboards and think they're too important to load plates. They throw their lifters into any available rack, ask everyone to strip the bar down, and then stand around looking important.

Those are asshole coaches. They're red flags. They are a terrible example of what real coaching is.

I've seen the best coaches in the world at powerlifting meets. World-class coaches with all time world record holders. You know what they're doing? Sweating it out with everyone else. Loading plates. Running racks. Being leaders in the warm-up room.

A real coach leads their team AND ensures everyone in that room is taken care of. They make sure people are safe. They put spotters in place when needed. They keep people from walking behind lifters mid-attempt. They create the best possible environment for everyone's performance.

If you're sitting off to the side having conversations while someone else loads your lifter's bar, you're being a bum. You should be embarrassed. That's not coaching. That's lazy shit.

The Difference It Makes

When everyone chips in and communicates, the warm-up room becomes something special. Every lifter gets what they need. The day runs smoothly. People perform at their best.

But when there are bums hanging on the wings making everyone else do the work, it ruins the entire experience. The cohesiveness falls apart. The environment gets tense.

People remember that stuff. Lifters remember which coaches were cliquey or rude. They remember which coaches were giving and professional. Your reputation in this sport is built in moments like these.

The Bottom Line

A great warm-up room requires quality coaches who exercise leadership. Coaches who communicate. Coaches who organize lifters (even the ones without coaches). Coaches who make sure everyone is prepared, safe, and ready to perform.

If all of that happens, every lifter that day gets to have an awesome performance. If it doesn't, you failed your athlete and everyone else in that room.

Key Do's and Don'ts

DO:

• Introduce yourself to other coaches and communicate openly

• Match lifters by height and strength level for efficient rotations

• Organize your warm-ups by plate colors for faster loading

• Load plates and run racks alongside everyone else

• Look out for ALL lifters' safety, not just your own

• Ensure spotters are in place when needed

• Keep the rotation flowing smoothly

DON'T:

• Claim a rack as exclusively yours

• Make others strip the bar for your lifter when you could work in

• Stand around with a clipboard while others do the work

• Yell out weights in kilos to someone else laoding your lifters bar when colors are faster and clearer

• Act like you're too important to help with the basic work

• Ignore the flight order when planning warm-ups

• Let your ego get in the way of collaboration

If you found this helpful, share it with your coaching community. The more coaches who understand these principles, the better every meet becomes for every lifter.