Strength Warmup is a dress rehearsal for the patterns you are about to load. Eight exercises at just 6 reps each: arm circles and chest expansions for the shoulders, twists and hip rotations for the trunk, and then the main event - squats, reverse lunges, forward bends and half jacks, the unweighted versions of the movements your session is built from. The rep count is low on purpose. A strength warmup that costs you strength has stolen from the very session it was supposed to serve.
The design principle is rehearse, don't spend. The first four exercises open the joints that bar work depends on - shoulders that will rack, press and pull, a spine that will brace, hips that will hinge. Then the pattern block walks through the session's vocabulary at zero load: six squats groove the descent your working sets will repeat under weight, six reverse lunges wake single-leg stability, and six forward bends rehearse the hip hinge - the pattern behind every deadlift, row and swing, and the one most worth rehearsing because it is the one that punishes cold execution hardest. Half jacks close the pass with a small pulse raise, enough to arrive at the bar warm rather than winded. Six reps per movement delivers the rehearsal effect while leaving every gram of strength where it belongs: in your working sets.
Treat the pattern block as technique practice, because that is what it is. Squat to your working depth with heels down and chest up - the depth you rehearse now is the depth you will hit under load. Step the reverse lunges back far enough for a vertical front shin. In the forward bends, push your hips back and keep your spine long, folding at the hips rather than the waist; this is the hinge, unweighted, and it deserves the same respect the loaded version will demand. Keep the half jacks light and springy.
The bar does not care how strong you are cold, because it will never meet you cold again - forty-eight rehearsal reps and the working sets inherit perfect grooves.
Make it Harder: Save it for the plates - if your first working weight is heavy, add one light ramp-up set of your first lift instead.
Make it Easier: Squat and lunge to a reduced depth and keep all eight exercises.
