Warm ups?

do you guys warm up before you weight train? If so what warm ups do you do? I normally do jumping jacks or jump rope before I weight train. It helps my body get ready for training. I warm up before I stretch does anyone do it vice versa?

I usually just move around a little, sometimes I'll hit the heavy bag for a minute or two, and then I do a couple light sets of whatever lift I'm going to do. For squatting and deadlifting I also do some mobility drills in the smith machine - just stand next to it and step over one leg at a time, then go under it and repeat. I know you're probably surprised that the smith machine can be used for something other than limbo, but it'll seriously improve your hip flexibility if you do that regularly.

I'm old school. I do a lot of warm up drills that I learned back in the late 70's early 80's that I did before football or wrestling. I start at the top and work my way down. I will start with several neck stretches, arm rotations, chest flies, side bends, trunk rotations (or torso twists), lunges, body weight squats, and calve raises. Sometimes I may incorporate more but this is basically it.

I also may try a light set of a particular exercise but this is not for stretching but if I have been away from a particular exercise so that I can feel the movement and can feel the muscles that I need to concentrate on. Otherwise I find that after my originally stretching and doing the 5 sets that I'm more then warmed up.

Now cooling down is another thing altogether which I need to work more on ... and something that many people forget. If you are raising your heart rate you also have to lower it. As you get older you have to make sure you just don't stop as that is not good for the old ticker. Walking around until you get it under control. Do something light like stretches. This should be an important addition to anybody's workout routine.

I use the rowing machine for about 5-10mins to warm myself up and get the blood flowing.

I do basically the same as Cownose, plus dynamic stretching beforehand (no static before, just after). Then I cool down with a bit of dynamic stretching with 5-10 mins of static stretching. Probably not as much as I should be doing, but there's not a huge amount of floorspace at my gym.

I usually do rotations of the joints and then skip rope to get blood flowing and then go into dynamic stretches. Legs swings to the front, side and rear. That lasts about 10-15 minutes and then I hit the weights or cardio machines it depends what day it is..