There is a BIG difference between testing your strength and building strength.

Most programs will provide detailed weights, percentages, etc., regarding your work sets, but the warm-up sets are an after-thought. This is NOT something that can be overlooked, especially if you're looking to improve maximal strength! When I worked in a "regular" health club, I witnessed the same warm-up by almost every single person! 135 for 10-15 reps, then 185 for 8-10 reps, etc., etc. If you're looking to train with maximal weights, the worst thing you can do is perform too many reps in your warm-up! This will only fatigue you for the sets that "count". Don't get me wrong -- this doesn't mean you should jump right into your work sets without performing any warm-up sets; but, the key is to perform multiple sets of low reps in your warm-up. This will "save you" for the heavy sets. FYI, if you're someone who routinely performs 10-15 reps with your initial warm-up sets; be prepared to get instantly stronger the day you switch to low rep warm-up sets. On average, I've seen 10-20lb. increases on max lifts when people switch to this "low rep" method...TRUST ME on this one!

Here's a quick look at how I warmed up last week before benching. My three work sets were 350 x 3, 2, 2.

After performing a "general warm-up" to increase body temperature and some specific stretches, I hit the bench. Here's the warm-up:

135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1, 335x1

As you can see, I only performed 15 TOTAL reps in six sets. I handled heavy enough weight so that my work sets didn't feel heavy...and the speed of my work sets/reps improved with each set because my muscles weren't fatigued from performing too many warm up reps.

   If you're that guy that asks people to spot you all the time, only to have the weight crash down on your chest - as you proceed to attempt rep after rep - while the poor spotter has to perform max-effort shrugs, rows and curls to prevent the weight from splitting you in half... YOU SUCK AT LIFE! Oh yeah, you're definitely weak, too! Seriously though, have you ever noticed that the people who fit my above description are NEVER jacked?! The reason being is if you regularly perform "forced reps", you never know how much weight you're actually lifting yourself! And if increasing strength is your goal, proper progression is key! It doesn't matter if you perform your max-effort exercises "Louie Simmons-style" (where you attempt to break records each week), or you map out your exact percentages ahead of time; the bottom line is that if you don't know exactly how much weight you lift each week, you can't progress! And please don't be fooled by the spotter who says, "Dude, I barely helped you; that was ALL YOU." Think about this... how hard is it to shrug/upright row an empty barbell? It's not hard at all, regardless of who you are! So even if the spotter isn't 'killing himself', he can easily still be giving 45 pounds of 'help' while spotting someone on the bench. Bottom line is that it's NOT "all you" if someone is giving you (minimum) 45 pounds of help on any exercise!