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So as per my usual routine, I do squats 3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri). Each session consists of 3 sets, 1st set = 10reps, 2nd set = 8reps and 3rd set = 6 reps. So this morning I did a warm up of about 5 reps with approx 50kg's. Then I jumped straight into my working set with around 95kg's. With my first working set, it felt a bit awkward and really struggled to get 6 reps out. Normally I would get 10+ on that weight. Second set I got 8 reps, and third set I got 9 reps. It's a bit weird for me as it never happened before. I figured my muscles weren't ready and were overloaded and I should do more heavy warmup set with more reps?
Food intake, sleep pattern can both add to a shit workout. Sometimes you just have a bad day.
I wouldn't say your warmup is optimal. I usually do 10-15 with just the bar then progressivelly work up in increments of 20 kg dropping reps as I go. I am a bit fucked injury wise and think I get a lot of benefit from warming up properly and greasing the groove. You did just 1 warm up set of 5 reps and nothing else??
I am sure some of the gurus will weigh in on what a proper warmup protocol should be.
My most common warm up (although I haven't been using it lately due to the ramping sets in Madcow's 5x5 acting somewhat as warm ups) for squats is 10xBW, 10x20kg, 5x40kg, 3x60kg, 1x80kg, then go up in singles until I approach my work sets. Fairly similar to what Gahahahememmamaem said. It may seem a bit extensive, but I've noticed that when I cut that process short (especially cutting out the bodyweight squats and empty bar squats), the quality of my squats just isn't there, I'm stiffer, it's harder to get into the right positions, etc.
generally i go;
bar x 8
60/70 x5
100/110 x3
120/130 x1
work sets.
keeping in mind the warm ups 5,3,1 and 5,3,1,1 are used for lower rep ranges, like 5's so you might want to use 8,6,3,2 for sets of 10