Sometimes, athletes’ inability to perform well on race day has less to do with the training they’ve done prior to the event and more to do with improper warming up. We hear athletes say things like, “I didn’t warm up enough” as a means to explain away a poor performance. But, just how does the athlete define “enough”? Instead, wouldn’t it be better to look at warming up not from the angle of duration but rather from what is accomplished during that warm-up period?
Take a look around the athlete prep area before your next race. You will see athletes laser-focused while they work themselves into a lather, preparing for the intensity of the race to come. The logic is that if you open up your body during warm-up, then your body will respond well to the rigors of the race rather than lock-up. The problem is that too much of a good warm-up turns it into a bad warm-up. The length and intensity of a traditional warm-up has long thought to give athletes an edge by eliciting a response called post-activation potentiation (PAP). An athlete triggers PAP when he adds interval work to the warm-up. What is less well-known is that (1) the benefits of PAP last for only 5-10min once the warm-up is concluded; and (2) fatigue from warming up too extensively negates the positive impact PAP plays.
In research presented in the "Journal of Applied Physiology", scientists compared a traditional 50- minute warm-up with high-intensity intervals to a 15-minute warm-up with moderate-intensity intervals in 10 highly-trained track cyclists. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up group experienced less muscle fatigue and produced higher peak power outputs in an ensuing stress test. In other words, the cyclists that warmed up for just 15-minutes had fresher legs than those that used a traditional, 50-minute warm-up – and they performed better.
Additionally, in a recent study in the "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance", researchers warned that, “Warm-up exercise including race-pace and sprint intervals combined with short recovery can reduce subsequent performance in a four-minute maximal test in highly trained cyclists.” The cyclists in the study group that included high intensity warm-up intervals exhibited less peak power in a subsequent maximal exercise test. The study’s authors recommended that an ideal warm-up should be shortened or performed at reduced intensity. The effects of heightened fatigue from too long a warm-up last more than 30 minutes. In other words, well into the early stages of the race.
With this in mind, it would behoove athletes to shorten their warm-ups to a maximum of 15-20 minutes and include some short sub-threshold intervals with adequate recovery between rather than performing those intervals at a higher intensity and producing unnecessary (and counterproductive) fatigue. Give the shorter warm-up idea a shot at your early-season races, and even during your upcoming interval sessions. You may find that spending less time warming up is actually the key to better performances.
Happy Training,
Coach Nate
Take a look around the athlete prep area before your next race. You will see athletes laser-focused while they work themselves into a lather, preparing for the intensity of the race to come. The logic is that if you open up your body during warm-up, then your body will respond well to the rigors of the race rather than lock-up. The problem is that too much of a good warm-up turns it into a bad warm-up. The length and intensity of a traditional warm-up has long thought to give athletes an edge by eliciting a response called post-activation potentiation (PAP). An athlete triggers PAP when he adds interval work to the warm-up. What is less well-known is that (1) the benefits of PAP last for only 5-10min once the warm-up is concluded; and (2) fatigue from warming up too extensively negates the positive impact PAP plays.
In research presented in the "Journal of Applied Physiology", scientists compared a traditional 50- minute warm-up with high-intensity intervals to a 15-minute warm-up with moderate-intensity intervals in 10 highly-trained track cyclists. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up group experienced less muscle fatigue and produced higher peak power outputs in an ensuing stress test. In other words, the cyclists that warmed up for just 15-minutes had fresher legs than those that used a traditional, 50-minute warm-up – and they performed better.
Additionally, in a recent study in the "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance", researchers warned that, “Warm-up exercise including race-pace and sprint intervals combined with short recovery can reduce subsequent performance in a four-minute maximal test in highly trained cyclists.” The cyclists in the study group that included high intensity warm-up intervals exhibited less peak power in a subsequent maximal exercise test. The study’s authors recommended that an ideal warm-up should be shortened or performed at reduced intensity. The effects of heightened fatigue from too long a warm-up last more than 30 minutes. In other words, well into the early stages of the race.
With this in mind, it would behoove athletes to shorten their warm-ups to a maximum of 15-20 minutes and include some short sub-threshold intervals with adequate recovery between rather than performing those intervals at a higher intensity and producing unnecessary (and counterproductive) fatigue. Give the shorter warm-up idea a shot at your early-season races, and even during your upcoming interval sessions. You may find that spending less time warming up is actually the key to better performances.
Happy Training,
Coach Nate
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