Why do you warm up?
How important is it to warm up? How does it make a difference? Why should you warm-up? How could you warm up for your upcoming triathlon race over any distance? Read on to find out as Coach Alan takes you through each of these steps to give you the knowledge to be firing on all cylinders from the moment you cross the start line of your next race.
How important is it?
In order to understand warming up, it is useful to have some understanding of how our physiology works. When exercising we use almost all of our physiological systems, these being;
Skeletal System
Nervous System
Muscular System
Respiratory System
Cardiovascular System
Energy System
Digestive System
Endocrine System
The final system is the immune system you would hope not to use in racing but it would certainly be a factor in endurance training.
Fight or Flight
The above list is written in a specific order. First the skeletal system creates the position from which our nervous system can initiate work and leverage our muscular system in order for us to move.
The next ‘step’ is important; we are evolved to be able to complete this first movement with very little input from any other system in order to fight or flee! To do this we rely on energy stored within the muscles, intramuscular energy, to create this initial movement. Oxygen is not involved in this ‘anaerobic’ process and therefore the respiratory and cardiovascular systems are not involved. As you may know, anaerobic exercise is only something you can maintain for a short duration of time and the reason for this is that the energy source, those little fuel tanks in your muscles are limited in number and size. Athletes that are stronger anaerobically, have among other abilities, more fast-twitch muscle fibres and therefore more storage and more fuel in the tank.
Onset of exercise
Note how long it takes for breathing rates and heart rate to increase from rest.
At the onset, we can draw on anaerobic energy as we may need to fight or flee.
We can draw more oxygen from our circulatory system; the body always has a small excess left after oxygen has passed from arteries through the muscular system into veinous blood returning to the heart and lungs. We can withdraw more oxygen from this excess but the respiratory system and cardiovascular system will still be at resting levels of oxygen supply due to breathing rates and heart rate still getting up to speed.
In order to meet the demands of the working muscles for more oxygen we first of all need to increase our respiratory rate to take in more oxygen. To do this our breathing rate will increase and deepen to get more oxygen into the lungs, once here we need to transport this uptick in supply to the working muscles. Our blood, specifically our red blood cells, are responsible for carrying oxygen around our system and this all requires a strong pump and network of roads (arteries, capillaries and veins) to get to the muscular system. Critically capillaries need to be dense and great in number around the alveoli in our lungs and also around the muscles themselves in order to allow for as many possible pick-up and drop-off points for those red blood cells.
Effective breathing, and diffusion of oxygen, at a fast rate with maximal carriage of oxygen in the system will lead to bigger supplies to meet demand. But as you can see above, the rates take a little while to switch on. The reason they don’t go faster is that if we were to go from resting to very high breathing rate and heart rates we would likely pass out due to a lack of sufficient blood supply to the most important bit of them all, your brain! Our bodies are designed to work on more of a dial-up, beep beep beep etc, internet connection rather than fibre optic instant download/upload connections for good reason and as such we should treat them with respect and not open YouTube, Zoom, TrainingPeaks, E-Mails and 8 different browser tabs all at the same time as the system simply won’t cope, or work so well. This is why a steady warm-up of sufficient duration is really important. We need to allow our body time to get up to speed with the demands we wish to make of it.
Once our breathing rate and heart rate are up to speed and the exercise intensity is appropriate we are able to maintain the workload aerobically as supply and demand are in equilibrium. In order to maintain this for a longer duration, we need to use different energy systems to feed the breakdown of oxygen into energy (this is more complex but is for another time). In order to do this, we need an external source of fuel and this is where the digestive system comes in. It is important to remember that the digestive system itself needs its own supply of energy to work and as such constitutes a competitor in terms of the body's supply and demand. Therefore the harder you work, the more demand you make on those limited supplies, and the harder it is to digest. In order to keep things balanced and within optimal functional ranges our endocrine system comes into play; this is particularly important when it comes to regulating water balance and thermal balance. Too little fluid and our body doesn’t work so well, too hot or too cold and our body doesn’t work so well, our endocrine system will release hormones that signal the body to respond to these challenges.
That’s it, that’s all the basic systems that make up your physiology. It is helpful to understand this so you are able to digest the signals your body gives you and put them into context to be able to respond logically. Remember all of the systems are rate-limited; supply needs to speed up and slow down to meet demand, which takes a little time. In addition to this, some of the systems can compete with each other supply as well as work together for supply and this all needs to be managed. By understanding this you should be able to work with your body and help it do what it is evolved to do rather than give it unhelpful instructions, yep that’s right stop clicking on that mouse over and over again hoping for a different response.
Summary
What you have read through is not only a useful understanding of warming up, but it is also a very helpful background with which to judge your own perceived exertion or RPE. RPE can be incredibly useful in training and racing as a third metric to help verify and triangulate an accurate interpretation of the data feedback you are receiving. This can be in conjunction with any combination of pace, power, speed or heart rate.
Remember your body takes a little while to switch on and get up to speed. If you warn the systems they have some work coming up they will switch on that little bit quicker and work more effectively for you. In the next article, I will cover when and how to warm up for different events.
Alan has worked with Tri Training Harder since 2014. During this time working with a wide spectrum of athletes from beginner, to youth and junior elite athletes through to 70.3 and Ironman AG winners and Ironman Kona Qualifiers.
An active Triathlon coach since 2007 Alan has been fortunate enough to work with athletes, peers and support staff who have continutally challenged him to evolve and develop. Building on a solid foundation in swimming teaching, Alan has specifically developed swimming coaching experience having worked in High Performance Swimming environments. Alan's other passion is all things fast on a bicycle!
Since 2015 Alan has worked in conjunction with the other Tri Training Harder Coaches to significantly develop collective coaching practice both on camp and online.
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