How to Warm Up?
In this second article on warm-ups Coach Alan takes you through each of these steps to give you the details on how to warm up so that you can be firing on all cylinders from the moment you cross the start line of your next race.
When to warm up?
We have already covered why we warm up but when should you warm up? Simply put you should always warm up no matter how short that warm-up is, even mental rehearsal only counts as warming up so it isn’t just physiology we are looking at. Generally, the importance of the warm-up and the size of the warm-up is inverse to the duration of the race, ie. the longer the race the shorter the warm-up. But the length of the race isn’t the only thing to consider, below are a few other factors;
Environmental conditions of the race. Is it hot or is it cold before the start? Is it forecast to be hot or cold during the race?
Are there any specific demands of your event, ie cold water immersion or putting on a wetsuit?
Any practical considerations?
What time of day is the start?
Does the course affect the exercise intensity early on / what does your pacing strategy look like?
How much difference can it make?
Research has consistently shown that warming up has a significantly positive effect on subsequent performance. in 2010 (1. Fradkin et al.) one review study looked at 32 high-quality research studies and concluded that a warm-up improved performance 79% of the time. It also noted that there was very little evidence to suggest warming up has a negative impact. It is also worth noting that 79% positive does not mean 21% negative, the other 21% was made up of studies with some questionable methods and also may have simply been neutral in terms of the effect on performance. The review study suggested that specific elements of the warm-up were studied in the future to optimise warm-ups. Let’s have a look at some of those specifics.
What are you warming up?
Firstly we need to think about what we are warming up for. It is crucial to look at races in terms of expected duration, for some athletes this will mean warming up as per the distance above the racing distances below. Specific courses/weather conditions, age groups or ability levels or a combination of these will result in this scenario.
Next, it is important to consider what you are trying to warm up to work out how to warm up appropriately. Briefly, however, the primary aim of a warm-up is to enable your body to work as effectively as possible as quickly as possible when starting an event. As we have established in the first blog many systems are rate limited and can take a little time to get up to speed. The key areas are in order of importance below;
Mental alertness and readiness
Physical warmth
Rate limited CV systems - heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen transportation
Nervous system - coordination and muscle activation
Anaerobic systems
Muscular priming / pre-loading
From the list above if we know the likely energy systems to be used during an event, especially during the early stages of an event, we can select the appropriate warm-up method from the list below.
All the bullet points in the suggested warm-up considerations below are written in chronological order starting from the earliest point before the race start time
Each of the events builds upon the previous so it is worth reading through each.
Long Distance or Ironman events lasting 6hr or more (65-80% of threshold intensity)
For this duration of events we are looking to first wake up but also to look for basic increases in muscles warmth, increase in breathing rate to aerobic level, increase in heart rate to aerobic level, increase in range of movement from waking range, general muscle activation and then muscle activation that is specific to the individual or for the first discipline of an event ie. swim.
A warm shower on wake-up and warm drinks or food can help to increase warmth, especially with potentially cool early morning starts. Clothing choice is also essential!
Morning mobility exercises; for example, arm circles or hip openers/hurdle steps that gently increase the range of movement.
Gentle 5 - 10min jog or ride to achieve an increase in heart rate and breathing rate and physically and mentally wake up (2. Zourdos et al. 2017)
Warm-up can be at an appropriate time post-pre-race fueling and longer than 60min pre-start if required
Some basic balance, pelvic and trunk-based stability exercises. Such as balance on one leg, small lunge, side plank or dead bugs.
A swim-specific warm-up could be as simple as a tip-toe walk followed by pull-throughs with some swim bands.
Resting levels of warmth pre-start to be maintained
Middle Distance or 70.3 events lasting 3.5 - 6hr (80-90% of threshold intensity)
For events lasting this duration, the warm-up can be biased towards that of the 1.75-3hr events below due to the nature of the swim. Athletes must vary their warm-up based on their individual swim and overall race expectations. Those athletes swimming sub 30min and around the 4hr mark will be significantly different to those taking 45min for the swim or over 5hr for the whole event.
This duration may well include a shorter higher intensity swim and can have a slightly contradictory start to the event compared to the average intensity of the whole event.
It is important to remember pacing may not be entirely linear.
The 6hr+ warm-up with the addition of some strides to the jog warm-up plus a more intense swim-specific warm-up must be within 60min of the start
Trunk stabilisation activation - planks, side plank, Pavlof press with band
Specific warmth/activation in swimming musculature. Band-related presses or rows.
Standard or Olympic Distance 1.75 - 3hr (90-100% of threshold intensity)
At the standard distance, the warm-up makes a shift towards a percentage of the workload being above threshold intensity and as such, that means that maximum oxygen consumption becomes a system to get up to speed. VO2 Kinetics can be switched on more quickly for up to 45min after a significant amount of high-intensity work (3. Burnley et al. 2006)
High aerobic / threshold intensities
These events can have an explosive start above the average intensity and therefore warm-up becomes a crucial element in performance warm-up must be within 45min of the start time, the choice of warm-up sport does not matter as we are looking to warm up your heart, lungs and oxygen/energy delivery systems.
Warm up to include 10min aerobic work
5min of Standard Mobility Drills
Followed by a short run with build into 2x 50m Strides or 2x 10sec Accelerations off 1min20sec
Followed by 2min active recovery into 1x 30sec at 120% of your aerobic threshold. (4. Ingham et al. 2013)
Finally complete 4min30sec at a very easy active recovery level
Total Time = 25min
Warm up to finish a maximum of 45min before the start time
Followed by specific activations of the muscular systems for the first discipline if necessary. Swim bands or swimming would be most common.
Staying warm between the warm-up and the start of the event is key due to the high intensity.
Sprint Distance or events lasting 1 - 1.75hr (95-110% of threshold intensity)
As standard distance above but with the possible addition of muscular priming via a weighted vest to the strides to help with peak speed attained whilst running.
This would also be significantly useful for dive starts where position into the first buoy may be a critical race factor. Particularly so in draft legal racing.
Strides with a weighted vest (20% Body Mass) increase from 2 to 6 reps of 10 seconds on the standard distance warm-up. (5. Barnes et al. 2015)
Staying warm between the warm-up and the start of the event is key. Extra layers should be applied to retain heat if necessary.
Summary
The same theory can be applied to training events lasting less than one hour. Park Run, 10mile time trials, 10k running races, open water swimming races, aquathlons and any other all-out time trial effort. If you can work out an approximate duration of an event you can apply an appropriate warm-up.
To sum up, warm up and go faster in your next race. Don’t neglect something that has a certain positive impact on your race. Get organised think through your race day plan and get your warm-ups done unless it is incredibly hot in which case you need to warm up and ‘pre-cool’ all at the same time. But more on that in a later blog.
References
Effects of Warming-up on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis (Fradkin et al. 2010)
Impact of a Submaximal Warm-Up on Endurance Performance in Highly Trained and Competitive Male Runners (Zourdos et al. 2017)
Time required for the restoration of normal heavy exercise V̇o2 kinetics following prior heavy exercise (Burnley et al. 2006)
Improvement of 800-m Running Performance With Prior High-Intensity Exercise (Ingham et al. 2013)
Warm-up with a weighted vest improves running performance via leg stiffness and running economy (Barnes et al. 2015)
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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