Why is a Warm-up Important?
We all know warm-ups are important, but when it comes to racing, we tend to do things differently than in training. Coach Philip explores why the warm-up is important.
We have spoken many times about the warm-up. However, it has always continued to amaze us just how important this is and how only some athletes pay attention to a successful warm-up to arrive at the start physically and mentally ready to perform. In this article, we hope to remind you what you need to do to ensure your preparation is
Athletes spend weeks and months preparing for an event, likely spending vast sums of money on their training, equipment, and body. So why do they fail to nail the final ~30 minutes before the start?
If you are one of those athletes who move their arms around a bit, do a few hops and jumps, and then dive into their race, you could perform better. All it takes is some preparation and planning, and you will instantly see better results! It is not often that promises like that aren’t a sales pitch in sports!
This fantastic article covers some of the critical principles of warming up and helps outline what you should do in theory. However, applying them to your own needs is an essential strategy. Athletes will always ask how long it should take. Think back to how long it takes to feel like you have caught the water swimming, got comfortable on the bike, or found your groove running. That could be 10-30 minutes into the session for many people.
This is the amount of time you should be allocating to your warm-up. When you know how long it takes, you can ensure you fit it into your race morning routine. It can also be broken down into separate parts to fit around what happens typically. For example, you may do a brief activation session in your accommodation after breakfast and complete a short shake-out run before heading into transition, where you will do some sport-specific activation work. You know how long each part will take and build it into your morning (and around portaloo queues!)
What should you do?
Again, this article has valuable pointers. However, you should ensure you do a complete, full body warm-up and activation, especially for multi sport, where most people only prepare for their first discipline.
Finally, you should practise this warm-up regularly before the event. This means you know exactly how much time it takes and ensure it becomes second nature. Your warm-up becomes like a golfer’s pre-shot routine and helps you dial into the mood and tune into your body, meaning you are ready to perform your best.
This means it should consist of components you do before every session. This can help you dial in your focus and prepare yourself for the race in front of you. It also means you aren’t trying to remember what you need to do; it gets you into a state of flow, and you can
For those of you thinking, “The event is too long, and I’ll be warm as I go,”. This is partly true, but equally, the first few 100m of the swim can be the most intense of the day. You are far better off being ready for those 5 minutes than struggling through the first 1000m of the swim and not getting comfortable on the bike until you have reached the 15km mark.
The warm-up won’t win you your race, but it can make all the difference between giving yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goals and finishing frustrated. As we get stuck into the race season, explore improving your warm-up for some guaranteed improvements!
Check out these articles here for more information about warming up properly for a triathlon or an endurance event.
Philip is the founder of Tri Training Harder LLP. He’s a British Triathlon Level 3 coach, and has been coaching for over a decade and is involved with mentoring and developing other coaches.
Philip has coached athletes to European and World AG wins, elite racing, many Kona qualifications, IRONMAN podiums and AG wins.
Alongside the conventional development through many CPD courses, he has also been fortunate enough to work alongside experts in the fields of Physiotherapy, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Psychology, Biomechanics, Sports Medicine. Putting this knowledge into practice he has worked with thousands of athletes to various degrees, from training camps in Portugal and around Europe, clinics in the UK and online coaching.
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Tri Training Harder are one of the leading Triathlon coaching providers in the UK, using our wealth of experience to unite scientific and technological research with already well-established and successful best practices, to create a formula for triathlon and endurance coaching that works.
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