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Warm up:
Don't leave the starting blocks without one
By NEIL ROMNEY
Former Saluki Coach
As long as there has been
sport, athletes have used pre-competition warm up to protect themselves
against injury and enhance their performance. While many traditions in
athletics are perpetuated by superstition and not results, warm up is not
one of them. There is considerable evidence showing that warm up protects
against muscle and connective tissue injury by increasing blood flow and
elasticity in these tissues. In addition to providing a provable safety
margin, warm up can also directly improve performance in the following three
ways: a) it allows athletes to familiarize themselves with the competitive
environment as well as to polish or rehearse the required athletic
movements; b) by grooving familiar skills and placing the athlete in the
arena, warm up also encourages peak mental preparation; and c) the physical
or "warming up" aspect of warm up primes the body to produce energy at
maximum efficiency and perform obligatory movements at minimum cost.
Of warm up’s performance
enhancing components, it is the third aspect, the actual physical warming of
the body, that is least understood. Indeed, the most prevalent reason for
not warming up may be the fear of becoming unduly fatigued, of sapping ones
vital energy supplies. The paradox is that, in simplest terms, the energy
invested in a proper physical warm up is returned many times over during the
actual event.
Nowhere is this paradox
more evident than in swimming, a sport mediated by energy production and
energy expenditure. Warm up helps in both halves of the equation by
increasing energy output, decreasing muscular resistance, and decreasing the
time required for motor messages to travel from brain to muscles and for
sensory messages to travel from muscles to brain.
More than a few desultory
stretches, hops on the pool deck, or lazy laps in the pool are required,
however, if one wants to begin a race physically primed. Admittedly,
extremely long or rigorous warm ups can unduly fatigue competitors,
especially those who are not well trained, but most warm ups are too brief
and /or too easy, not too hard. In fact, a minimum of 10-15 minutes of
exercise at 65-70% of maximum heart rate is required to bring about the
necessary increases in muscle and core temperature. The warm up activity
should be vigorous enough to cause visible sweat production at room
temperature.
Although temperatures begin
to decline upon cessation of exercise, some of the warm up’s thermal
benefits persist for 45-90 minutes; as well, subsequent racing efforts help
maintain these higher temperatures and thus prolong the warm up’s effects.
And contrary to popular opinion, shorter events actually require longer warm
ups. Edwin Moses, arguably the greatest 400m hurdler ever, would warm up for
45 minutes before his 45 second event. Certainly this kind of attention to
detail contributed to his many world records and decade-long winning streak.
It is probably true that
children require less warm up than adolescents or adults, but the potential
benefits of being properly prepared are no less significant. In a study by
the present author, collegiate swimmers who performed a 15 minute warm up
swam the 100yd freestyle 0.75 seconds (1.23%) faster than their non-warmed
up peers. Because smaller time differentials than this often determine the
outcome of a swimming race or make it possible to attain that coveted
qualifying standard, warm up represents one of swimming’s most sensible and
pragmatic traditions. Don’t leave the starting blocks without one. |
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