Warm Up Strategies – The Injury Clinic

There are many different ways to warm up your body to prepare for a training session. The Injury Clinic have provided a great summary of the most common warm up strategies and the evidence behind them.

You can read the full articles via the links below.

Warm Up Strategies & Their Effect on Performance Part 1

Warm Up Strategies & Their Effect on Performance Part 2

At GPC Squad most of our athletes are endurance based. Athletes looking to run longer distances (usually over 5km) and triathletes, racing anywhere from 30mins to 14+ hours. Below I have summarised key points from The Injury Clinic’s blogs relevant to endurance athletes.

Avoid

Static stretching – standing & holding a stretch. It has been found to negatively affect performance when used in a warm up due to decreased heart rate (HR) & core body temperature (CBT).

Consider

Dynamic stretching – drills and run throughs producing muscle stretch. Opposite effect to static stretching. HR and CBT increased and resulted in better sprint performance. Most useful to endurance athletes prior to a speed session such as track intervals or fartlek session or before a run or duathlon event.
Passive Heating – use of warm shower, heated garments etc. A one degree increase in CBT increased performance by 2-5%. Wear tights, longer clothing especially in winter to keep muscles warm. Stay warm between the warm up & event.
Mental Imagery – visualising the activity you are about to do. Effective for endurance athletes who may have a race plan or key processes to get right during the event or session.