The major finding of this study was a significant increase in muscular power both with time of day and with an active warm-up, with no interaction effect between these two factors.
-Racinais et al
About 8 years ago I had the pleasure of listening to John Smith talk about sprinting at the MSTCA clinic and he was a pleasure to listen to. Sitting next to me was Randy Gillon from Michigan State University and the phrase cook the bird to the bone jumped out on me and I decided to write a PDF on warming up for speed training. The PDF I wrote was nice, but if I had to do it again I would have included the study on core and muscle temperature and diurnal timing of performance.
I have found that you can’t rush warm-ups, and no matter how great you think you are prepared to train or compete you must pay the piper time wise and warm-up gradually and slowly. I find it interesting that the most simple of principals is violated every day with some circles. If the athlete doesn’t sweat profusely do you really think the intra-articular areas are ready? Heat doesn’t guarantee being free of injuries but it does at least give you a chance as a poorer performing muscle isn’t going to help. Cook the bird to the bone.
Discuss entry