Is your warm-up the "heat" or should you give it the "cold shoulder"?

One’s warm up can have a significant impact on one’s performance. You are not doing a warm up because it is what you have always done or because it is what you have been told to do, you are doing it in order to benefit your performance. It has been shown that an effective warm-up program has both physical and psychological benefits.
If a warm-up session is done properly it will ultimately increase both muscle and core temperature (hence the name warm-up), this increase in temperature causes changes in the body. The increase in muscle temperature allows both the agonist (primary) and antagonist (secondary) muscles to contract and relax faster, this means an improvement in reaction time. There is also an improvement in muscular strength and power and in the rate in which the power is generated. The increased temperatures will also increase the oxygen release from hemoglobin into the active muscles (Bohr Effect). A well-designed warm-up program will also cause an increase in blood flow to active muscles, and this increased blood flow as well as the improved oxygen release means improved metabolic functions/reactions in the active muscles.
The debate as to whether or not stretching should be incorporated into the warm-up session or not is a very common one. As with all training the type of stretching should be specific to the sport. If an individual is participating in a sport that requires increased flexibility and range of motion (e.g.: ballet, gymnastics) then it has been recommended that one does static stretching. However, studies show that static stretching had a negative effect on higher intensity sports such as rugby, soccer, hockey, as it can decrease reaction time, power and force production, as well as running speed. Static stretching is by no means functional to these sports and it is for that reason we see these negative effects. Dynamic stretching is the preferred stretching technique to use in warm-ups according to research, as it has no performance reducing effects but rather performance enhancing effects. The dynamic stretches should work through the range of motion that will take place during the event that follows the warm-up.
One’s warm-up session should therefore incorporate some form of stretching as well as other low-intensity sport specific activities. Things such as jogging and skipping can be incorporated and as the session continues they can be turned into sport specific drills, such as dribbling a hockey/ soccer ball through cones while jogging. These activities are to increase heart rate, blood flow, and respiration rate and muscle temperature. Warm-up sessions should progress gradually to an ideal intensity, which will have the desired effects without causing fatigue and without causing energy stores to be reduced.
The thing to remember is functionality. Functionality is key in all area’s regarding exercise. So next time you consider “skipping” your warm-up session, think twice, it is the "heat".
- Caron-Lee