Gary Turner recently posted something thought-provoking on his blog: Warming up for training – is it necessary?. Check it out!
Two relevant quotes from the research:
“Unfortunately there is an astonishing lack of consistency in research value of warm-up.”
“Perhaps most of the advantage derived from warm-up is psychological.”
It would be interesting to find out what further research there is out there regarding this. Let’s take an extreme example of a total achilles rupture. These have certainly been associated with ‘Weekend Warriors’, for example indulging in basketball for the first time in 20 years, then something going pop. Is it fair to blame that on a lack of a warm-up or is it more realistic for it to be the classic ‘Too much, too soon’ situation and the participant’s body just not up to the task?
Further to this, look at instances of injuries in professional sports. These are athletes who (on paper) do everything right in training, are exceptionally fit, and participate in appropriate warm-ups. Yet instances of serious injury still occur. I’m not referring to collision-based ones or similar ‘freak’ accidents, but more something just giving out, such as the aforementioned achilles rupture. And this can happen deep into a match, not within the first thirty seconds.
Injuries due to overtraining make a lot of sense. However, this is just not the same thing as an injury due to the lack of a warm-up.
What benefits do I get from a warm-up? Say, before refereeing a match?
- HEART RATE: Get it elevated. Essentially means I feel ‘pumped’ and ready to go as soon as the match begins.
- MUSCLE SORENESS: Get rid of any muscle soreness / tightness that may be present. I want this to happen BEFORE the match starts.
- SANITY CHECK: Am I broken? 😉 Identifying issues early on means being able to take appropriate action before it is too late. This might be deciding to stop the activity, or doing something to prevent further issue (strapping up?)
- SHOW FACE: Evident to the teams and onlookers that we are taking this seriously too.
- INTEL: Get a good feel for the attitude of the teams, if they are also warming up.
As Gary touches on, most of these are psychological, not physiological. The heart rate one is interesting, and it left me wondering whether this actually has any physical impact or the body is simply ramping up the heart rate to meet demand.
Either way, it would be interesting to see more research on all of this!