title: Less is more: standard warm-up causes fatigue and less warm-up permits greater cycling power output.
abstract: The traditional warm-up (WU) used by athletes to prepare for a sprint track cycling event involves a general WU followed by a series of brief sprints lasting ≥ 50 min in total. A WU of this duration and intensity could cause significant fatigue and impair subsequent performance. The purpose of this research was to compare a traditional WU with an experimental WU and examine the consequences of traditional and experimental WU on the 30-s Wingate test and electrically elicited twitch contractions. The traditional WU began with 20 min of cycling with a gradual intensity increase from 60% to 95% of maximal heart rate; then four sprints were performed at 8-min intervals. The experimental WU was shorter with less high-intensity exercise: intensity increased from 60% to 70% of maximal heart rate over 15 min; then just one sprint was performed. The Wingate test was conducted with a 1-min lead-in at 80% of optimal cadence followed by a Wingate test at optimal cadence. Peak active twitch torque was significantly lower after the traditional than experimental WU (86.5 ± 3.3% vs. 94.6 ± 2.4%, P < 0.05) when expressed as percentage of pre-WU amplitude. Wingate test performance was significantly better (P < 0.01) after experimental WU (peak power output = 1,390 ± 80 W, work = 29.1 ± 1.2 kJ) than traditional WU (peak power output = 1,303 ± 89 W, work = 27.7 ± 1.2 kJ). The traditional track cyclist's WU results in significant fatigue, which corresponds with impaired peak power output. A shorter and lower-intensity WU permits a better performance.
authors.affiliation: Human Performance Laboratory, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Elias K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Tomaras
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: MacIntosh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000416:Alberta; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001642:Bicycling; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005080:Exercise Test; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018763:Muscle Fatigue; D053580:Muscle Strength; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010807:Physical Endurance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D019415:Torque