How do I warm up?

[Thomas W-P]

If I am to do a piece at the anaerobic threshold (80%), how should I warm up? If I do too little then it takes a while to get the heart rate up. OR should I warm up normally, then go off like the clappers and try and raise the heart rate to 80% as quickly as possible?

[johnglynn]

I generally would do between 500m and 1000m for a 2K race (which I guess is about the 80% area ?) . For longer distances I would warmup less, for shorter I would warmup more . I generally alternate my pace between fast and slow every 100/150m for 2K's and less .

Before I row I also generally drink huge amounts of water beforehand (more important in longer distances).

I also strecth before all rows and before warmup, for 2K's and less I would do another warmup before the strecths

But all the above are only things that seem to work resonably well for me

Here's what someone who really knows says

http://www.fletchersportscience.co.uk/s ... e.php?s=10

[Mike Channin]

Great piece by Eddie.

Personally I've always used a gentle (2:20ish) 2500m warmup for everything, as you can see from my log book, which suits me fine, although I have wondered if it is high intensity enough for a full high intensity preparation.

I've heard the theory Eddie puts forward, that the three sprints at higher intensity help get warmed up better, but not tried it yet. Will let you know the results when I have.

Have certainly been at races where people are gunning the warmup WAY too much (possibly to show off) and I just watch and think, yes, but you should be using that energy for the race!

I used to do 2 races at most of the Grand Prix events (once I'd realised I could double enter the 30+ Hwt AND the Open Hwt) and never found it too bad to do two sets (although they were always at least a couple of hours apart). Was never quite certain if I compromised my first time a bit by knowing I had to do it all again.

Am considering double entering BIRC this year, so I may get to race more of you!

Had a chat with Thomas yesterday, and for a flat out piece like an AN is, I'd say just do a maximal effort and don't worry too much about the HR values in the piece itself. The idea is to reach your limits, and to do that you need to go at it hard. I suppose an enforced fly-and-die would be even more effective for getting the HR up higher and earlier, but runs more danger of popping and not completing the piece. Whatever works for you I guess.

[Paul Victory]

I tried Eddie's 20 mins warm up today in preparation for a 4k attempt.

I think I may have gone at too high an average pace (overall I came in just under 2:05) and found I struggled on the 4k and gave up after 1500m.

In terms of time, what is 60% (in watts) of your 2k speed? My 2k PB is 6:50, but I would currently struggle to get under 7 min.

Paul

[Mike Channin]

I used a race warmup based on Eddie's recommendations, and found it successful (although had to rush it a bit on Saturday so wasn't quite what I planned).

I used:

2500m steady state warmup, aimed at approx. 2:20 pace and low SPM (20 or less). (Always do this, and previously used to use just this before a race)

2 min rest (mainly so I can get a HR recovery reading from the first piece)

2000m steady state (2:20ish) with 3 race pace intervals of 15 strokes. For the paces, used Race Pace +1, Race Pace, and Race Pace -1. This is handy for feeling how it actually feels on race day to pull the paces. (Felt great on Saturday, but today prior to the failed workout felt awful, so pretty good indicator if all is well, or not!)

So the total warmup is about 20 mins, with mainly very easy pacing, but three quick intervals to get the system prepared for race intensity without actually wasting much energy.

Reason I added the second bit wth the intervals is that a lot of people talk about the value of having done race pace work to wake the body up, and there was a question whether the very low intensity warmup I was using was insufficient. It did have the advantage that I wasted very little energy. I've been to races and witnessed people pulling 2k plus at sub 2:00 for a warmup, but then noted that they tend to underperform in the race.

Paul,

I certainly wouldn't want to go off on a maximal piece, having already pulled 20 mins at 2:05 ish, as this would definitely have taken some of the energy I'd want to be saving for the race itself.

In the 2.5k race on Sat I did 8:31.0 (1:42.2 pace) which equates to a 1:40.5 2k pace (6:42.0). Using this, 60% would be 1:59.1, and way faster than I'd use for a warmup.

All paces should (obviously) be against your current form rather than a PB you may have set some time back with a significantly different physiology at the time.

There is also an argument that a longer maximal piece could probably afford a shorter (than 20 mins) warmup, too. Will see how I feel about this when I've had time to test this out more. The 2k is relatively short and limited by CV/VO2 max performance, and so is less likely to be affected by the energy consumption of a 20 min warmup. Longer pieces are more affected by energy supply, and therefore anything that uses up this energy excessively may be bad.

In summary, Paul, try a 2500m warmup at 2:20, 5 min rest, then go and see how it works for you. If you have the chance to repeat the exercise, try the 2500m easy, plus 2000m with 3 x 15 strokes at pace, and see if that works any better, and let us know the results. I will try to do the same.

[Paul Victory]

Hi Mike

I tried your suggestion of 2500m warm up at 2:20 pace before attempting 4000m.

I tried to set out at 1:50 pace, but found it hard to keep under 1:51 and faded between 2500m and 3500m. I managed to pick it up over the last 500m and knocked 0.9 seconds off my previous 'soft' time.

I'm really just getting back into things after an injury, so I'll try the extended warm up next time and see how it goes.

Cheers

Paul

[Mike Channin]

Good stuff Paul. Obviously you have to be realistic about your times when coming back from an injury, but great news to already be in PB territory.

Look forward to your future times and evaluation of the warmups.

[Paul Victory]

Thanks Mike

I'm trying to build back up to where I was before my injury, but I need to pace myself better.

I did around 75 minutes of cardio work last night of which 55 was on the rower. My hamstrings feel very tight today, so I will have to be careful not to get another injury.

I appreciate your kind comment about a new PB, but all my 4k times are since I returned from injury and my projected 4k time based on my PBs for 2k and 5k should be about 30 seconds faster. Even allowing for the need to work my way back to full fitness, I would hope to knock at least ten seconds off my 4k time before month end.

Paul

[Paul Victory]

I had another go at the 4k challenge tonight.

Beforehand, I did 2500m at just over 2:15 pace, followed by 2k at around 2:15, with three bursts of 10 strokes after 500, 1100 and 1700 metres at 1:50, 1:45 and 1:40 respectively. Overall time for the 2k was 8:33.

This was probably too much warm up at too fast a pace, as I really struggled at the 4k. I was unable to get anywhere close to my target 1:50 pace, but decided to complete the piece and settled into splits of around 1:56, with a final 500 in just under 1:50 to finish in 15:22.

Next time, I'm going to try doing an easy warm up for around 6 minutes on the treadmill and see how things go with the 4k.

Paul

[Gooner Neil]

i've read the above with interest and will try the Mike warm up. Usually without any pride in saying this I sit on the erg tap my ipod into life (sadly dead at the mo) and my warm up consists of typing in the time or distance and then off we go.

Cos I is stupid i do this. Can someone explain why bad, equally i never stretch am I building up problems or just missing out on potentially faster times or neither; all of us are different etc etc.

Answers on a postcard please.

[Thomas W-P]

I think it is all about performance - would Ferrari send out their car on the track without a thorough warm up? Nope.

I think it is the same with your body. I do regular HR130 spm22 without a warm up to see how my fitness is coming along (without a warm up because that is the way I have always done it and it would not be a fair comparrison to do it with a warm up!).

I find that once I am "warm" my splits are significantly quicker (say 2:08 rather than 2:12), despite the same heart rate and stroke rate. I guess this is to do with oxygen transport etc. But I'm no biologist (he said as his equiment for a biology lesson arrived in his lab...)

[Mike Channin]

Ok, I'll admit here that I never did warmups or cooldowns for the first several years of my indoor rowing career. But having started to do them, I can confirm the benefits.

Warmup: As Thomas says, the purpose is to warm the body up and prepare it for more strenuous activity. A good warmup will stretch out all the muscles and tendons without undue stress (and going off hard without doing so will make you more prone to injury). It will also warmup the lungs (important if you have a tendency towards exercise induced asthma, as I do, and probably Thomas too?). It gives you heart muscle chance to get ready for some serious work. Also, I have a suspicion that the 20 minute warmup is because it is supposed to take 20 minutes of exercise before the fat burning processes kick in, and obviously the more energy your body is providing to the muscles, the faster you can go. So in summary, warming up is just like warming up your car, and going flat out without a warmup is increasing your risk of injury.

Cooldown: When you complete a hard piece, you will have a quantity of lactates and other metabolic waste products hanging around in the muscles. If you don't clear them out by doing a cooldown, and also flush through a load of nutrients to restock the energy and repair the damage, you will experience significantly more muscle soreness, and compromise the gains you have worked so hard to make. This is especially true id you do a maximal piece with a monster sprint finish where your muscles are locking up at the end. When you do a cooldown, you will find that the first 500m or so, you feel awful and can hardly row, but as the muscles flush out they start to feel better, and you may even see your split getting faster and your pulse dropping at the same time.

The HRTFTCI book has something on the value of warmup and cooldown I think, too.

Finally, provided you have the time, doing a 2500m warmup and a 2500m cooldown will add another 5k to your daily total! (Look at my log book and see how much distance I cover at very light intensity on warmup and cooldown).

The recovery day is effectively like an extended cooldown, for much the same reasons and working to the same principles. Note that usually you don't need to do a warmup or cooldown when operating below the recovery threshold, although that said, with my recovery threshold around the 2:00 split mark now, I'm tending to do a short (1k) warmup and cooldown anyway, just to make sure.

Hope this helps, Neil. Give it a go and see if you can tell the difference.

[Mike Channin]

Forgot to mention, the OTHER advantage of doing a warmup.

Gives you chance to make sure the seat, footplates, damper, (cooling) fans, music, HRM and whatever else are all set up correctly BEFORE you start doing the proper piece. Nothing worse than setting out on an epic row to discover you've got the damper wrong, or the seat needs repadding, or something else similarly annoying is going to bug you for the next hour or three!

[Thomas W-P]

I actually read the Concept 2 guide a bit today - I really must download the full version! Thought this was interesting...

The aim of a warm up is to prepare the athlete both physically and mentally for exercise. When starting exercise, the body begins to release adrenalin, which increases the heart rate and causes dilation of the capillaries in the muscles. This has the dual function of increasing the temperature and elasticity of the muscles to help prevent injury and improve the speed at which oxygen can be transported around the body. The increased temperature allows the enzymes required for the muscular contraction to function more efficiently. Warm ups also make us more alert as the increased body temperature allows nerve impulses to travel more quickly, improving the reaction time. There are also sychological benefits of a warm up, especially if you are superstitious and perform the same routine every time you exercise or compete.

[Rita]

I always do a 1K warm-up at a ~ 2:30 pace, ~ 25-26 spm. As mentioned by Mike, it also gives me the chance to make sure that the volume on the satellite radio is loud enough over the erg, or that the TV is at the right angle for me to see . I do at least a 1K cool-down, and if not pressed for time, I'll up it to 2K - 3K. The cool down is with nice, slow, long strokes around 24-25 spm and ~ 2:35. I have tried going at a slower spm, but it feels very wrong and uncoordinated. I really do like the heart rate monitor. I've yet to get the resting HR (I'm serious, I can't do a thing in the morning until I've showered!), but using the figures Mike came up with, the warm-ups, cool-downs at less than 140 feels good (145 would be my 70% level). I'm ordering the HR for Idiots book this weekend.

BTW, satellite radio (I have Sirius) is great, no commericals and minimal DJ chatter, perfect for rowing. I like the "First Wave" station, alternative music from the 80's: The Smiths, Cure, REM, U2 etc. I do not know how popular it is in the UK, but I highly recommend it. Last Christmas I drove 2400 miles round trip to visit the family and I only lost signal in 2 spots, each for ~ 10 miles. (I have the car hook-up and radio is detachable and there is a "boom box" for use at home, outside etc.).