Effect of warm-up on run time to exhaustion

It is not known whether warm-up protocols typically employed by athletes are beneficial to performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of warm-up on a perimaximal run to exhaustion, V˙O2 kinetics, energy metabolism and running economy. Nine male distance runners ran to exhaustion at a speed corresponding to 105% maximal oxygen uptake (V˙O2 max) after each of three different warm-up protocols: no warm-up (NW), jog warm-up (WM), or jog with strides (WH). Warm-up did not affect pre-run blood lactate concentration (BLC), BLC-increase (ΔBLC), net oxygen consumption, or running economy. WH increased the amplitude of the primary V˙O2 response (mean (confidence intervals of difference); 4083 ml min−1vs. 3763 ml min−1 (−638, −2)), with no change in the time constant; reduced the rate of BLC-increase (ΔBLC-rate) (0.02 mmol l−1 s−1vs. 0.03 mmol l−1 s−1 (0.003, 0.01)); reduced anaerobic lactic power (109 W vs. 141 W (13, 51)); reduced the relative anaerobic lactic energy contribution (7.0% vs. 9.1% (0.8, 3.4)) compared to NW. The reduction in anaerobic power associated with ΔBLC-rate between NW and WH was significantly correlated with the increase in aerobic power associated with the primary amplitude (r = 0.674, p < 0.05). Despite these theoretically beneficial metabolic effects, WH did not significantly increase time to exhaustion vs. NW (290 s vs.316 s (−77, 43)) but might be considered in events where the winning margin is often small.