The Effect of Two Warm-Up Protocols on Some Biomechanical Parameters of the Neuromuscular System of MiddleDistance Runners

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of 2 different warm-up protocols on the neuromuscular system of well-trained middle distance runners. Seven runners performed 2 different warm-up protocols, one of which included slow running, stretching, and bounding and sprinting exercises, while the other consisted of slow running and stretching only. Before and after warm-up, contractile properties of the vastus lateralis and quadriceps femoris were monitored with a single twitch test, maximal torque, and the level of muscle activation during maximal voluntary extension. The 2 types of warm-up protocols showed statistically significant differences in the increase of peak knee extension torque and muscle activation level. After warm-up 1 maximal twitch torque was increased and twitch contraction time (CT) was shortened. Both maximal torque and the level of activation were increased. Parameter changes after warm-up 2 were similar to those after warm-up 1 but not statistically significant. Sprinting and bounding as part of athletes' warm-up improve muscle activation.

Running versus strength-based warm-up: acute effects on isometric knee extension function

“…These findings are in-line with those reported recently by Skof and Strojnik (2007) who found an 16% increase in voluntary torque after the completion of a 25-27 min WU procedure incorporating slow running, stretching, bounding and sprinting exercises, whereas strength gains were rather modest (*5%) after a 15 min routine that involved slow running and stretching exercises only. However, direct comparison of the extent of strength gains observed between the present study and the one by Skof and Strojnik (2007) is only anecdotic since subjects' characteristics and structure of the WU routines (i.e., duration, intensity, nature of exercises) vary considerably.…”

“…In our experiment, the twitch interpolation technique was adopted to determine potential change in central drive. Although the maximal voluntary activation values estimated here might appear low (*78 to *85% and *80 to *89% for T and C indicate significant main effects of time and condition There was no significant interaction between time and condition PT peak twitch, TPT time to peak twitch, HRT half-relaxation time, MRFD maximal rate of twitch force development, MRFR maximal rate of twitch force relaxation * P \ 0.05, for statistically significant differences between values recorded before and after the warm-up Eur J Appl Physiol (2009) 106:573-581 577 R WU and S WU , respectively), there are in-line with previous studies where incomplete activation of the KE muscles has also been reported (Girard et al 2008;Skof and Strojnik 2007). An important result was also the strong correlation found between increases in MVC torque and muscle activation after each WU protocol.…”

“…Although central adaptations following the completion of various WU protocols have been suggested for several years (Güllich and Schmidtbleicher 1995;Jones et al 2003;Verkhoshansky 1986;Young 1993), no evidence for an enhanced neural input to the working muscles has been published until recently (Skof and Strojnik 2007). In our experiment, the twitch interpolation technique was adopted to determine potential change in central drive.…”

“…This result is not in good agreement with those showing that warming-up with explosive-strength exercises such as bounding and sprinting resulted in the potentiation of the contractile complex T indicates a significant main effect of time There was no main effect of protocol * P \ 0.05, for statistically significant differences between values recorded before and after the warm-up I denotes a significant interaction between time and condition $$ P \ 0.01, for statistically significant differences between running-and strength-based warm-ups for values recorded after the procedure of the skeletal muscle (Skof and Strojnik 2007). Previous studies have proposed that the balance between excitation (potentiation) and inhibition (fatigue) affecting muscular muscle contractile efficiency could be modulated by the duration or volume of the conditioning stimulus (Sale 2002).…”

“…The usefulness of this technique is that it integrates measures of neural activation and intrinsic muscular properties. To the best of our knowledge, however, the study by Skof and Strojnik (2007) is the only one that has used successfully this method to compare the effect of two different WU routines-i.e., one of the protocols consisted of jogging and stretching only while the other also included different bounding and sprinting exercises-in seven welltrained middle distance runners. To date, the acute effect of running-and strength-based WU routines on the neuromuscular system (and the likely difference between these two forms of WU protocols) has yet to be determined.…”