Priming - Why a hard warm up is important
by George Blackwell
This one could get a bit heavy on the sports science, so bear with me!
As you start to exercise from a state of rest, the body’s demand for oxygen suddenly increases. You’ll notice your breathing rate increase and see a subsequent rise in heart rate – this can initially feel uncomfortable but usually settles down in a couple of minutes. The body’s ability to increase oxygen uptake is slower than the rate at which exercise ramps up, so the amount of energy which must be supplied by anaerobic processes in the early minutes following the start of exercise is higher. This process in sports science is termed ‘VO2 Kinetics’ and is the process of the body ‘getting up to speed’ on the oxygen requirements from the moment when you start exercising.
What is priming?
‘Priming’ can be summarised as the positive influence of short bouts of heavy exercise on VO2 kinetics, or how quickly the body is able to respond to the oxygen demands of exercise.
You may have noticed this creeping into your warm-ups, whether it’s a few ‘strides’ in the warm-up before a run session, short / sharp efforts prior to a main set on the bike, or a ‘prep set’ before a swim session. The purpose of these is to allow you to get the best out of yourself within that given training session, but is equally (if not more so) important to consider for performance in races, particularly in the 2-30 minute range.
A recently published paper evaluated the literature from the last 25 years to gain understanding of the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, as, despite the clear positive effects of priming, the understanding of how it works is still poor.
The research concluded that the way the body reacts to priming is likely to be connected to alterations in motor recruitment patterns and an upregulation of ‘intracellular O2 utilisation’. However, the subsequent impact on exercise performance is influenced by the training status of the individual, as this affects the how VO2 kinetics are altered by prior exercise.
The study hypothesised that individuals that are well aerobically conditioned are more likely to benefit from priming in short and long duration (2-30 mins) performance. For untrained or recreationally active individuals, longer duration performance (6-30 mins) is more likely to be enhanced.
Either way, priming provides a positive boost in performance and is the reason behind some of the elements you’ve seen become part of your warm-up routine. And the research proves that’s worth continuing.
References:
Goulding, R.P., Burnley, M. and Wüst, R.C., 2023. How Priming Exercise Affects Oxygen Uptake Kinetics: From Underpinning Mechanisms to Endurance Performance. Sports Medicine, pp.1-18.