Common Warm-Up Strategies Fail to Enhance Endurance Performance
For years, many long-distance runners have incorporated jumping jacks, short sprints, and other explosive exercises as part of their pre-race warm-ups, believing they can improve endurance. However, a comprehensive review and meta-analysis has challenged this long-held notion, revealing that these types of exercises do not enhance endurance performance.
The review, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, examined over 34 studies conducted between 1993 and 2022, encompassing various endurance exercises such as running, cycling, and rowing. The researchers sought to investigate the effectiveness of post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) exercises, which involve a brief period of high-intensity exercise prior to a specific task like running, in improving endurance outcomes.
Traditionally, PAPE exercises have been associated with enhanced muscle power performance in short endurance activities, a phenomenon known as post-activation potentiation (PAP). Researchers have theorized that PAP could potentially enhance performance in long endurance events by increasing power output at the beginning of a race. However, the review found a significant lack of well-designed studies to support this hypothesis.
Lead author Flavio Pires, associate professor in the exercise psychophysiology research group at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, stated, “We found no support to recommend warm-up strategies to induce PAPE in endurance exercises.” The researchers discovered that while PAPE effects have been reported in some studies, these findings are likely influenced by methodological flaws, casting doubt on the validity of the concept.
Despite these findings, Pires emphasizes that pre-race warm-ups remain essential for exercise sessions or competitions. He explains that warm-ups can prepare athletes’ bodies and minds physically and psychologically for the exertion ahead. However, runners should be aware that their endurance performance will not be enhanced beyond the level they would achieve with a standard warm-up not designed to induce PAPE.
Pires and his team are currently conducting further research to better understand the effects of PAP on muscle endurance exercises. They are specifically investigating how a range of short warm-ups can improve muscular endurance alongside PAP mechanisms.
