The pre-game warm-up is one of the more contentious issues in high level athletics. A recently published article in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggested that power performance may be best served by a shorter, lower-intensity warm-up routine (Tomaras & MacIntosh, 2011). The researchers compared sprint cyclists performing two warm-up routines: (1) A 50 minute routine, progressing from 60-95% HRmax and ending with four sprints; and (2) A 15 minute routine, ranging from 60-70% HRmax, and ending with a single sprint. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up resulted in significantly less muscle fatigue and a higher peak power output.
Sprint cyclists and baseball players are different in countless ways. However, the researchers were effective in demonstrating that warm-up efficiency and recovery are important consideration for coaches before a game. Here are a few strategies for warming-up your position players, to prevent injuries, optimize performance, and prevent excessive fatigue.
Keep Players Moving:
Warm-up routines are not to be confused with static stretching routines for improving flexibility. Most of the benefits of a good warm-up (i.e. ↑ contraction speeds, ↑ movement economy, ↑ oxygen utilization, ↑ neuromuscular transmission, and ↑ muscle metabolism), derive from increasing the body’s heart rate, blood flow, and temperature of the muscles. The dynamic, or moving, portion of the warm-up (i.e. jogging, shuffling, carioca, squatting, lunging, arm circles, etc.) should make up the majority of the time allotted.
Keep Players On Their Feet:
Unless you are warming up a wrestling team, transitioning the team from standing, to sitting, to prone, and back to standing again takes up valuable time that players could be performing more sport-specific exercises. Baseball-specific exercises, including running mechanics drills, cross-over starts, torso twisting, and throwing, should be performed to facilitate the motor unit recruitment needed for maximal game performance. With the exception of sliding, baseball is always performed on your feet!
Progress Simple to Complex, Slow to Fast:
Warm-up routines should be progressed from smaller and slower, less taxing, movements, to more complex, faster, movements to ensure the safety of each exercise being performed. After a general warm-up, closed-chain dynamic flexibility exercises are most effective in reducing muscle stiffness while requiring the muscles to remain active in supporting the weight and posture of the body. Plyometric exercises (i.e. skipping, bounding, jumping, throwing, and swinging) should be performed towards the end of the warm-up to ensure that the muscles have been activated properly to sustain the eccentric stresses of decelerating the body.
Begin 30 Minutes Before The Game:
This amount of time allows for a general and dynamic warm-up to be completed with a coach in the first 8-10 minutes, throwing and sprint work in the middle 10-12 minutes, and individual preparation (i.e. extra stretching, mental focusing, etc.) in the 10 minutes leading up to the game. Not all athletes have the same weaknesses and imbalances. Nor do all athletes require the same level of muscle activation to perform optimally or injury free. Allowing a few extra minutes for players to mentally focus on the game ahead, get a drink, or relax is often overlooked when putting together the pre-game schedule.
Keep 3 Goals In Mind:
In professional baseball, most players have been active much of the day prior to the game. As long as players (1) Break a sweat by getting their heart rate up, (2) Alleviate any tightness in the hips, torso, and shoulders, and (3) Progress to game speed running, throwing, and swinging, they are likely doing enough to prepare the body.
Quality Not Quantity:
Focusing on dynamic, multi-joint, and baseball-specific movements can improve the quality of a pre-game warm-up. Excessively long or fatiguing warm-up routines should be avoided to promote season-long success.
Cited Source:
Tomaras, E. K. and MacIntosh, B. R. (May 2011). Less is More: Standard Warm-up Causes Fatigue and Less Warm-up Permits Greater Cycling Power Output. Journal of Applied Physiology, Published online ahead of print, link: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00253.2011.
Eric McMahon, M.Ed., CSCS
Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coach
Texas Rangers
Showing posts with label Active Warm-Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Active Warm-Up. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Lets Warm Up
Warm-up can be one of the most controversial actives for any athlete or team. I want to talk about some of the concepts and maybe give some feedback on what I have seen work.
You open any textbook or training book and they will give you the “text book” answer to warming up. You need to jog or ride a bike for 5-10 minutes then you need to do 15 to 20 minute dynamic warm-up routine. Even though you might not see the dynamic routine in every warm program the point is you need 15-20 minutes to get ready. I believe in the dynamic routine and have been using it for some 12 or more years now, but we will talk about that later.
I have been working with coaches for 15 years and know that 30 minutes to just warm-up is never going to cut it, one, and the coach does not have that much time and two the athletes will not stay that focused to complete. We need to be more practical and accommodating to the situations. If a coach in high school only has 2.5 hours a day to work with his players do you think he is going to spend a half hour getting ready. Do you think pro players want to get to the park 30 minutes early so they can warm-up for drills and then warm-up for the game as well. Any strength coach that says yes is just fooling them selves. I’ve been there and done that from the pro level to the little league level. In reality you might have 15 minutes and on a good day 20 minutes, so how do you get them ready.
Let’s break it down practically:
1) General Warm up:
a. Jog around the field 1 lap. (1.5 min)
2) General Specific: dynamic 15-20 yards
a. Walking side shuffle (45 seconds)
b. Walking carioca (45 seconds)
c. Walking high knee (45 seconds)
d. Walking hurdles (45 seconds)
e. Side shuffle 50% (45 seconds)
f. Carioca 50% (45 seconds)
g. High knees (45 seconds)
h. Butt kicks (45 seconds)
3) General Specific: Stationary dynamic
a. Touch and reach
b. Diagonal touch and reach
c. Windmills
d. Rotation and twist
e. Push-ups
f. Overhead claps
g. 90-90 shoulder rotation
4) General Specific: High Speed
a. 30 Yard sprint 75% (45 seconds)
b. High skip (45 seconds)
c. Secondary steel 75% (45 seconds)
d. Sprint (45 seconds)
5) Sport specific: hitting or throwing
a. This is the time the players go through a throwing program or hitting prep program. This should take the players 10-15 minutes to complete.
This warm-up is complete in 30 minutes but has the players ready to either practice or play in a game. If you only complete the general warm-up in 30 minutes they still need to throw or hit, we are now out 45 minutes that’s 1/3 of the practice time spent on just getting ready. If you cut the whole prep into 30 minutes that’s only 1/5 of practice time.
As strength coaches or athletic trainers if you want to see the warm-up more productive and really get that internal temp up then try some variation of this, it is high paced and makes the players work. They will really be ready to play both mentally and physically. For coaches, the player will be ready and you have given them a true warm-up not the old throw the balls and bats out and let’s play.
As a note, I said try a variation of this. This is not the end all to warm-ups, and changes should be made all the time. Try different exercises and orders, the players will not get bored with the routine and again, will be more productive. Play with the idea and times.
Brian Niswender MA, CSCS
Co-Founder BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
You open any textbook or training book and they will give you the “text book” answer to warming up. You need to jog or ride a bike for 5-10 minutes then you need to do 15 to 20 minute dynamic warm-up routine. Even though you might not see the dynamic routine in every warm program the point is you need 15-20 minutes to get ready. I believe in the dynamic routine and have been using it for some 12 or more years now, but we will talk about that later.
I have been working with coaches for 15 years and know that 30 minutes to just warm-up is never going to cut it, one, and the coach does not have that much time and two the athletes will not stay that focused to complete. We need to be more practical and accommodating to the situations. If a coach in high school only has 2.5 hours a day to work with his players do you think he is going to spend a half hour getting ready. Do you think pro players want to get to the park 30 minutes early so they can warm-up for drills and then warm-up for the game as well. Any strength coach that says yes is just fooling them selves. I’ve been there and done that from the pro level to the little league level. In reality you might have 15 minutes and on a good day 20 minutes, so how do you get them ready.
Let’s break it down practically:
1) General Warm up:
a. Jog around the field 1 lap. (1.5 min)
2) General Specific: dynamic 15-20 yards
a. Walking side shuffle (45 seconds)
b. Walking carioca (45 seconds)
c. Walking high knee (45 seconds)
d. Walking hurdles (45 seconds)
e. Side shuffle 50% (45 seconds)
f. Carioca 50% (45 seconds)
g. High knees (45 seconds)
h. Butt kicks (45 seconds)
3) General Specific: Stationary dynamic
a. Touch and reach
b. Diagonal touch and reach
c. Windmills
d. Rotation and twist
e. Push-ups
f. Overhead claps
g. 90-90 shoulder rotation
4) General Specific: High Speed
a. 30 Yard sprint 75% (45 seconds)
b. High skip (45 seconds)
c. Secondary steel 75% (45 seconds)
d. Sprint (45 seconds)
5) Sport specific: hitting or throwing
a. This is the time the players go through a throwing program or hitting prep program. This should take the players 10-15 minutes to complete.
This warm-up is complete in 30 minutes but has the players ready to either practice or play in a game. If you only complete the general warm-up in 30 minutes they still need to throw or hit, we are now out 45 minutes that’s 1/3 of the practice time spent on just getting ready. If you cut the whole prep into 30 minutes that’s only 1/5 of practice time.
As strength coaches or athletic trainers if you want to see the warm-up more productive and really get that internal temp up then try some variation of this, it is high paced and makes the players work. They will really be ready to play both mentally and physically. For coaches, the player will be ready and you have given them a true warm-up not the old throw the balls and bats out and let’s play.
As a note, I said try a variation of this. This is not the end all to warm-ups, and changes should be made all the time. Try different exercises and orders, the players will not get bored with the routine and again, will be more productive. Play with the idea and times.
Brian Niswender MA, CSCS
Co-Founder BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Warm-Up to Throw! (Don't Throw to Warm-Up)
It is not uncommon for a coach to call down to the bullpen for a relief pitcher to “get loose”. The pitcher immediately jumps up and begins throwing to the catcher. After a few “warm-up” throws, he tells the catcher to get down and proceeds to pump out a series of pitches at high effort and intensity. Without being aware the coach and the player are inhibiting the player’s performance and potentially increasing his risk for breakdown and injury. While it sometimes may be necessary to perform this routine due to the pace of the game or the slow situational reactions of the coach, the best approach is to perform a dynamic warm-up to prepare the body for the upcoming stresses of pitching.
Current research indicates that carrying out a sport-specific dynamic warm-up, will enhance overall strength and power while performing on the field. An active warm-up prepares the muscles and joints for performance by “turning-on” the neuromuscular (brain-to-muscle) connections that will be utilized during the sports skills.
Muscular stiffness and lack of joint mobility result in greater muscle damage after exercise. A dynamic warm-up increases the body’s global core temperature, as well as, the localized tissue temperature for the specific muscles that will be active during sports movements. When the muscle tissue is “warm”, it becomes more elastic, more flexible, and less stiff. This greater elasticity means less tissue damage and less potential for injury.
Rather than waiting for the coach to react, the pitcher should be paying attention to the game. As the game progresses to the middle innings, the bullpen pitchers should begin preparing for the time that they may be called upon. The following is a sample dynamic warm-up that can be performed in the bullpen during the game. The warm-up progresses from general to more sport-specific activities.
Current research indicates that carrying out a sport-specific dynamic warm-up, will enhance overall strength and power while performing on the field. An active warm-up prepares the muscles and joints for performance by “turning-on” the neuromuscular (brain-to-muscle) connections that will be utilized during the sports skills.
Muscular stiffness and lack of joint mobility result in greater muscle damage after exercise. A dynamic warm-up increases the body’s global core temperature, as well as, the localized tissue temperature for the specific muscles that will be active during sports movements. When the muscle tissue is “warm”, it becomes more elastic, more flexible, and less stiff. This greater elasticity means less tissue damage and less potential for injury.
Rather than waiting for the coach to react, the pitcher should be paying attention to the game. As the game progresses to the middle innings, the bullpen pitchers should begin preparing for the time that they may be called upon. The following is a sample dynamic warm-up that can be performed in the bullpen during the game. The warm-up progresses from general to more sport-specific activities.
Relief Pitcher Dynamic Warm-Up
Jogging Down and Back in Foul Territory
High Knee Run x 10yd
Side Shuffle x 10yd
Carioca x 10yd
Walking Knee-To-Chest x 3 each
Walking Quad and Reach x 3 each
Walking Shin Grab-Hip Rotation x 3 each
Russian March x 3 each
Lunge and Twist x 3 each
Lunge and Instep Touch x 3 each
Medicine Circle Chops (6lbs) x 5 clockwise / x 5 counterclockwise
Medicine Ball Trunk Twist (6lbs) x 10
Medicine Ball Lunge and Throwers Chop (6lbs) x 5 each
Throwing Arm Tubing – Rows x 10 (stride stance)
Throwing Arm Tubing – External Rotation at the Side x 10 (stride stance)
Throwing Arm Tubing – External Rotation at 90deg Abduction x 10 (stride stance)
Throwing Arm Tubing – Diagonal x 10 (stride stance)
David Yeager, ATC, CSCS
Co-Founder, BaseballStrengthCoaching.com
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