The theme of this issue being ‘winter warmers’ I decided to do a play on words and talk about the famed ‘warmup’ in sports!

The term ‘warm-up’ is usually referring to a variety of changes that the body undergoes during exercise including changes in heart rate, breathing rate, blood flow,  body temperature, flexibility…and the list goes on.  Many readers will begin a history lesson with “back in my day…” and recount a lap of the field followed by a few quick stretches.  Ready to go? Sure why not! In fact on any given weekend even now if you pitch up to a field, turf or court there is a chance you may see exactly this approach in action.  However it does beg the question – with all the other changes, advances and improvements in sport…surely the ageless warmup has also evolved? Well…turns out it has.

When we think of the purpose of a warmup, top of the list is usually an attempt to reduce the risk of injury.  That being said in youth sport perhaps it is simply a strategy to burn some nervous energy in a group of energetic bouncy children before they sit down to discuss strategy for the game.  That aside if the goal truly is to reduce the risk of injury, how does a warmup achieve this?

Well it turns out that the age old warmup of a simple jog followed by static stretches has almost no decreasing effect on injury risk.  A systematic review from 2008 concluded that “there is moderate to strong evidence that routine application of static stretching does not reduce overall injury rates”.  Concession is made that perhaps muscle or tendon injuries may see a slight reduction in injury rates – but these only make up a portion of the injuries sustained in the sports setting.

Recent research however has been able to demonstrate that a more thorough and tailored warmup actually does reduce injury risk.  The now well-established “FIFA-11+” warmup originally developed in football has shown to reduce lower limb injury rates by up to 50% whilst simultaneously reducing the severity of those who do sustain an injury.  This concept has been adopted by the ACC Sport Smart campaign which has developed warmup drills for use across a variety of sports including rugby, football and netball.  These exercises typically involved dynamic movements such as squats, lunges, running, jumping and changes of direction; while also incorporating static exercises like a plank.  Each of the 15 exercises has a beginner, intermediate and advanced version that can be adapted to suit all levels.  There is even a FIFA 11 warmup routine for youth sport that can easily be downloaded and adopted at your local clubs.

As the seasons change and the winter sports kick off, go to the ACC Sport Smart website and check out the video clips of their warm-up routines, or alternatively to the FIFA 11 website for more resources.

Resources:

Reference: Small, K., McNaughton, L., Matthews, M. 2008; 16 (3): 213-231.  Research in Sports Medicine.  “A systematic review into the efficacy of static stretching a part of a warm-up for the prevention of exercise-related injury”

Nb. Written as Health columnist for the Hibiscus Matters.