December 18, 2024 • 24 mins
OVERVIEW
Warmup routines change based on the physical and mental demands of a competition or training session. There are general rules of thumb like, "The shorter the race the long the warmup", but Coach Adam Pulford dives deeper and describes exactly how long to warm up on the bike and with what range of intensities, along with dynamic activities cyclists can do off the bike - or in the start corral - to compete or train at your best.
TOPICS COVERED
- Warm up rules of thumb
- The Short warmup (7-10 minutes)
- Medium warmup (20 minutes)
- Long warmups (30-45 minutes)
- Example: Long warmup before hard training (25-30 minutes)
- Example: Race warmup (45 minutes)
- Example: Alternative short race warmup (20 minutes)
- Dynamic Warmup and Activation Exercises
- Do Masters athletes need a longer warmup?
- Creating a good dynamic warmup
- Time-Crunched Warmups and Race Start Corrals
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
RESOURCES
- EXAMPLE Warm up before hard Training: ~25-30min
- 10-15min of easy endurance spinning
- 3x1min FastPedals (high cadence, moderate power) with 1min RBI, spin easy for 2-3min then move on to
- 2x20s openers with 2-3min RBI
- Build into your main set, and have at it!
- Good for a 90min session with hard, zone 4+ intervals
- EXAMPLERace Warm Up: 45min
- 10-15min of easy endurance spinning
- 3x1min FastPedals (high cadence, moderate power) with 1min RBI
- 2x4min Threshold efforts with 3min RBI
- 2x20s openers with 2-3min RBI
- 5-10min easy spinning
- EXAMPLE Simple Race Warm Up: 20min
- 7-10min easy endurance spinning
- 3min build from Tempo to Threshold
- 2min easy
- 1x20s Opener
- 3-5min easy spinning
LINKS
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
(00:50):
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
If this is your first timejoining us, welcome.
You found the endurance trainingpodcast with no commercials,
ads or crazy long rabbit holes.
Why?
Because no one has an infiniteamount of time, so why waste it
With?
That said, let's get right intotoday's topic, and that is
(01:12):
warming up before training orracing.
The question came from ayounger athlete of mine that I
recently started working with,but I get this question a lot
From any age, time crunched time, rich racers, non-racers and
everyone in between.
His question was simply thiswhat is the best warmup, and
(01:34):
should I do activation exercisesbefore warming up on the bike.
My answer it depends why.
So, depending on the goal ofthe workout or the demands of
the race, you may need more orless time to warm up.
Remember, we don't like towaste time on this podcast, nor
do we like to waste time in awarm-up.
(01:55):
So let's unravel what goes intothe best warm-up routines for
certain situations, and I'llgive some examples along the way
.
First off, let's cover somegeneral rules of thumb.
I'm just going to go bulletpoint after bullet point here
and I'll explain myself as weget into the meat and potatoes
(02:15):
of it.
General rules of thumb Shorterthe race, longer the warmup.
Longer the race.
Longer the warmup.
Longer the race.
Shorter the warmup.
Now, if there's lots ofintensity in the race or the
workout early on, you also wanta longer warmup.
If you've been sitting all dayand you're you work a desk job
(02:38):
and you just don't move a lot,make sure definitely to do a
warmup.
And I would warm up in variousways, including the activation
exercise and some stuff thatwe'll talk about and incorporate
that into a dynamic warmuproutine, as I like to call it.
Now here are the main points.
I'm going to give them to youright away at the start of the
podcast and then I'll summarizewith him at the end as well.
(03:00):
Well, a good warmup willincrease core temperature, get a
good sweat going, improvemuscle coordination, joint
mobility and engaged mind withbody.
It'll also reduce the chance ofinjury and get you ready for a
hard training session or race.
Now there's a good recipe tofollow, but there's no magic
(03:21):
routine or secret warmup outthere, other than finding what
works best for you in varioussituations, then make it simple,
consistent and then actually doit.
Now, like I said, there's botha mind and body component to a
warmup in that process, and it'simportant to recognize both.
(03:42):
Now let's look at differentscenarios of when it's best to
use a short warm up, when it'sbest to use a long warm up or
some version of a dynamic warmup in some combination of all of
them.
So let's take a look at theshort warm up.
One scenario is when you'rejust riding endurance for the
day.
A short warm up is totally fine.
Call it 10 minutes, easyspinning.
(04:04):
Then build into your zone twoand ride there for X amount of
time.
Whatever's prescribed, keep itsimple, don't overthink it.
You don't need to get morefancy than that.
Another one is if you're shorton time, you're still better off
doing a little bit of somethingthan nothing at all before
smashing into an interval set ortowing the line at a race.
(04:27):
I remember Lindsay Golichtelling us as resident coaches
years and years ago at CTS thatall energy systems are active
and you're warm in, you'rewarmed up, you're ready to go
within seven to 10 minutes ofaerobic exercise.
That was in regard to um, doingsome lactate and VO2 max
testing.
(04:47):
Because the question was askedis why don't we only give them a
seven to 10 minute ramp upprotocol and then go up from
there?
And that was that was heranswer.
It was like, straight up,everything's warmed up after
that.
Now I'm going to probably getsome pushback on that and there
are some asterisks there, okay,because I don't always prescribe
just 10 minutes of warmup.
I'll get into that here in aminute.
(05:09):
But I'm telling you that, from aphysiological standpoint,
systems are warm, systems areready, systems are activated.
There's other things that wecan do to make it feel better,
go better and, again, connectmind with body.
But have the confidence to knowthat if you get short on time,
seven to 10 minutes away, we goall good, okay, there's nothing
(05:33):
wrong with that, okay, from aphysical standpoint.
So, even when you're for thetime, crunch cyclists out there,
even when your 60 minutetraining window gets shortened
down to 45 minutes becausesomething happens, life happens,
a meeting runs long, orsomething like that, still do at
least seven minutes and thenbuild up to your main set.
(05:55):
Just don't skip the warmup.
If you have more time, we cando a bit more in the warmup, for
sure, but let's keep it simple.
Now remember one of the generalrules of thumb that I stated
earlier the longer the race, theshorter the warmup.
What this means is, since therace is going to be longer, okay
, take a long gravel race orsomething like that that's a
(06:18):
hundred miles long.
You may be able to simply usethe first 20 to 30 minutes of
the race as your warmup,especially if there's a neutral
start, or you're simply going tofinish and you don't care about
keeping up with the main groupor age groupers, or you're going
for the win, or something likethat.
You can use the first part ofthe race to warm up, completely
(06:41):
appropriate.
I do that a lot For exampleslike that long gravel race, or
maybe you do want to make thefront group or you do have
performance goals in your agecategory, and this can be a
little tricky because nowthere's going to be some high
intensity in the first hour orso that you want to be a part of
(07:01):
and you have to be ready for it, but you're still riding for
like five, seven, eight hours ormore.
So I'd still keep it fairlyshort, since you want to
conserve your muscle glycogenand your hydration.
Here's one example 20 minutewarmup.
Very simple, starts with 10minutes easy endurance, spinning
three minutes of tempo, whichis a perceived effort, or six or
(07:25):
seven out of 10.
And then you want to do two 20second openers, which are ramp
up to hard effort, like a startat an eight, ramp up to a nine
over the course of 20 secondssuper short.
Just get the lactate spiked upthere and let your body know
some efforts are coming.
Take two minutes easy inbetween and then easy spinning
(07:46):
up to the start corral so youcan get after it.
That's a very simple warm-upthat I prescribe to my athletes
who are doing something likethis.
We want to just do a little bitof something so that we don't
have cold legs going into therace itself.
So now let's talk about longwarm-ups.
When do you need to use a longwarm-up?
(08:07):
Well, remember our rules ofthumb Shorter the race or harder
the intensity.
Early on, you want a longerwarm-up.
Some good examples of this iswhen you're doing high intensity
interval sets in your trainingor you've got a race like a
cross country mountain bike race, a cycle cross race, a crit
time trial, a swift race,something like that.
(08:29):
What does a good long warmuplook like?
The recipe starts with easyaerobic effort and it builds
progressively up in intensity,hitting the threshold in some
short anaerobic capacity efforts, then finishes with easy
aerobic spinning Even theexample I gave you above with
that short warmup before thegravel race.
(08:50):
It follows that same pattern.
Every warmup should touch allthree energy systems, bring out
a sweat, get the heart rate upand finish with some easy
spinning to start clearing theexcess lactate that you produced
at those higher intensityefforts.
But you want to do all of thiswithout leaving you fatigued for
the actual main set or the raceor whatever you're going to do
(09:12):
next.
When you have a little bit moretime, you can just scale this
up a bit more without rushing,and make sure that the aerobic,
the glycolytic and theneuromuscular systems are fully
activated.
Next, you know what my advice ismake it your own.
Okay, I'll give you someexamples here, but I really want
to encourage everyone to find aroutine that works for you.
(09:33):
Refine it, tweak it and, usingthe general rules of thumb that
I stated in the in the firstpart of this episode, then learn
how to change and adjust thewarmup on the fly, as things may
change, cause things always do.
More on that later, but for now, let's look at some good,
longer warmup examples and keepin mind too, for those listening
(09:55):
uh, I'll have this in our shownotes, and for, um, our, our
YouTube watchers, we're going totry to post this as well.
Okay, and you can find that inthe show notes too, no matter
where you are looking.
First example is a long warmupbefore hard training.
This one's going to take about25 to 30 minutes.
(10:15):
It'll start with 10 to 15minutes of easy endurance
spinning.
Then you'll go into a three byone minute fast pedal interval
session, and that's going to behigh cadence, and it could be
anywhere at 90, 100, 110, 120,whatever high is for you.
You want to do it so thatyou're you're spinning at a high
cadence, but a moderate power.
(10:36):
We're talking like zone threeor below.
Cadence is the focus, not thepower.
You want to build up to a pointwhere you're almost bouncing in
the saddle and then dial itdown two or three RPMs.
That's a fast pedal.
Okay, you'll do three by oneminute with one minute in
between, and then you'll spineasy for two to three minutes.
(10:56):
After that little set isfinished, you'll then do your
two by 20 second openers withtwo to three minutes.
After that little set isfinished, you'll then do your
two by 20 second openers withtwo to three minutes of easy
spinning between, and then buildinto your main set.
Have at it.
Okay, this is great for a 90minute session with some hard
let's call it zone four andabove sort of intervals.
That's a good one to get theheart rate up, get the legs
(11:19):
spinning fast without causingany fatigue.
It's a good go-to warmup forall my athletes, okay.
Second example for race warmup.
This one's going to be around45 minutes.
Okay, this one's great forthose cross country mountain
bike races, cycle cross races,time trials, things like this
Starts again with 10, 15 minutesof easy spinning at endurance.
(11:40):
Three by one minute, fast pedal, which is the high cadence
moderate power, one minute inbetween.
Then I'm going to have theathlete do two by four minutes
at threshold so that threshold,again the perceived effort, is
seven to eight out of 10.
The recovery is three minutes.
In between We'll do two by 20second openers with a couple
minutes of easy spinning andthen we finish with five to 10
(12:01):
minutes of easy spinning.
And I always tell the athletemake sure to plan that warmup
with enough time that you canget through all of it, then use
the restroom, then you get up tothe line to do your race.
It's usually about 10 minutesbefore and you still have that
sweat going but have plenty oftime to do it so that you're not
rushed and you're not stressedgoing into the race.
(12:21):
So again, a good, uh, short,hard race warmup should be a
little bit longer and that oneshould take you 40 to 45 minutes
.
Now finally, for those whothink all of that is way too
long, uh, what is a shorter?
What is the minimum?
Uh, race warmup or hardinterval set warmup that I would
recommend?
(12:41):
Do what I do I'm the laziestcoach you'll probably ever meet
Seven to 10 minutes of easyendurance spinning, three
minutes, build up to tempo orthreshold.
Two minutes easy spinning oneby 20, second opener, and then
three, five minute easy spinning, something like that, and that
should take you 20 minutes.
Okay, again, reminder, therecipe is start easy, progress
(13:07):
up through all the intensities,get in that anaerobic effort,
spike the lactate up, spin itout and you're good to go.
So now let's take a look at whata dynamic warmup is and we'll
look at activation exercises aswell.
But first let's define thingshere.
Dynamic warmup is simply movingthe body and your joints
through a full range of motionto increase muscle activation,
(13:30):
core temperature, improvecoordination and mobility.
Classic examples of thisinclude arm circles, leg swings,
walking, lunges, inchworm, highknees, butt kicks, bounding or
skipping.
For some of those who are maybe40 to 50 year old and I'm
(13:50):
saying some of those exercises,you can think back to gym class
or maybe some team sports backin the late 90s or early 2000s,
and that's really when dynamicwarmups became popular, was
around that time period, and itwas a better.
We found out.
Physiologists and coaches andpractitioners found out it was
(14:11):
better preparation for practiceand competition in those team
sports and track and field andthings like that, compared to
static stretching or just a lowintensity cardio or quote, aka,
general warmup.
Okay, personally, I use a mix ofthings in my dynamic warmup
routines for athletes, includingsome of the classic things like
(14:34):
arm circles and leg swings, butI also include exercises and
movements like a down dogstretch.
Okay, that's pulling from someyoga routines.
I use body weight squats,lateral lunges, donkey kicks,
clamshells, glute raises andjust a straight up jump rope
session.
Okay, some of those, some ofthose movements are also known
(14:59):
as activation exercises, and theonly difference between a
dynamic warmup and an activationexercise is that the former is
a bit more general, it's a grossmotor movement pattern, and the
latter is more specific, it'stargeted work.
Remember, there's no magicroutine or specific secret
movement, only the routine thatworks for you.
(15:21):
So mix and match, try severaldifferent things and see what
works for you for the givenscenario.
I use a dynamic warmup andactivation routines for many of
my athletes, especially when theinterval sets are high
intensity or the race istechnical.
Are high intensity or the raceis technical, and that
(15:46):
technicality or the technicalaspect of a race it's going to
incorporate upper body work too.
So driving your bike throughsingle track or hard corners
through a criterium.
My off-road athletes out thereXCO, cyclocross, enduro racers
you know what I'm talking about.
I use these before strengthtraining sessions as well.
Five to 10 minutes of a dynamicwarmup will make your strength
(16:08):
session feel a lot better andhelp prevent injury as well.
Also, a quick five-minuteroutine before you hop on the
bike is great for people likemyself and a lot of you
listening, who sit a lot foryour job and don't move around
much.
Even five minutes of thesemovements that I mentioned gets
the body less dormant and moreengaged.
(16:30):
It gets you ready to ride.
This can also be a time andspace for your brain to
disengage from work and start tofocus on your ride.
I find that many mastersathletes tell me they need a
longer warmup before they feelgood.
When I look at the measurablesin both power files from my
(16:53):
athletes as well as researchokay, of what we can quantify to
question, is that true?
We're talking about heart rate,power, core temperature, muscle
temperature, things like this.
The body's ready to go in, likeI said, like 10 minutes Okay.
Sure, on a cold day that mightbe a little bit longer, but I
(17:13):
tend to find that these commentsfrom athletes busy athletes,
time crunched athletes.
It's more related to the brainbeing focused on other things
like work, family or whateverissues you were just dealing
with, before you come to yourtraining session.
So I did a dynamic warmup.
Something that involvesdifferent movement patterns,
coordination and concentration,can help get the brain unfixed
(17:37):
from life and engaged in themoment with movement, thus
speeding up the time it takesyou, to quote, feel fully warmed
up.
So what's the recipe for a gooddynamic warm-up?
I like to think about it likethis it's about five to seven
movements total, and that'sthat's appropriate.
(17:58):
Okay, you can add on a littlebit more, a little bit less, but
using some of the movementsthat I mentioned earlier and
I'll also link to some articleswith other good ideas Start with
the easier movements, firstsmaller muscle groups, things
like this and then you want tomove toward the more complicated
, more involved exercises.
You want to do each movement for10 to 20 seconds and then have
(18:21):
a short time in between.
For example, if you were doingforward arm swings for 10
seconds and then backward armswings for 10 seconds, I would
take 10 to 20 second.
Call it recovery if you wantbetween or before doing the next
set of arm circles or the nextexercise.
It doesn't have to be superscripted or precise.
(18:42):
You're just moving, you'regetting your body activated, and
these are low intensitymovements which you don't need a
ton of time to recover from.
Traditionally, for a dynamicwarmup, you do two to three sets
of each exercise before movingon to the next exercise.
For example, do two to threesets of the arm circles before
moving on to the leg swings.
(19:03):
Do two to three sets of thosebefore you move on to the
walking lunge, etc.
Etc.
On we go.
I also build some routineswhere the athletes simply start
with one exercise and they go onto the next exercise fluidly.
So number one through seven,then you take a minute or two
and then you repeat.
You can structure it howeveryou want and however it works
(19:27):
best for you, so long as it'sprogressive in intensity and you
start simple and move to themore complicated toward the end.
So that'll get you nice andloosened up, it'll get the
muscles activated, it'll get thebrain clear and you can move on
to your cycling warmup or yourstrength training, whatever
comes next.
So let's quickly talk about adynamic warmup plus a cycling
(19:49):
warmup.
As I mentioned, I use acombination of these two warmups
for the races that are shortand hard or maybe overly
technical, especially if therace has high intensity early on
, you want to spend that five to10 minutes doing your dynamic
warmup first, then you do yoursport-specific warmup.
(20:10):
So riding your bike and usingone of the warmup examples that
I gave you earlier for the timecrunched athletes out there,
you're probably doing the mathand you're thinking wait, what
you want me to do?
10 minutes of a dynamic warmupand then 45 minutes with all
those intervals that you talkedabout, and then do my workout.
(20:32):
No, it's not what I'm saying.
Okay, that combo would be forraces.
Okay, races in particular.
Um, short, hard races.
Remember, it's all about thegoal and the demands of the
session, what you have time for,and then fit it in to your
needs accordingly.
The takeaways for the timecrunched athletes out there is
(20:56):
this doing as little as fiveminutes of a dynamic warmup can
help you warm up better beforeyou hop on the bike.
It could even shorten the timeit takes for you to fully warm
up and disengage with that worklife aspect and you get some
cross-training out of the deal.
So, five minute dynamic warmupplus five-10 minutes endurance,
(21:18):
easy spinning, you're good to go10-15 minutes tops.
Just know you don't need to doa dynamic warm-up every day.
Endurance days and when youhave a little extra time, just
warm-up on the bike, all good.
But incorporating some sort ofdynamic warmup routine a few
days per week, especially beforestrength training, is a good
(21:39):
option that doesn't take a lotof time and can provide a lot of
benefit.
Finally, last category here nowarmup.
This is not ideal, but it doeshappen.
I'd say you want to preventthat if all possible.
Deal, but it does happen.
I'd say you want to preventthat if all possible, but I've
been there, done that and gotthe race t-shirt, just if that
(22:04):
happens to you.
Try not to force any attacksfor the first like seven minutes
and you'll be good to go.
In.
All seriousness, if you're lateto a race, your meeting runs
long before your workout windowor you're sitting in a start
corral of a BWR or the Leadville100, use a simple five-minute
dynamic warm-up before the racestarts to get the muscles loose,
awake and ready to ride.
(22:26):
Even something as simple as armcircles and bodyweight squats.
They're better than juststanding there in the cold the
whole time.
So, in summary, my main messageis this Warmups are good.
Please do them, but keep themsimple.
Don't overthink them or thinkthat more is always better.
A progressive intensity cyclingwarmup from aerobic to sprint
(22:49):
power, with adequate recovery inbetween, will be the basic
recipe for any length of warmupout there.
Just use my rules of thumb toscale up or down as needed.
Finally, try some of thedynamic warmup routines that I
provided here.
Mix and match to discover whatworks best for you, and know
that you can use this beforestrength training races or
(23:10):
training sessions to help you inthe warmup process.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
If you have any questions forme and the team here at CTS,
head on over to trainratecombackslash podcast.
Click on ask a trainingquestion.
Fill out the form and askwhatever you wish there.
Your questions get sentdirectly to me and I'll do my
best to answer it on futureepisodes.
(23:31):
Thanks again for listening andbe sure to come back next week
for more short and sweetactionable training tips.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
(23:52):
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
(00:50):
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
If this is your first timejoining us, welcome.
You found the endurance trainingpodcast with no commercials,
ads or crazy long rabbit holes.
Why?
Because no one has an infiniteamount of time, so why waste it
With?
That said, let's get right intotoday's topic, and that is
(01:12):
warming up before training orracing.
The question came from ayounger athlete of mine that I
recently started working with,but I get this question a lot
From any age, time crunched time, rich racers, non-racers and
everyone in between.
His question was simply thiswhat is the best warmup, and
(01:34):
should I do activation exercisesbefore warming up on the bike.
My answer it depends why.
So, depending on the goal ofthe workout or the demands of
the race, you may need more orless time to warm up.
Remember, we don't like towaste time on this podcast, nor
do we like to waste time in awarm-up.
(01:55):
So let's unravel what goes intothe best warm-up routines for
certain situations, and I'llgive some examples along the way
.
First off, let's cover somegeneral rules of thumb.
I'm just going to go bulletpoint after bullet point here
and I'll explain myself as weget into the meat and potatoes
(02:15):
of it.
General rules of thumb Shorterthe race, longer the warmup.
Longer the race.
Longer the warmup.
Longer the race.
Shorter the warmup.
Now, if there's lots ofintensity in the race or the
workout early on, you also wanta longer warmup.
If you've been sitting all dayand you're you work a desk job
(02:38):
and you just don't move a lot,make sure definitely to do a
warmup.
And I would warm up in variousways, including the activation
exercise and some stuff thatwe'll talk about and incorporate
that into a dynamic warmuproutine, as I like to call it.
Now here are the main points.
I'm going to give them to youright away at the start of the
podcast and then I'll summarizewith him at the end as well.
(03:00):
Well, a good warmup willincrease core temperature, get a
good sweat going, improvemuscle coordination, joint
mobility and engaged mind withbody.
It'll also reduce the chance ofinjury and get you ready for a
hard training session or race.
Now there's a good recipe tofollow, but there's no magic
(03:21):
routine or secret warmup outthere, other than finding what
works best for you in varioussituations, then make it simple,
consistent and then actually doit.
Now, like I said, there's botha mind and body component to a
warmup in that process, and it'simportant to recognize both.
(03:42):
Now let's look at differentscenarios of when it's best to
use a short warm up, when it'sbest to use a long warm up or
some version of a dynamic warmup in some combination of all of
them.
So let's take a look at theshort warm up.
One scenario is when you'rejust riding endurance for the
day.
A short warm up is totally fine.
Call it 10 minutes, easyspinning.
(04:04):
Then build into your zone twoand ride there for X amount of
time.
Whatever's prescribed, keep itsimple, don't overthink it.
You don't need to get morefancy than that.
Another one is if you're shorton time, you're still better off
doing a little bit of somethingthan nothing at all before
smashing into an interval set ortowing the line at a race.
(04:27):
I remember Lindsay Golichtelling us as resident coaches
years and years ago at CTS thatall energy systems are active
and you're warm in, you'rewarmed up, you're ready to go
within seven to 10 minutes ofaerobic exercise.
That was in regard to um, doingsome lactate and VO2 max
testing.
(04:47):
Because the question was askedis why don't we only give them a
seven to 10 minute ramp upprotocol and then go up from
there?
And that was that was heranswer.
It was like, straight up,everything's warmed up after
that.
Now I'm going to probably getsome pushback on that and there
are some asterisks there, okay,because I don't always prescribe
just 10 minutes of warmup.
I'll get into that here in aminute.
(05:09):
But I'm telling you that, from aphysiological standpoint,
systems are warm, systems areready, systems are activated.
There's other things that wecan do to make it feel better,
go better and, again, connectmind with body.
But have the confidence to knowthat if you get short on time,
seven to 10 minutes away, we goall good, okay, there's nothing
(05:33):
wrong with that, okay, from aphysical standpoint.
So, even when you're for thetime, crunch cyclists out there,
even when your 60 minutetraining window gets shortened
down to 45 minutes becausesomething happens, life happens,
a meeting runs long, orsomething like that, still do at
least seven minutes and thenbuild up to your main set.
(05:55):
Just don't skip the warmup.
If you have more time, we cando a bit more in the warmup, for
sure, but let's keep it simple.
Now remember one of the generalrules of thumb that I stated
earlier the longer the race, theshorter the warmup.
What this means is, since therace is going to be longer, okay
, take a long gravel race orsomething like that that's a
(06:18):
hundred miles long.
You may be able to simply usethe first 20 to 30 minutes of
the race as your warmup,especially if there's a neutral
start, or you're simply going tofinish and you don't care about
keeping up with the main groupor age groupers, or you're going
for the win, or something likethat.
You can use the first part ofthe race to warm up, completely
(06:41):
appropriate.
I do that a lot For exampleslike that long gravel race, or
maybe you do want to make thefront group or you do have
performance goals in your agecategory, and this can be a
little tricky because nowthere's going to be some high
intensity in the first hour orso that you want to be a part of
(07:01):
and you have to be ready for it, but you're still riding for
like five, seven, eight hours ormore.
So I'd still keep it fairlyshort, since you want to
conserve your muscle glycogenand your hydration.
Here's one example 20 minutewarmup.
Very simple, starts with 10minutes easy endurance, spinning
three minutes of tempo, whichis a perceived effort, or six or
(07:25):
seven out of 10.
And then you want to do two 20second openers, which are ramp
up to hard effort, like a startat an eight, ramp up to a nine
over the course of 20 secondssuper short.
Just get the lactate spiked upthere and let your body know
some efforts are coming.
Take two minutes easy inbetween and then easy spinning
(07:46):
up to the start corral so youcan get after it.
That's a very simple warm-upthat I prescribe to my athletes
who are doing something likethis.
We want to just do a little bitof something so that we don't
have cold legs going into therace itself.
So now let's talk about longwarm-ups.
When do you need to use a longwarm-up?
(08:07):
Well, remember our rules ofthumb Shorter the race or harder
the intensity.
Early on, you want a longerwarm-up.
Some good examples of this iswhen you're doing high intensity
interval sets in your trainingor you've got a race like a
cross country mountain bike race, a cycle cross race, a crit
time trial, a swift race,something like that.
(08:29):
What does a good long warmuplook like?
The recipe starts with easyaerobic effort and it builds
progressively up in intensity,hitting the threshold in some
short anaerobic capacity efforts, then finishes with easy
aerobic spinning Even theexample I gave you above with
that short warmup before thegravel race.
(08:50):
It follows that same pattern.
Every warmup should touch allthree energy systems, bring out
a sweat, get the heart rate upand finish with some easy
spinning to start clearing theexcess lactate that you produced
at those higher intensityefforts.
But you want to do all of thiswithout leaving you fatigued for
the actual main set or the raceor whatever you're going to do
(09:12):
next.
When you have a little bit moretime, you can just scale this
up a bit more without rushing,and make sure that the aerobic,
the glycolytic and theneuromuscular systems are fully
activated.
Next, you know what my advice ismake it your own.
Okay, I'll give you someexamples here, but I really want
to encourage everyone to find aroutine that works for you.
(09:33):
Refine it, tweak it and, usingthe general rules of thumb that
I stated in the in the firstpart of this episode, then learn
how to change and adjust thewarmup on the fly, as things may
change, cause things always do.
More on that later, but for now, let's look at some good,
longer warmup examples and keepin mind too, for those listening
(09:55):
uh, I'll have this in our shownotes, and for, um, our, our
YouTube watchers, we're going totry to post this as well.
Okay, and you can find that inthe show notes too, no matter
where you are looking.
First example is a long warmupbefore hard training.
This one's going to take about25 to 30 minutes.
(10:15):
It'll start with 10 to 15minutes of easy endurance
spinning.
Then you'll go into a three byone minute fast pedal interval
session, and that's going to behigh cadence, and it could be
anywhere at 90, 100, 110, 120,whatever high is for you.
You want to do it so thatyou're you're spinning at a high
cadence, but a moderate power.
(10:36):
We're talking like zone threeor below.
Cadence is the focus, not thepower.
You want to build up to a pointwhere you're almost bouncing in
the saddle and then dial itdown two or three RPMs.
That's a fast pedal.
Okay, you'll do three by oneminute with one minute in
between, and then you'll spineasy for two to three minutes.
(10:56):
After that little set isfinished, you'll then do your
two by 20 second openers withtwo to three minutes.
After that little set isfinished, you'll then do your
two by 20 second openers withtwo to three minutes of easy
spinning between, and then buildinto your main set.
Have at it.
Okay, this is great for a 90minute session with some hard
let's call it zone four andabove sort of intervals.
That's a good one to get theheart rate up, get the legs
(11:19):
spinning fast without causingany fatigue.
It's a good go-to warmup forall my athletes, okay.
Second example for race warmup.
This one's going to be around45 minutes.
Okay, this one's great forthose cross country mountain
bike races, cycle cross races,time trials, things like this
Starts again with 10, 15 minutesof easy spinning at endurance.
(11:40):
Three by one minute, fast pedal, which is the high cadence
moderate power, one minute inbetween.
Then I'm going to have theathlete do two by four minutes
at threshold so that threshold,again the perceived effort, is
seven to eight out of 10.
The recovery is three minutes.
In between We'll do two by 20second openers with a couple
minutes of easy spinning andthen we finish with five to 10
(12:01):
minutes of easy spinning.
And I always tell the athletemake sure to plan that warmup
with enough time that you canget through all of it, then use
the restroom, then you get up tothe line to do your race.
It's usually about 10 minutesbefore and you still have that
sweat going but have plenty oftime to do it so that you're not
rushed and you're not stressedgoing into the race.
(12:21):
So again, a good, uh, short,hard race warmup should be a
little bit longer and that oneshould take you 40 to 45 minutes
.
Now finally, for those whothink all of that is way too
long, uh, what is a shorter?
What is the minimum?
Uh, race warmup or hardinterval set warmup that I would
recommend?
(12:41):
Do what I do I'm the laziestcoach you'll probably ever meet
Seven to 10 minutes of easyendurance spinning, three
minutes, build up to tempo orthreshold.
Two minutes easy spinning oneby 20, second opener, and then
three, five minute easy spinning, something like that, and that
should take you 20 minutes.
Okay, again, reminder, therecipe is start easy, progress
(13:07):
up through all the intensities,get in that anaerobic effort,
spike the lactate up, spin itout and you're good to go.
So now let's take a look at whata dynamic warmup is and we'll
look at activation exercises aswell.
But first let's define thingshere.
Dynamic warmup is simply movingthe body and your joints
through a full range of motionto increase muscle activation,
(13:30):
core temperature, improvecoordination and mobility.
Classic examples of thisinclude arm circles, leg swings,
walking, lunges, inchworm, highknees, butt kicks, bounding or
skipping.
For some of those who are maybe40 to 50 year old and I'm
(13:50):
saying some of those exercises,you can think back to gym class
or maybe some team sports backin the late 90s or early 2000s,
and that's really when dynamicwarmups became popular, was
around that time period, and itwas a better.
We found out.
Physiologists and coaches andpractitioners found out it was
(14:11):
better preparation for practiceand competition in those team
sports and track and field andthings like that, compared to
static stretching or just a lowintensity cardio or quote, aka,
general warmup.
Okay, personally, I use a mix ofthings in my dynamic warmup
routines for athletes, includingsome of the classic things like
(14:34):
arm circles and leg swings, butI also include exercises and
movements like a down dogstretch.
Okay, that's pulling from someyoga routines.
I use body weight squats,lateral lunges, donkey kicks,
clamshells, glute raises andjust a straight up jump rope
session.
Okay, some of those, some ofthose movements are also known
(14:59):
as activation exercises, and theonly difference between a
dynamic warmup and an activationexercise is that the former is
a bit more general, it's a grossmotor movement pattern, and the
latter is more specific, it'stargeted work.
Remember, there's no magicroutine or specific secret
movement, only the routine thatworks for you.
(15:21):
So mix and match, try severaldifferent things and see what
works for you for the givenscenario.
I use a dynamic warmup andactivation routines for many of
my athletes, especially when theinterval sets are high
intensity or the race istechnical.
Are high intensity or the raceis technical, and that
(15:46):
technicality or the technicalaspect of a race it's going to
incorporate upper body work too.
So driving your bike throughsingle track or hard corners
through a criterium.
My off-road athletes out thereXCO, cyclocross, enduro racers
you know what I'm talking about.
I use these before strengthtraining sessions as well.
Five to 10 minutes of a dynamicwarmup will make your strength
(16:08):
session feel a lot better andhelp prevent injury as well.
Also, a quick five-minuteroutine before you hop on the
bike is great for people likemyself and a lot of you
listening, who sit a lot foryour job and don't move around
much.
Even five minutes of thesemovements that I mentioned gets
the body less dormant and moreengaged.
(16:30):
It gets you ready to ride.
This can also be a time andspace for your brain to
disengage from work and start tofocus on your ride.
I find that many mastersathletes tell me they need a
longer warmup before they feelgood.
When I look at the measurablesin both power files from my
(16:53):
athletes as well as researchokay, of what we can quantify to
question, is that true?
We're talking about heart rate,power, core temperature, muscle
temperature, things like this.
The body's ready to go in, likeI said, like 10 minutes Okay.
Sure, on a cold day that mightbe a little bit longer, but I
(17:13):
tend to find that these commentsfrom athletes busy athletes,
time crunched athletes.
It's more related to the brainbeing focused on other things
like work, family or whateverissues you were just dealing
with, before you come to yourtraining session.
So I did a dynamic warmup.
Something that involvesdifferent movement patterns,
coordination and concentration,can help get the brain unfixed
(17:37):
from life and engaged in themoment with movement, thus
speeding up the time it takesyou, to quote, feel fully warmed
up.
So what's the recipe for a gooddynamic warm-up?
I like to think about it likethis it's about five to seven
movements total, and that'sthat's appropriate.
(17:58):
Okay, you can add on a littlebit more, a little bit less, but
using some of the movementsthat I mentioned earlier and
I'll also link to some articleswith other good ideas Start with
the easier movements, firstsmaller muscle groups, things
like this and then you want tomove toward the more complicated
, more involved exercises.
You want to do each movement for10 to 20 seconds and then have
(18:21):
a short time in between.
For example, if you were doingforward arm swings for 10
seconds and then backward armswings for 10 seconds, I would
take 10 to 20 second.
Call it recovery if you wantbetween or before doing the next
set of arm circles or the nextexercise.
It doesn't have to be superscripted or precise.
(18:42):
You're just moving, you'regetting your body activated, and
these are low intensitymovements which you don't need a
ton of time to recover from.
Traditionally, for a dynamicwarmup, you do two to three sets
of each exercise before movingon to the next exercise.
For example, do two to threesets of the arm circles before
moving on to the leg swings.
(19:03):
Do two to three sets of thosebefore you move on to the
walking lunge, etc.
Etc.
On we go.
I also build some routineswhere the athletes simply start
with one exercise and they go onto the next exercise fluidly.
So number one through seven,then you take a minute or two
and then you repeat.
You can structure it howeveryou want and however it works
(19:27):
best for you, so long as it'sprogressive in intensity and you
start simple and move to themore complicated toward the end.
So that'll get you nice andloosened up, it'll get the
muscles activated, it'll get thebrain clear and you can move on
to your cycling warmup or yourstrength training, whatever
comes next.
So let's quickly talk about adynamic warmup plus a cycling
(19:49):
warmup.
As I mentioned, I use acombination of these two warmups
for the races that are shortand hard or maybe overly
technical, especially if therace has high intensity early on
, you want to spend that five to10 minutes doing your dynamic
warmup first, then you do yoursport-specific warmup.
(20:10):
So riding your bike and usingone of the warmup examples that
I gave you earlier for the timecrunched athletes out there,
you're probably doing the mathand you're thinking wait, what
you want me to do?
10 minutes of a dynamic warmupand then 45 minutes with all
those intervals that you talkedabout, and then do my workout.
(20:32):
No, it's not what I'm saying.
Okay, that combo would be forraces.
Okay, races in particular.
Um, short, hard races.
Remember, it's all about thegoal and the demands of the
session, what you have time for,and then fit it in to your
needs accordingly.
The takeaways for the timecrunched athletes out there is
(20:56):
this doing as little as fiveminutes of a dynamic warmup can
help you warm up better beforeyou hop on the bike.
It could even shorten the timeit takes for you to fully warm
up and disengage with that worklife aspect and you get some
cross-training out of the deal.
So, five minute dynamic warmupplus five-10 minutes endurance,
(21:18):
easy spinning, you're good to go10-15 minutes tops.
Just know you don't need to doa dynamic warm-up every day.
Endurance days and when youhave a little extra time, just
warm-up on the bike, all good.
But incorporating some sort ofdynamic warmup routine a few
days per week, especially beforestrength training, is a good
(21:39):
option that doesn't take a lotof time and can provide a lot of
benefit.
Finally, last category here nowarmup.
This is not ideal, but it doeshappen.
I'd say you want to preventthat if all possible.
Deal, but it does happen.
I'd say you want to preventthat if all possible, but I've
been there, done that and gotthe race t-shirt, just if that
(22:04):
happens to you.
Try not to force any attacksfor the first like seven minutes
and you'll be good to go.
In.
All seriousness, if you're lateto a race, your meeting runs
long before your workout windowor you're sitting in a start
corral of a BWR or the Leadville100, use a simple five-minute
dynamic warm-up before the racestarts to get the muscles loose,
awake and ready to ride.
(22:26):
Even something as simple as armcircles and bodyweight squats.
They're better than juststanding there in the cold the
whole time.
So, in summary, my main messageis this Warmups are good.
Please do them, but keep themsimple.
Don't overthink them or thinkthat more is always better.
A progressive intensity cyclingwarmup from aerobic to sprint
(22:49):
power, with adequate recovery inbetween, will be the basic
recipe for any length of warmupout there.
Just use my rules of thumb toscale up or down as needed.
Finally, try some of thedynamic warmup routines that I
provided here.
Mix and match to discover whatworks best for you, and know
that you can use this beforestrength training races or
(23:10):
training sessions to help you inthe warmup process.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
If you have any questions forme and the team here at CTS,
head on over to trainratecombackslash podcast.
Click on ask a trainingquestion.
Fill out the form and askwhatever you wish there.
Your questions get sentdirectly to me and I'll do my
best to answer it on futureepisodes.
(23:31):
Thanks again for listening andbe sure to come back next week
for more short and sweetactionable training tips.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
(23:52):
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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