There's no doubting or denying the importance of a warm-up ahead of movement – whether that's simply a workout in the gym, a training session or competition, you can't ignore preparation. A good warm up sets the tone for the rest of the session, so it's the important first step of the performance ladder.
There's an enhancement to the warm-up though, a step before that can improve the outcomes of the session ahead. This priming and pre-activation phase will help to start the physiological preparation before the session starts.
Time to read: 5 minutes
Intermediate
Key Points:
- Pre-Warm up benefits of infrared
- Blood flow & mobility
- Blood flow & preparation
- KYMIRA® for preparation & performance
A warm-up is crucial for every sports and sets the tone for the rest of the session. However, there is one step before - the priming and pre-activation phase...
Pre-Warm Up Benefits of Infrared
One of the key outcomes of a warm-up is the stimulation of blood flow to the tissues. By wearing infrared clothing before engaging in any form of movement, you already enhance the blood flow to the necessary areas. Whilst this doesn't replace the warm-up, it certainly enhances it and reduces the early injury risk.
We know that infrared fabrics stimulate peripheral blood flow [1], so by wearing infrared even before any dynamic exercise has taken place, one of the most important aspects of a warm-up is already well under way.
Theoretically this could reduce the required duration and intensity of the warm-up required, saving more energy for competition.
Blood flow improves mobility – enhanced priming capabilities
There's a major difference in warm up between ‘exercise' and sport. In exercise, the goal of the warm-up is to warm the body to make movement easier and safer. In sport, there's an additional element to the warm-up – to engage muscle function and movement patterns, practice precise movements and execute technique.
One of the main ways this is done is through ‘priming'.
Priming exercises will differ from sport to sport, for example a cyclist may run through a series of short sprint drills, a jumper may practice take off drills and a boxer may perform movement and punch drills. The commonality is that they are very sport-specific and are designed to purely address movements that are about to be undertaken in competition.
We know from research that priming is effective [2]. A study on elite rugby players showed that performing priming drills before a match led to a significant improvement in throwing power – a key element of the sport.
Enhance blood flow, enhance preparation
In sport at all levels, heating the body and thus improving blood flow is fundamentally important to the preparation and performance stages. Adequate blood flow is a pre-curser of tissue health and mobility, movement quality and technique execution.
Infrared has proven across numerous studies how effective it is at enhancing blood flow. It does so via two main mechanisms…
- It stimulates the production of Nitric Oxide (NO), a powerful vasodilator that opens blood vessels and increases circulation to an area.
- The infrared fabric is an incredibly effective thermoregulator [3], and as such warms the tissues which in turns brings extra circulation to the area.
By wearing infrared clothing in the priming, warm up and competition phases you'll ensure the maximum benefit from the technology.
There is very strong research supporting the heat element of a warm-up [4], with evidence suggesting it is far more than simply reducing injury risk. When studied, warm muscles have been proven to contract faster, generate more force velocity, exert greater strength of contraction and maintain work rate for longer, increasing the time to exhaustion.
More than just a ‘good idea', maximising the warm-up and muscle temperature is a fundamentally vital aspect of performance preparation.
KYMIRA® ranges for preparation and performance
There is a KYMIRA® garment to suit nearly all sports. There are full kits available for sports like running, cycling or triathlon. There's even the clothing ranges that can be worn on the way to competition, to get ahead of the warming up process. The longer the warm up, the better prepared you are ahead of competition.
If you play a sport that has a specific kit such as football or rugby, you can still use the base layers to benefit from the advantage provided by infrared. These are available in long and short sleeve tops, plus shorts and leggings. In the winter especially, when warming up takes on a great level of importance to combat the effects of the cold, the infrared base layers are a game changer.
For winter sports, we sell thermal base layers, gloves and mid layers. They've been tested to -35, so they'll cope with whatever you can throw at them.
You can view the entire KYMIRA Sport ranges here.
References
[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1099800420923730