how do olympic sprinters like usain bolt warm up before winning a gold medal at
the olympics and what can we learn from them to
maximize our own training even if we are not
at their level i looked through textbooks research papers
training footage and even interviews with the top coaches in the world to
combine all the best pieces of information and
create my own warm up here is what i came up with
usually i arrive to track by car so i like to first get started by walking
otherwise i feel really tight from sitting in the
car if it's a warm day about one lap around the track will be
enough for my hips to loosen up but if you're walking to the location
anyways you might as well just get into the jog
on 20 meter sprint times showed that just 20 minutes of warming up
had a significant impact on improving speed
the warm-up consisted of a jog dynamic stretching
and incremental sprinting 20 minutes might sound like a lot but this includes
doing drills and technique work elite sprinters
actually warm up for up to 90 minutes before a competition
but unless you're about to run the 100 meters at the olympics
that won't be necessary i found that jogging for five minutes
10 if it's cold outside is good enough to get my heart rate up
and loosen up my body personally i jog until i break a sweat which during the
summer in new york takes about two laps at the most with a moderate speed
despite what you would expect a person with more training
will actually sweat faster due to a process called acclimat
acclimatization acclimatization where your body adapts to training and
generates heat much faster even during the jog i'm working
on basic sprint technique which includes minimal side to side rotation of the
torso landing softly on the ball of the foot
and upright posture with the eyes looking straight ahead have you ever
wondered why does our body even heat up when we exercise
because i have and here's what i found when we use our muscles they produce
energy about 20 of that energy produced is used for
further muscle contractions meanwhile 80 of that energy is converted
to heat this is why your body will shiver when
you are cold because those full body contractions generate
heat for the entire body
because spraining is a full body workout it's important that we have a full body
stretching routine in this clip you'll see tyson gay american world champion
sprinter doing some dynamic stretching before
getting into his sprint drills for the ankles i do crouched walking
because i'm able to get a really good stretch in the foot muscles achilles and
calves all at the same time i never have any issues with shin splints and i
suspect that this is one of the main reasons why for the
quads i do kickbacks i noticed that this is a stretch that both tyson
gay and a software power both do and it's very easy to see why when
you actually try it out prior to everything else i've tested so far
this one is by far one of the best that's stretching the quads
just make sure that you're kicking your knees up high to get the full stretch
for the hamstrings i do bent over reaches there's a lot of
classic hamstring stretches this one is great because you get a lower back
and upper back stretch at the same time for the hip flexors i do hands up lunges
this one is great not only because you're warming up your leg muscles
during the lunge but you are also stretching out the hip flexors and abs
when you raise your arms for the shoulders i do external rotations
the arms move violently during the sprint so we can't forget about the
shoulder and need to prepare the rotator cuffs as
well as loosen up the pec muscles this is another stretch which i've
noticed that a software power does before his prints
for the glutes i do steps with a rotation
this one allows you to get a deep stretch in the glutes
and also the upper back for the lower back i do step
overs i found this one gets a great stretch
in the lower back muscles specifically the ql muscle which gets
very tight from both sitting and standing for the abductors and adductors
i do side lunges this one gets a good stretch in the
muscles on the inside and outside of the leg which are usually
neglected but very much active during sprinting it's
important to note that all of these should be done moving
millennia research has already shown us that static stretching where you hold
each position for time before your workout actually decreases
performance specifically one study with 97 rupee
players showed that static stretching decreased spring performance while
dynamic stretching increased it typically i'll do 8-12 reps
of each one of these before moving on to the next step of the
warm-up in theory can you get into a hot tub to
warm up and still get all the same benefits
well let's define the three ways you can warm up
one is passive which is through external means
like getting to the sauna or getting into the hot tub
number two is active non-specific which is by performing movements not
relevant to the workout you are about to do
number three is active specific which is by performing movements
relevant and similar to the workout you are about to do
according to research there's actually no significant difference
in physiological effects and performance between active
and passive warming up although we could argue that active specific
would be the best use of time since you are warming up
and also practicing technique at the same time
sprint drills are usually done fast and at high intensities which is why it
makes the most sense to do them after dynamic stretching depending on
what you are working on that day your sprint drills will vary if you're
working on becoming faster for track for your sport or just for
bragging rights you're going to want to focus on
acceleration drills such as the acceleration foot strike
drill this drill teaches you to strike the
ground behind the hips while having a significant forward lean
just like you would during the acceleration phase if you're
working on improving your top speed for conditioning
fat loss and or hormonal benefits then you're going to want to focus on
upright sprinting drills such as the a step with hands up by
keeping the hands up it forces you to have an upright posture
just like the top speed phase of the sprint if you're working on your starts
to train your muscles to fire explosively
improve your reaction time and or build muscle then
you're going to want to focus on star drills such as the bent over arm swings
this trains two things one it trains your back muscles and your core muscles
to stabilize your torso from bending or twisting two it trains
your arms to swing powerfully so that your legs follow and
you exit the blocks powerfully i actually have a full video
on my top three beginner sprint drills if you haven't already seen it it'll pop
up at the end of this video and it'll be in the description if
you're not working on any specific phase of the sprint
then you could do all of these for two sets each
instead of focusing on reps i would worry more about performing as many as i
can with nearly perfect technique and take a break once i feel any bit of
fatigue setting in at this point we're finally spraining
first at a low intensity and slowly increasing it until we reach the speed
we plan on using for a workout i forgot my spikes on this day but after
a couple of these i usually put them on this is the transition between your
warm-up and your actual sprint session although depending on your fitness level
and goals this could definitely qualify as a
workout itself in this video you're seeing
warming up before winning a gold medal at the olympics i counted a completes
around 15 of these unless you're about to run at 100 effort in an attempt to
break a world record you probably won't need as many
personally it takes me around 10 of these before i feel ready
for my actual workout but how many you need will largely depend on
how long it takes you to feel ready and what you're working on that day
experiment and find what works best for you although there isn't
one best way to do this it seems like this is the general pattern
that you would want to follow jogging dynamic stretching sprint drills
incremental sprints and don't forget the most
important part of this entire process hitting the like button
now apart from smashing the like button what does your
spring warm-up consist of drop it in the comments
and check out my top three sprint drills for beginners if you haven't already
thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next one
you