THREE on the power-priming potential of warming up
Warming up for success
Preheating an oven, setting cycling equipment out for the next morning’s workout, and taking a few quiet minutes to start the day all have something in common. Each activity establishes conditions for success. The recipe is more likely to work when the cook starts the oven at the correct temperature. The bike is more likely to be a good ride when you have your helmet, bike shoes, nutrition, and clothes! Your workout warm-up should similarly prepare you for success, but most athletes give less thought to their warm up than to their morning coffee.
Performance has physical, mental, and emotional components. A good warm-up should touch on all three, transforming you from whoever you were before you started into a person whose physical, mental, and emotional states are primed for the upcoming task. Maybe athletes skip this step because they are time-crunched and results-oriented. It’s hard to quantify “workout preparation” on a training log. It could be more simply explained by impatience. No matter the reason for discounting its importance, let’s devote more attention to “getting ready.”
There is a pervasive attitude in triathlon, since it’s an endurance event, that the warm-up doesn’t matter. I’ve even heard triathletes say, “It doesn’t matter how you start; what matters is how you finish.” That’s terrible advice. The clock counts seconds the same, no matter the section of a race. Physically demanding races require warm-ups that prepare your body for those physical movements you’re about to ask of yourself. Beginning a swim or run workout without first opening up your muscles/range of motion is akin to putting dough into a cold oven and expecting bread.
Before any coach can tell you how to warm up for a workout or a race, you need to know what physical, mental, and emotional states of readiness best unlock your individual potential. Reflect on times when you felt like you really had it going. It could have been either a race where you surprised yourself or a work presentation that went exceptionally well. Ask yourself, “What was I doing just before that started? How was I feeling? What was I thinking?” If the activity was first-thing in the morning, ask, “Did I go to sleep feeling relaxed? What did I think when I hit my alarm clock? Did I listen to music? What emotions did the music trigger?” The answers to these questions provide insight on your optimal mental and emotional state for performance. It’s impossible to hit a target that’s not defined, so identifying your optimal physical, mental, and emotional states for performance defines you at your best. From there, the challenge becomes repeatedly accessing this zone.
Elite performance is a product of consistently unlocking your potential. The late Kobe Bryant was legendary for his work ethic. After observing one of his warm-up routines, performance coach Alan Stein asked, “You’re the best player in the world, why do such basic stuff?” Kobe responded, “Why do you think I’m the best player in the game? Because I never get bored with the basics.” The warm-up is a necessary transition from wherever you are to the physical, mental, and emotional state you need in order to execute the challenge ahead.
Now that I’ve warmed you up for this week’s newsletter, I wonder if you’ll enjoy the Train, Brain, and Break links we’ve been reading this week! Special thanks to our subscribers who completed the THREE survey. We’ll be shipping you a custom THREE hat early next week, and we hope you’ll share your style by tagging us on Instagram!
Joe Maloy, 2016 U.S. Olympic Triathlete, Co-Founder and Editor-at-Large
• JOE MALOY’S WARM-UP TIPS It’s easy to rationalize skipping the warm-up and going straight to the main set. You’re crunched for time before work or rushing to squeeze a workout in before dinner. But, by cutting the warm-up, you could be limiting the benefits of the entire training session. In this video, THREE editor-at-large Joe Maloy demonstrates how simple a running warm-up can be and how it can effectively improve your performance.
• HOW TO BREATHE If you’re looking to make strides with your run, no pun intended, Outside Online has a rundown of expert tips for breathing techniques that may help you run strong. Their write-up provides advice from pro runners, coaches and sports PTs about controlling your breathing, breathing efficiently and how to change your breathing as you run faster.
• CARDIO ISN’T ENOUGH In the same way that you shouldn’t skip the warm-up, you also shouldn’t exclusively focus on swimming, cycling and running on your training days. The Washington Post is out with an article that extolls the heart-healthy benefits of incorporating resistance training into your regimen. “Your ideal training plan depends on myriad factors, including goals, genetics and lifestyle,” WaPo reports. “That said, we know that even a minimalist approach to strength training can pay dividends for your long-term health.”
“Resistance training … should always be performed with enough effort to induce muscle fatigue. Although you don’t need a bodybuilder physique to see the benefits, you do need to be intentional when you lift. As you get stronger, your workouts will get easier, so adjust accordingly to keep building muscle mass.”
• INSIDE THE SWIMMER’S MIND What do you think about when you’re swimming? A new book by competitive swimmer Bonnie Tsui shares her mindset and the perspectives of other swimmers, like Michael Phelps, who have found that the simple act of being underwater can turn a pool into “a place of sanctuary and renewed mental health.” Tsui’s book, “Why We Swim,” explores the ways that immersion can radically shift our outlook.
“Sometimes swimming is a wormhole through which to escape the grinding machinery of everyday life. I get in a lake and swim away, as far as I can. When I get far enough away, literally and figuratively, I know it, because I find I want to go back. It’s an exercise in thresholds. How much I can take, how much distance I need, how far I can get from shore before I feel afraid, at what point I desire to return to land. I brew and brood over things that seem to be of consequence, but by the end of a swim, the water has washed much of that away. I come out with my mood and mental clarity improved by a minimum of 48 percent.”
• ACHIEVE YOUR MOST AMBITIOUS GOALS We’ve talked a lot about goal setting in previous editions of this newsletter. It seems everyone has their own take but one thing seems universal: it generally comes down to taking that first step. In this TEDx talk by investment manager Stephen Duneier, who literally wrote the book on achieving more, doing better, and reaching higher, “what stands between us and achieving even our most ambitious dreams has far less to do with possessing some magical skill or talent, and far more to do with how we approach problems and make decisions to solve them.” In his TEDx talk posted to YouTube, he suggests that “even a marginal improvement in our process can have a huge impact on our end results.”
• RACING IS BACK Here’s something to add to your weekend watch list: ITU elite competition resumes this weekend with the Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon in Germany. According to a Team USA announcement, this event “has been designated as the World Championships for both the individual and mixed relay race categories” and will feature reigning world champion Katie Zaferes, Tokyo Olympic qualifier Summer Rappaport and eight other U.S. elite triathletes. THREE’s humble editor-at-large, Joe Maloy, was the anchor in the mixed relay competition in Hamburg back in 2016. “After all other WTS events in 2020 were canceled due to COVID-19, the ITU announced last week that the individual race in Hamburg would now also crown the individual world champions,” USA Triathlon reports. Both events will be broadcast this weekend on triathlonlive.tv
• TOUR DE FRANCE Stage seven of the postponed Tour de France takes place today. On Thursday, 24-year-old American Neilson Powless took fourth place in the sixth stage of the race. NBC Sports has been posting daily Tour updates on YouTube. Here are highlights from yesterday's race.
If you haven’t had a chance to tune in, don’t worry, the race continues through September 20.
