The warm up for long jumpers and triple jumpers

If we want to prevent injury, keep your body in good condition and have the body prepared for any type of sporting action, the warm-up is the essential medicine to keep our body always healthy.

Here, I would like to explain clearly, for athletes of any level, exactly what the warm means and what it should entail.

The warm-up is the set of actions and exercises prior to the great efforts of the training sessions and competitions, that athlete do to prepare the body and ensure their efficient operation during the main effort, to avoid a crisis of adaptation, and the accumulation of waste products in the tissues.

It has two main objectives: to help prevent injuries and to prepare the athlete physically, physiologically and psychologically for the start of more intense activity than normal.

Warming up is something really important and it is most important before a competition. After the huge time devoted to the preparation, it would be crazy to enter the set-up for a competition with stiff muscles, cold body and with a lack of positive mental attitude. We must protect everything we have accumulated in training, by warming up properly and coming to the competition with the necessary adjustment of mind and body to achieve optimum results.

Most of the jumpers and especially the triple jumpers or long jumpers, do ​​a bad warm up, as they generally doing it in a mechanical way, and copying what they see other athletes doing, without experience or knowledge of what they should be doing. Some warm up too much, unaware that they are doing so, while others fall short, in the belief that a long warm up it will subtract energy from training or competition

The warm up, either for training or for a competition must be considered in two parts: one general and one specific.

The general part is done through gentle runs, fluency exercises and coordination, aimed to stimulate the circulation, so that the large muscles and the joints become warm.

The specific part, as the name suggests, provides movements directly related with the skills of the long jump or triple jump. Generally, we use technical exercises of the training, whose purpose is to tune the neuromuscular system and review the techniques to use.  The result of these exercises is a very active nervous system.

In general, the warm-up should look like a miniature workout using exercises with a limited number of, reps and distances.

The volume and intensity of warming up varies between disciplines, and also according to the weather conditions. The triple jump or long jump involves a tremendous  effort, and needs a more voluminous and intense warm up in those situations where starting techniques require more caution, for example, athletes have to warm up more on cold days, than in the hot days. 

 A very important factor to consider when warming up for a competition, is the time elapsed between the completion of the warm up and the start of the competition.   A well-trained athlete can recover from a warm up within five minutes, therefore it makes sense to keep the time gap between warm up and competition around this optimum time of 5 minutes, as a longer break could ruin their physiological values.  However, experience shows that a warm muscular system can be retained for much longer as long as the athlete is sheltered properly. Either way it is advisable to conclude the warm up between 3 and 8 minutes before the competition in order to make tactics reviews and to recover the breathing a little.    

                        WHY DO WARMING UP?

Ø Improves your neuromuscular performance

Ø Reduces the risk of injury

Ø Allows the body to go through a series of modifications that ensure a supply of oxygen, nutritive materials and optimal metabolic functioning.

Ø Increases a mental attitude for training or competition. Many athletes influence adversaries thanks to the exercises performed during warming up.

            

         WARMING UP EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE

With the passage of time, discussions have arisen about whether warming up is beneficial or not to sports performance. In addition to these discussions, most coaches are agree that warming is essential for the athlete. Maybe coaches will be more aware of the values ​​of warming up if they know the effects it produces in the body, predisposing it for better performance.

The warming effects vary depending on several factors, among which we can mention:

Ø Rate of warming process

Ø Existing Motivation

Ø The state of physical condition

Ø Athlete performance  level

Ø Heating load (volume and intensity)

Ø age

Ø The time of day

Ø The environment.

Ø  The temperature and other climatic factors

                  WHAT PRODUCES HEAT EFFECTS IN THE BODY?

If the warming is well made ,it produces in the body varied and positive effects to increase performance during the main part of the training or competition.

Ø Increased body temperature

Ø Decreases the viscosity muscular

Ø Increases the pulse frequency

Ø Increases blood pressure.

Ø Intensification of breath

Ø Release of glucose into the circulation

Ø Stretching of tendons and ligaments

Ø Enhanced blood circulation in the capital

Ø Increased stroke volume

Ø Dilation of the arteries and capillaries that supply blood to the muscles.

A good warm up for a jumper, must have duration of between 45min to an hour.