Warm-up and Re-warm-up Insights into Resistance Training: Usual Practices among Strength and Conditioning Coaches and Athletes

The warm-up enhances both physiological readiness and psychological focus, contributing to injury prevention and performance improvement. Despite its benefits, warm-up practices are often applied based on common sense, with insufficient scientific evidence to support them. This study aimed to characterize warm-up and re-warm-up practices among athletes and strength and conditioning coaches during strength training.

A cross-sectional descriptive survey of warm-up and re-warm-up resistance training routines was conducted. One hundred six participants (31.04 ± 9.53 years) responded to a survey designed to gather information on demographic details, roles (i.e., athlete and/or coach), and warm-up and re-warm-up recommended practices.

Sex did not influence warm-up or re-warm-up routines, suggesting similar habits adopted by male and female athletes (warm-up practice: 93.9% and 95.0% respectively; no re-warm-up: 81.8% and 85.0%, respectively). The results confirmed a widespread adherence to general and specific warm-up routines across explanatory variables, as sex (males and females: 63.1%) and professional roles (both: 68.2%). In contrast, re-warm-up strategies were less chosen (male 18.2%, female 15.0%). Dual-role individuals were more likely to implement re-warm-up strategies (p = 0.036).

Moreover, with each additional year of age, the chance of a person performing re-warm-up decreases (18.3%), a coach has a 33.6% greater possibility of conducting a re-warm-up when compared to an athlete, and individuals with dual roles have approximately 5.5 times greater chance of re-warm-up when compared to athletes.

This study provides useful insights into modern practices for athletes and coaches to review and update their individual warm-up and re-warm-up practices.