How long do you take to warm up for a training session?

I’m 48. Pre-pending 5 minutes of warmup time to the regular workout seems to work good for me most of the time.

Thanks for sharing that info and graph. I’ve been doing ramp tests for a year, at first I had no issues however my last 3 or 4 ramp tests have been complete failures. Last month I told myself to try a warmup before next ramp test. Unfortunately yesterday was another ramp test without a warm up (Laurel or Scott Peak -2), and another failed ramp test.

What you shared sounds like a possible explanation for my current ramp test issues, and within a week or two I’ll try another test with a proper warmup beforehand.

WOW–thanks so much for the data–fascinating! I might get one of these sensors and see what it looks like for me.

Thank you Humon! armin-ds9-publicty

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Basically looks like my warmup with the benefit of the “Humon oxygenation sensor” :wink:

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I was convinced I needed about 30-45 minutes before big efforts.
As it turns out this was mostly mental just like keeping the pedals going when the mind tells body to stop.
I just do the workout unless I need to calibrate my Magnus which requires about 10 minutes.

54 yrs old.

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I’m 21, so take all of this with a grain of salt.
I usually just follow TR workouts as prescribed, so 5-10 mins of warmup before intervals start. I find that I am usually ready for the first set by then. For actual races, Ii definitely prefer warming up for a longer amount of time, anywhere from 15-25min depending on the nature of the efforts I’ll face.

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Im 51…before I even get on the bike I do 30 minutes of ab and core work and some light upper body stuff like push up, rows and pull ups. This helps me get warmed up a bit. Then I do a 10 minute interval warm up that I made in workout creator (quick warm up), its published if you want to try it. Then I do the workout.

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What you can do, versus what might be optimal to do, are quite different things.

A longer step warmup with a few high intensity efforts is optimal, for most of us. That does not mean that it fits well with only having an hour to work out.

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I typically follow the standard warmup, however, when I’ve been doing strength training and I have some soreness in my legs I’ll occasionally hit the +5 minutes if I have the time to spare.

When warming up for a race, I typically abide by the rule of “the shorter the race, the longer the warmup”.

For a long road race, I might spin for 10-15 minutes since I know the first 30-45 minutes of the race will be fairly relaxed and will allow me to warmup while racing.

For a short XC race, my warmup will be longer and more involved. Typically I will warmup for around 45 minutes and throw in some race openers to get my legs ready to “snap”, since I know the start will be a VO2 max effort from the gun. A race opener is a short, 30-60 second anaerobic effort that is designed to “shake out the cobwebs” and get you ready for the intensity to come.

I’m also 21 :+1:

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54 yrs. I don’t add any additional warmup to my workouts as I’m usually time crunched and do my workouts at lunch time. I then follow-up with a lower intensity ride after work. I’m currently in SSB1-Mid and SSB2-Mid track and the warmups have been adequate to get me through the workout (I also have a few years experience of my own plans with TR workouts). I never judge how well I’m going to feel on the actual workout by how I feel during the warmup… the warmup always feels like crap. That said, today’s warmup for Mills was a bit sharp but I did complete the workout with the ability to push up the intensity a little bid on the last two intervals.

I suspect if I was doing my workouts at first AM, I’d probably want a better warmup to get my old ticker up to operating temperature.

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heck I’m 56 and that has worked for me in general when cycling 6-8 hours/week on average. However the last two months for various reasons my volume is under 5 hours/week, plus I had some breakthroughs on resolving biomechanical issues (I can squat and deadlift again!) and that has negatively impacted my last couple of ramp tests.

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Age 42 - Thankful for the “extend warm-up” button. I only add 2 minutes, and to every single workout with efforts, but feel like those 2 minutes make a big difference. Funny because I seem to struggle with the priming/teaser intervals more than the full workout itself. (I often cut the time off of my cool-down) I remember quitting one time after those. Then I went to redo it the next day and started paying attention to the text where it mentioned how hard those primer sets can be. After throwing a couple more minutes of warm-up, I’m in a better mental mood to take get through those.

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37 here.
Whatever the plan tells me to do, I do it. Some days, especially the 90 min or 2 hour sessions they give you very little cool down - i’ll add a few minutes.

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51 years old. I almost always extend the initial warm up period by 5-7 minutes on average, unless the workout is easy.

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I hear you. Sometimes, during warmups my breathing is quite labored resulting in my legs not producing any power then me wanting to quit and sometimes I do because I think maybe I’m not rested enough…

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Wish I was 21 again!

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61 years old here (40 years older than these TR kids :hushed::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

Keep in mind that most, if not all, these workouts were designed for the time-crunched athlete, so the warmups probably reflect that. Although I’m not time crunched, I don’t extend my warmup very often; however, I can usually tell within the first couple of minutes if I need to do extra warming up. It usually starts with an audible, “ugh!”

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This morning, I did carillon. I should have extended the warmup. The warmup in the workout is just about non existent. At 3 minutes you’re at 85%, then by 5 minutes 95%. I was so out of breath, I felt like I might not be able to get my act together for the rest of the workout. It came out ok, didn’t have to dial it back, but it tore me up more than I think it should have.

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Actually stretching decreases muscle strength. You would probably be better off with gentle cardio or light weights before your work set and leave the stretching to the end of the workout or some other time altogether

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