Evaluating Warm Up: Performance--Is There Any Research?
Like any science exercise physiology employs the scientific method in research attempting to uncover whatever laws or facts there may be with regard to athletic performance. Hypothesis, theory, testing by appropriate research is the way it goes with the end point hopefully being some actual knowledge as opposed to conjecture, belief and old wives's tales.
Those who want to "know" what's going on on the race track instead of just guessing are completely aware of the deficiencies in equine exercise physiology in terms of available information. There have been some studies, but most of them, if you read them, are tremendously flawed usually because the persons conducting the research are other than racing people. As a side note I'll volunteer that the Maryland shin study and some of the associated work is very good and seems an exception to the general sloppy work you see with regard to horses even though I might have done without them killing their trainees to do autopsy's.
In abscence of scientific study for horses it's occurred to me over the years to turn to human studies coming out of the exercise physiology labs of the Universities. Tom Ivers obtained a lot of his information this way. Making sense of this information or just finding it however is difficult and if you read Ivers you'll note his struggle in information gathering and trying to make sense of what is out there. It's an ongoing process with a long way to go!
Given the lack of helpful equine studies, my own thoughts in uncovering whatever scientific information is available with regard to training horses has been to look at human track and field events that have similarity to our races. This primarily would be the 440 and 880 yard dashes and any in between as being closely equivalent in time to our 6f to 1 1/4 mile races.
Over the years I've searched for books on 440 and 880 training, found a few and read them, but I've yet to see a book on human track and field that is really helpful. Oddly the few books I've found and read on the shorter track events are so poorly written and thrown together as to be practically useless. In terms of warm up I've thought of attending a live track meet to watch what they do, or talking to a track athlete and getting some info that way, but that's for the future. Beyond talking about "stretching" I've yet to see a word written about warm up for for either human track events or horses.
So, we answer in the negative the question--is there any research on maximizing performance by appropriate warm up. In terms of really finding out what's what here the blog is left to speculation based on a lot of personal experience and reading. What I've learned in terms of warming up and performance I'll include on the next posts.
Training report:
It seems we're training both our horses and our overweight rider. I'm having trouble finding a sense of humor that the overweight rider Mr. Nob, instead of continuing his CRON (calorie restriction-optimum nutrition) diet and exercise after getting down to 158 lbs. Saturday instead seems to have lapsed the last two days back to skipping his running and overeating to the point he refuses to step on the scale. Luckily there's time before tomorrow night's breezes for some weight loss. I'd hate to do them at heavier than 158 lbs.
As to the horses, Monday morning Groovin' Wind, who performed 2 x 3f in :38 and :40 Saturday at Eureka, seems uncharacteristically tired. The horses are carbing up for tomorrow's works, and hopefully energy will return. Presumably the work Saturday got into the horse a little, which probably is good. There was some minor shin heat, expected given the transition to the hard track, which we're watching. Monday morning Wind galloped riderless for 2 miles slow after a warm up, and tonight he'll do a snappy 1 1/4 miles under tack as pre-breeze work for Wed.
Art:
8/18 and 8/19 after the 8/17 breeze work were off days except there was 10 min walk under tack on 8/19.
8/20/07 Monday morning, Day 3 Burch: 5 x 2f riderless breeze work with Acesmash at about 90% speed, though there were several 1f all out bursts as the two horses raced each other. Nice work and the horse came out of it well. We're starting to get into more serious stuff with Art.
Those who want to "know" what's going on on the race track instead of just guessing are completely aware of the deficiencies in equine exercise physiology in terms of available information. There have been some studies, but most of them, if you read them, are tremendously flawed usually because the persons conducting the research are other than racing people. As a side note I'll volunteer that the Maryland shin study and some of the associated work is very good and seems an exception to the general sloppy work you see with regard to horses even though I might have done without them killing their trainees to do autopsy's.
In abscence of scientific study for horses it's occurred to me over the years to turn to human studies coming out of the exercise physiology labs of the Universities. Tom Ivers obtained a lot of his information this way. Making sense of this information or just finding it however is difficult and if you read Ivers you'll note his struggle in information gathering and trying to make sense of what is out there. It's an ongoing process with a long way to go!
Given the lack of helpful equine studies, my own thoughts in uncovering whatever scientific information is available with regard to training horses has been to look at human track and field events that have similarity to our races. This primarily would be the 440 and 880 yard dashes and any in between as being closely equivalent in time to our 6f to 1 1/4 mile races.
Over the years I've searched for books on 440 and 880 training, found a few and read them, but I've yet to see a book on human track and field that is really helpful. Oddly the few books I've found and read on the shorter track events are so poorly written and thrown together as to be practically useless. In terms of warm up I've thought of attending a live track meet to watch what they do, or talking to a track athlete and getting some info that way, but that's for the future. Beyond talking about "stretching" I've yet to see a word written about warm up for for either human track events or horses.
So, we answer in the negative the question--is there any research on maximizing performance by appropriate warm up. In terms of really finding out what's what here the blog is left to speculation based on a lot of personal experience and reading. What I've learned in terms of warming up and performance I'll include on the next posts.
Training report:
It seems we're training both our horses and our overweight rider. I'm having trouble finding a sense of humor that the overweight rider Mr. Nob, instead of continuing his CRON (calorie restriction-optimum nutrition) diet and exercise after getting down to 158 lbs. Saturday instead seems to have lapsed the last two days back to skipping his running and overeating to the point he refuses to step on the scale. Luckily there's time before tomorrow night's breezes for some weight loss. I'd hate to do them at heavier than 158 lbs.
As to the horses, Monday morning Groovin' Wind, who performed 2 x 3f in :38 and :40 Saturday at Eureka, seems uncharacteristically tired. The horses are carbing up for tomorrow's works, and hopefully energy will return. Presumably the work Saturday got into the horse a little, which probably is good. There was some minor shin heat, expected given the transition to the hard track, which we're watching. Monday morning Wind galloped riderless for 2 miles slow after a warm up, and tonight he'll do a snappy 1 1/4 miles under tack as pre-breeze work for Wed.
Art:
8/18 and 8/19 after the 8/17 breeze work were off days except there was 10 min walk under tack on 8/19.
8/20/07 Monday morning, Day 3 Burch: 5 x 2f riderless breeze work with Acesmash at about 90% speed, though there were several 1f all out bursts as the two horses raced each other. Nice work and the horse came out of it well. We're starting to get into more serious stuff with Art.
posted by rather rapid at
11:26 AM
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