Aims and Objectives of the Study

In the field of sports and exercise, warming up before matches is considered crucial for attaining the optimum performance. It essentially leads to achievement of athletic performance by means of accentuating the anaerobic metabolism, elevating the oxygen uptake kinetics and carrying out post activation potentiation. Contrary to the rigorous physical activities, warm up exercises are capable of elevating the body temperature without depleting the energy substrate stores of the body (McGowan et al. 2015). Effects with respect to high intensity warm ups for subsequent intermittent exercise revealed that little improvement may be noted in terms of better countermovement jump scores, reactive agility score, 20 m sprint ties and small increase in blood lactate concentration. The increased level of elasticity and mobility of the muscles due to warm up has been attributed to the positive development. Lowered risks of muscle strain because of loosening of the muscles and connective tissue joints further account for increase in the range of motion under the influence of warm up exercises (Zois, Bishop and Aughey 2015). Athletic performance that requires high power output together with generation of high speed relies on the warm up exercises that will increase the preparedness of the muscles for stretching. The sudden increase in heart rate and blood pressure through gradual adaptations to the exercise intensity is offered by means of warm up exercises. Muscle adaptations following intermittent and continuous high intensity exercise trainings follow similar mechanisms for acute conditions and  different for chronic conditions (Cochran et al. 2014) .  The body gradually gets acclimatized to the increase in the duration and volume of load applied for taking part in the physical activities by virtue of increasing the movement of blood through the tissues thereby making the muscles more pliable apart from increasing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. High intensity warm ups are capable of improving factors pertaining to elevated aerobic performance and are less likely to be influenced by factors that might decline performance (Wilburn, McLean and Smith 2016).

The aims and objectives of the projected study are the following:

• To investigate the impacts of warm up exercise duration and intensity on the event concerning 1km free rate ergometer performance.
• To explore the effects that might influence the 1Km rowing performance in case of increased intensity of warm up exercises.

The increase in the warm up exercise intensity will lead to improvement in the 1km rowing exercise performance.

A study conducted on the trained cyclists aimed to assess the impact of warm up exercise intensity and consecutive recovery on matters related to intense endurance performance, selected blood variables and the oxygen uptake response expressed in terms of VO₂. The findings of the study revealed that subsequent performance relevant to the 4 min maximal test in highly trained cyclists might be diminished following warm up exercises that comprise of race pace and sprint intervals in conjunction with short duration of recovery. Therefore, it has been suggested that a decreased time investment at high exercise intensity together with a reduced intensity during warm up along with the extension of the recovery period during post warm up exercise is suggested (Christensen and Bangsbo 2015 ). A recent study suggested that warm up exercise that precedes the high intensity interval cycling before engaging in resistance exercise act as potent stimulant of autophagy signaling. Autophagy is considered as a normal physiological process that carries out intracellular degradation of the cellular bodies thereby helps in maintaining the body homeostasis through protein degradation and turnover of the newly formed cells or destroyed cell organelles. Thus, the warm up exercise is found to indirectly affect the normal functioning of the body cells through promotion of autophagy (Apro et al. 2016).

Thesis Statement

Another study highlighted the effects of high intensity exercise warm up that has the ability to improve subsequent workouts.  Lower intensity and shorter duration type of warm up exercises has the potential to increase the power production and elicit less generation of physiological strain thereby advocating the utilization of low intensity warm up regimen. Moreover no effects were observed in case of the lactate production following the low intensity warm up n course of the all-out exercise  in post warm up for either situations. Further studies showed that high intensity intermittent warm up was more effective compared to the continuous warm up in case of supramaximal kayak ergometer performance (Müller et al. 2014). Another study compared the effects following long (general and specific) warm ups and the short (specific) warm ups with regards to the intermediate running performance. Results of the study brought to the forefront that for instances associated with intermediate running performance, short warm up exercise yielded similar effects as long warm ups. Thus the choice rests with the athletes for selecting the suitable warm ups to improve their performance. However, preference should be given to short specific warm ups rather than the long warm ups for deriving the benefits for the sake of improving the efficiency of time in relation to training or competition (van den Tillaar, Vatten and von Heimburg 2017).

A relevant study was done for the purpose of comparing a cycling warm including a high intensity heavy resistance conditioning contractions with a moderate intensity warm up on performance related and physiological outcomes of 4Km time trial. Findings suggested that post-activation-potentiation (PAP)-inducing warm up changes the VO₂ kinetics and may further lead to improvement of performance in short endurance cycling. The positive outcomes out of participation in such warm ups are found to generate greater benefits compared to the moderate intensity warm ups. Furthermore, suggestions have been made in relation to need for optimization of work and recovery durations for each athlete (Chorley and Lamb 2017). The purpose of another study focused on the impact of the inspiratory muscle warm up on performance alongside locomotor muscle oxygenation in  course of high intensity intermittent sprint cycling form of exercise. The inspiratory muscle warm up comprised of 30 inspiratory efforts against a pressure threshold load equivalent to 15% or 40% of maximal inspiratory pressure. However, the outcomes of the study suggested no effective enhancement of performance or oxygenation of the locomotor muscles during high intensity intermittent sprint cycling exercise relevant to untrained healthy adult men (Ohya, Hagiwara and Suzuki 2015).

Literature Review

Studies have been conducted to provide the effectiveness of the tests and protocols that are frequently used in course of assessment of athletic performance. One such test tested the reliability of the cycle ergometer peak power test pertinent to the running based team sports athletes. Monitoring of the state of fatigue in the athletes is considered vital to the performance and execution of the athletic ability during sports event. The protocol of this test essentially consisted of a standardized warm up, definite number of maximal sprint cycle efforts and active recovery. The study outcomes verified the reliability of the test for measuring the fatigue in the athletes and further track down meaningful changes with respect to performance over time (Wehbe et al. 2015). The effects as observed in a high inertia ergometer warm up was examined n a study comparable to PAP conditioning activity related to biomechanics on various aspects of standing start sprint cycling performance. Results pertinent to the conducted study provided insights and offered hope in relation to the acceptance of a high inertial component in case of the sprint warm up. Enhanced starting acceleration in addition to finishing speed might act as facilitators to performance improvement while compromise made to the pedal and gear length selection strategies would pose barrier to performance (Munro et al. 2016).

The experimental research design will be followed in curse of the study to assess the impacts of warm up intensity exercises on the 1 Km free rate ergometer performance. A definite modality of treatment in alignment with specific procedure will be followed with the intention of successfully carry out the study. Four key components that will define the experiment will comprise of control, manipulation, random assignment and random selection.

Particpants for the proposed study will be recruited from various clubs and rowing organizations spread across the London city in United Kingdom. The experimental group will consist of the rower athletes who will be subjected to warm up exercises at various intensities. On the contrary, the control group will comprise of participants belonging to the rower group of athletes who will not be undergoing any sort of warm up exercise regime.  Both the experimental group as well as the control group participants will include 40 subjects for each group. Thus, a total number of 80 subjects will be recruited in the study for gaining statistical advantage due to fairly large sample size.

Outline of the Study

The independent variable for the study will be set at 50%, 60% and 70% of the heart rate reserve (HRR) for 15 min. However, the performance related to the free rate rowing ergometer time will be set as the dependent variable for the study.

The inclusion criteria for the participants of the study will adhere to maintaining the age range between 20-30 years, belonging to male population and experienced to the rowing event for at least 2 years.  Survey of health related questionnaire and informed consent will be circulated at the tentative venues in the rowing clubs to procure the formal approval and permission in association to willingness to participate in the study. From the very beginning it will be clarified to the participants that the study will be conducted for academic purpose solely without any other commercial interests. No incentives for participating in the study will be provided and the objectives will be explained to the concerned participants. Participants who will be found not to match the inclusion criteria or if found to suffer from some chronic ailments, will be exempted from the study. Furthermore, injured athletes will be excluded from the study.

For the sake of ease in determining the warm up exercise intensity, the percentage heart rate reserve parameter will be employed instead of the usual VO_2max. The target heart rate for a desired intensity of exercise will be calculated by virtue of the Karvonen’s method (Ignaszewski et al. 2017). Other standard formulae will be utilized for carrying out additional calculations and assessments.

HR_max=  220-Age

HR_target        = HR_rest+[%intensity *(HR_max -HR_rest)]

The percentage heart rate reserve will be used in equivalence to the percentage of the intensity in accordance with the Karvonen’s method since percentage maximal heart rate may not depict accurate picture pertaining to the exercise intensity. 15 min of the warn duration will be set by the investigator. Recording of the resting heart rate will be done by the participants, three days before the actual trial session while recording will be done by means of a heart rate monitor.   The recording on the heart rate monitor will ensure that the desired exercise intensity levels are maintained (Argha, Su and Celler 2016). A 5 min rest recovery will be encouraged in between the warm up and 1Km rowing ergometer session. The ergometer test time will also be recorded on completion of the test. Four consecutive training sessions comprising of ergometer trial will be conducted on every week and the recordings will take place preferably at same time of the day.

One way repeated measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) will  be employed to assess the significance of difference between the means at four different levels. Unpaired t-test will be adopted  for detecting the significant difference between the two groups of study participants. The level of significance for the statistical analysis will be set at p<0.05.

The study will conform to all the legal and ethical guidelines that are in practice in research. Efforts will be taken to ensure that the respect for autonomy and welfare of the participants are maintained and will take precedence over all other interests. Emphasis will be given so that the confidentiality of the data procured from the participants is safeguarded. Prior to participation a familiarization trial will be conducted to make the participants aware of the study protocol and design in addition to allaying the apprehensions and doubts if any from their minds.  A proper informed consent will be sought from the participants to derive vital information and permission for participation in the study (Greenfield 2016).  The research will be undertaken under proper guidance and supervision of skilled professionals in an appropriate setting subjected to ethical review and approval from the Ethical Committee after formal reporting to the concerned authority. Alongside the informed consent, a health related questionnaire will be filled up by the participants to retrieve information regarding the suitability and fitness of the participants to take part in the study. Personal information of the participants will be kept under the safe custody of the principal investigator and will be stored in the laptop with secured password and precautions will be taken so that leakage of data do not occur under any circumstances (Harriss and Atkinson 2015).

References:

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Argha, A., Su, S.W. and Celler, B.G., 2016. Heart rate regulation during cycle-ergometer exercise via event-driven biofeedback. Medical & biological engineering & computing, pp.1-10.

Chorley, A. and Lamb, K.L., 2017. The effects of a cycling warm-up including high-intensity heavy-resistance conditioning contractions on subsequent 4 km time trial performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

Christensen, P.M. and Bangsbo, J., 2015. Warm-up strategy and high-intensity endurance performance in trained cyclists. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 10(3), pp.353-360.

Cochran, A.J., Percival, M.E., Tricarico, S., Little, J.P., Cermak, N., Gillen, J.B., Tarnopolsky, M.A. and Gibala, M.J., 2014. Intermittent and continuous high?intensity exercise training induce similar acute but different chronic muscle adaptations. Experimental physiology, 99(5), pp.782-791.

Greenfield, T., 2016. Ethics of research. Research Methods for Postgraduates, p.46.

Harriss, D.J. and Atkinson, G., 2015. Ethical standards in sport and exercise science research: 2016 update. International journal of sports medicine, 36(14), pp.1121-1124.

Ignaszewski, M., Lau, B., Wong, S. and Isserow, S., 2017. The science of exercise prescription: Martti Karvonen and his contributions. Mindfulness-based therapy in the perinatal period, p.38.

McGowan, C.J., Pyne, D.B., Thompson, K.G. and Rattray, B., 2015. Warm-up strategies for sport and exercise: mechanisms and applications. Sports Medicine, 45(11), pp.1523-1546.

Müller, A., Tschakert, G., Moser, O., Gröschl, W. and Hofmann, P., 2014. High-intensity exercise warm-up, inhibition of glycolysis, and its practical consequences. Science and Skiing VI.

Munro, L.A., Stannard, S.R., Fink, P.W. and Foskett, A., 2016. Potentiation of sprint cycling performance: the effects of a high-inertia ergometer warm-up. Journal of Sports Sciences, pp.1-9.

Ohya, T., Hagiwara, M. and Suzuki, Y., 2015. Inspiratory muscle warm-up has no impact on performance or locomotor muscle oxygenation during high-intensity intermittent sprint cycling exercise. SpringerPlus, 4(1), p.556.

van den Tillaar, R., Vatten, T. and von Heimburg, E., 2017. Effects of Short or Long Warm-up on Intermediate Running Performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(1), pp.37-44.

Wehbe, G.M., Gabbett, T.J., Hartwig, T.B. and Mclellan, C.P., 2015. Reliability of a cycle ergometer peak power test in running-based team sport athletes: a technical report. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(7), pp.2050-2055.

Wilburn, D.T., McLean, S.P. and Smith, J.C., 2016. Effects of Warm Up Intensity on Factors Related to Subsequent Performance of Submaximal Exercise. In International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2, No. 8, p. 95).

Zois, J., Bishop, D. and Aughey, R., 2015. High-intensity warm-ups: Effects during subsequent intermittent exercise. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 10(4), pp.498-503.