How long should a sprinter warm up for?

Depends more on the weather. I think that at least a mile would be good. more important is doing some strides slowly working up to near all out.

Do you have amnesia? You just started this topic.

Sprinters don't need to jog a warm-up at all if they don't want. Doing a bunch of progressive strides and other drills would be an appropriate warm-up.

Wrong place to ask for any real explosive / power questions. There's only about 2-3 people on here who are technical coaches. 99.9% of distance runners are know it alls but in reality could not coach anything outside of a 5k.

Sad really.

Anyways, 2 laps is fine. Many coaches often input progressions, strides or circuits. Dynamic drills, professions, hit drills. Should take about an hour before you are ready to do max work.

In general stretching is saved for after the workout.

Runningperson wrote:

So I am a sprinter that specializes in the 100m and 200m. Before I begin my workout, I would always do a 2 lap warm up at about 8 minute mile pace, do bounds and then stretch. What would be the ideal warm up distance for a 100m and 200m sprinter? Should I decrease, increase or keep my warm up distance? Does the warm up distance depend on which season it is? (off season or competition)

The term "Warm Up" shouldn't need explaining. You'd think the term would speak for itself. However, for some it hasn't been explained properly.

First, todays workout probably will be a bit different from tomorrows or yesterdays. So knowing before hand what you're doing today will determine how well warmed up you should be.

The main thing is to do enough e-z to moderate running to get your body warm, all of it. You should be sweating some, not profusely, but sweating. Now your body is warmed up.

Next you'll want to run some strides, 100/150m x 4/6 to get your legs ready for fast running.

If you like to do drills, or need to do drills because you're a little dinged up, then split your strides into two.

If you are a sprinter it is more/most important for you to be warmed up more so than the distance guys. So don't look at them and think that's probably good enough for me.

Sprinters need to err on the side of caution and do a little bit more than a little bit less. You guys are are training on the sharp edge of a knife daily as opposed to distance runners who are only on that edge weekly.

I have attended a couple of USA Olympic track trials. I have always enjoyed watching the sprinters warmup. They are warming up for over an hour. And regardless of the temperature many wear two pair of pants. They realize the importance of getting the muscles very warm.

Runningperson wrote:

So I am a sprinter that specializes in the 100m and 200m. Before I begin my workout, I would always do a 2 lap warm up at about 8 minute mile pace, do bounds and then stretch. What would be the ideal warm up distance for a 100m and 200m sprinter? Should I decrease, increase or keep my warm up distance? Does the warm up distance depend on which season it is? (off season or competition)

I'm one of those 2-3 technical coaches mentioned above and a sprinter (60/100) myself. I would start here with a video starring Asafa Powell when he was the WR holder. You will see that the warmup should last 20-25 minutes, NO jogging, no drills, no holding stretches:

My own version is:

3X 50-100m progressively faster stride-throughs, last one up to 90% speed

3 X 20-30" drop jumps off portable bleachers or stadium stairs

wait 15-20 minutes for potentiation (the whole warmup takes 30 minutes).

There are some caveats:

(1) If you are new to the sport (training age less than 3-4 years), you should be doing some of the standard sprint drills (A-B-C, etc.) until you have mastered the movements (and sometimes this doesn't happen until you get a professional coach because many don't know what they're doing).

(2) If you are competing at a high level, you may be stuck in a holding area for 30 minutes. In that case, you need a considerably longer warmup with more work so you can hold it long enough (beginners normally can't hold a warmup longer than 10 minutes so this doesn't apply). This is John Smith's warmup which emphasizes long holding periods:

(3) You need to optimize for YOU. Try different variations with an automatic timing system (Freelap, Brower, Lynx). What I do is not much different from what Asafa does, what Ato did, and what Clyde Hart does, but everybody's different, and every 0.01 counts. You want YOUR best warmup.

My warm ups included Range of Motion exercises, a continuous warm up component, and more specific drills and movement patterns. Some striders, build ups, and fast sprints also.

as Mentioned above very minimal jogging. 1 lap only then progressive sprints (40m) starting at 60% x 3 then a set of dynamic exercises then 70% x 3 then more dynamic exercises then 80-85%. My sprinters do this each day takes 20-25 minutes. Meets with more rest in between so maybe 30+ minutes (encouraging them to keep nerves calm)

I'm a sprint coach. Slow jogging and static stretching is the worst possible warmup for a sprinter.

Do some jumping, sprinting, accels, form drills, and dynamic stretching. It can take five minutes or 20 minutes. The purpose of a sprint warmup is to engage the nervous system.

Hurdler/high jumper/sprinter here:

There is no one correct distance or time for the warm-up, but the basics should be similar. In general, start off easy, get loosened up and get your blood flowing, and slowly increase the intensity of the drills you are doing until you are ready to make a 100% effort. I posted my hurdle warm-up on another thread, here it is:

"I run a different race than most of you but hopefully someone will appreciate this! For the 60 Hurdles or the 110s, I start about an hour and a half before the race:

-Walk around for a couple minutes

-Jog for 10 minutes picking it up towards the end

-10 minute dynamic warmup - series of skips, carioca, etc. with lots of dynamic stretching worked in

-Sprint drills (A skip, B skip, bounding, etc.)

-hurdle drills - a couple walkovers but not much, just to wake up some muscle memory

-put on spikes

-hurdle drills part 2 - running over shorter hurdles lead, trail, over the middle

-2-3x 30m-40m accelerations up to full speed

-a few block starts over the first 2 hurdles until the race, full recovery in between

-Race: make sure to get the first couple steps down very quickly so the excitement of the race doesn't cause you to be too close to the first hurdle"

For an open sprint like the 100 or 200, you don't need to start quite as long before the race since you don't need to do hurdle drills, but I would still start at least 30-45 minutes before the race. I would keep the same general structure:

- Easy jog

- Series of skips, carioca, etc.

- Dynamic stretching (don't go nuts, you're not trying to gain a ton of flexibility with this, just wake up the flexibility you have)

- Sprint drills

- A couple accelerations

It is very difficult to over-warm up for a 100 or 200. To be prepared to sprint, you should definitely be breathing hard and sweating during the warm up. I would definitely recommend doing a few short sprints of 20-30 meters at maximum effort before the race. Of course, you don't want to work to the point where you are getting lactic acid build up and muscle fatigue, but you also don't want your first 100% effort of the day to be when the gun goes off, so make sure you are giving yourself time to fully catch your breath in-between, and that your full speed sprints are short.

The last thing I'll mention is consistency. Just like distance running, you don't want to change things up too much on race day. My practice warm-up and race day warm up are very similar, with the main difference just being that on race day it is a little more important to focus on a little bit of real speed at the end, since in practice it's okay to not be 100% at your fastest at the beginning of the workout.

I hope this helps! I'd love to hear input from other sprinters/coaches. As I said, the specific drills are less important than the overall goals: slowly build intensity, make sure to work up a sweat and get loose, then do something snappy and get ready to go fast. Good luck with your racing and training!

Nothing more than a minimal warm up is necessary. Suggest 4 laps 100m walk/100m run gradually faster. No jogging, stretching, drills, or excessive starts.

No single right answer. Obviously a good warmup is essential but what is right is gonna vary based on the person. I have seen through some experiences some did better better with 10 min jog/run before dynamics and strides. Others I've seen prefer minimal running but almost entirely dynamics and skipping. Some prefer to jog a lap or two and then do all strides/starts to progressively get loose that way with repeated short fast bursts.

I was more of a mid D so I liked 10min jog, 4x50 stride, 2 min of skipping, then dynamics. Another stride or two then get started.

Obviously degree of workout matters too. Need to warmup much more for blast 150s then for 400s that with floating or jogging mixed in or slow 2 repeats.

Good day, here an amateur sprinter too and just had a question regarding pre race warm up. Had 100m race recently and I did not warm up at all before the race as i arrived just on time at the race location. As i result, i got timed at 12.3 seconds which is well below my expectation, during the practice i believed i could have ran much faster. Just wanna ask is it true that the absence of warm up before my race significantly decrease my performance? how much could i expect to run if i had warmed up properly before the race? Please advice on this . thank you

Each one of your warm up activities done at near max should not last more than 6 seconds with at least a 3 minute rest after you do them.

So a near max 100 - 150 meter is an extremely bad idea at any level!

If you are not allowing your Phospocreatine levels to rebound than you will be creating hydrogen ion waste products which will limit your race performances.

Consider this. The Pronghorn antelope of the Western U. S. is both a sprinter and a distance runner. It can run at 55 mph in short bursts or cover an entire 5k at 35 mph. I have yet to see one warm up before running. So why do humans think they need to warm up before running when no other animal does.

Billy the Vic wrote:

Consider this. The Pronghorn antelope of the Western U. S. is both a sprinter and a distance runner. It can run at 55 mph in short bursts or cover an entire 5k at 35 mph. I have yet to see one warm up before running. So why do humans think they need to warm up before running when no other animal does.

Are you saying we should consult a zoologist or a veterinarian?

Billy the Vic wrote:

Consider this. The Pronghorn antelope of the Western U. S. is both a sprinter and a distance runner. It can run at 55 mph in short bursts or cover an entire 5k at 35 mph. I have yet to see one warm up before running. So why do humans think they need to warm up before running when no other animal does.

Consider this. An E. coli cell has a mean speed of roughly 30 µm/s, meaning that it travels roughly 15 of its 2 µm body lengths every second. They don't feel the need to warm up.

Ever go to a HS track meet? It is real funny watching sprinters get off the bus then spend an hour + doing drill after drill - it almost seems like it is an event itself. Then they go and sit in the stands get cold then come out and "compete" and when they get blown away do the old grab the hamstring and limp away.

Consider this... Jermayne aint neva pulled no hamstring after jacking some hubcaps off yo mama's Benz