TY - JOUR
T1 - Is it possible to create a thermal model of warm-up? Monitoring of the training process in athletic decathlon
AU - Adamczyk, Jakub Grzegorz
AU - Olszewska, Magdalena
AU - Boguszewski, Dariusz
AU - Białoszewski, Dariusz
AU - Reaburn, Peter
PY - 2016/5/1
Y1 - 2016/5/1
N2 - The aim of the present study was to define if the athletes may vary their warm-up according to the specific demands of event they are preparing for and that higher-level athletes may differ in their thermal responses than lower-level athletes. Ten top level Polish male decathletes (19.9 ± 3.0 yr, 187.9 ± 4.7 cm, 82.7 ± 6.7 kg) who participated in the study were examined with a thermographic camera. Thermal imaging of each athlete was undertaken three times: at rest before the warm-up began, immediately after the general warm-up, and immediately after the specific warm-up. As significant changes in skin surface temperatures were observed between rest and both general and specific warm-ups (p < 0.001) it seems that athletes are able to vary their warm-up according to the decathlon event. Moving from rest to the general warm-up was characterized by decrease of the body surface temperature within the decathletes as a cohort. Interestingly, correlation was found between decathlon result measured by points and decrease of temperatures after commencing the general or specific warm-up exercises (r = 0.62; p < 0.05). However, the higher-performing competitors were characterized by a higher variability of skin temperatures depending on the event being prepared for. The present findings suggest that in sporting competitions characterized by the need for specificity of warm-up of different muscular segments, thermal imaging can be useful observe thermoregulatory responses. Due to these observed individual thermal reactions to the physical effort of warm-up, the present findings suggest it is possible to individually adapt the warm-up to the needs of both the event being prepared for and the level of athlete.
AB - The aim of the present study was to define if the athletes may vary their warm-up according to the specific demands of event they are preparing for and that higher-level athletes may differ in their thermal responses than lower-level athletes. Ten top level Polish male decathletes (19.9 ± 3.0 yr, 187.9 ± 4.7 cm, 82.7 ± 6.7 kg) who participated in the study were examined with a thermographic camera. Thermal imaging of each athlete was undertaken three times: at rest before the warm-up began, immediately after the general warm-up, and immediately after the specific warm-up. As significant changes in skin surface temperatures were observed between rest and both general and specific warm-ups (p < 0.001) it seems that athletes are able to vary their warm-up according to the decathlon event. Moving from rest to the general warm-up was characterized by decrease of the body surface temperature within the decathletes as a cohort. Interestingly, correlation was found between decathlon result measured by points and decrease of temperatures after commencing the general or specific warm-up exercises (r = 0.62; p < 0.05). However, the higher-performing competitors were characterized by a higher variability of skin temperatures depending on the event being prepared for. The present findings suggest that in sporting competitions characterized by the need for specificity of warm-up of different muscular segments, thermal imaging can be useful observe thermoregulatory responses. Due to these observed individual thermal reactions to the physical effort of warm-up, the present findings suggest it is possible to individually adapt the warm-up to the needs of both the event being prepared for and the level of athlete.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84964322452&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.infrared.2016.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.infrared.2016.04.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84964322452
SN - 1350-4495
VL - 76
SP - 555
EP - 559
JO - Infrared Physics and Technology
JF - Infrared Physics and Technology
ER -