WARMING UP IS IT WORTH IT?

Warm-up is one of those unquestioned things that virtually everyone does before training and competing. Think back to your earliest PE lesson at school. Chances are, you did some stretching, waved your arms and legs around and went for a short jog “to get your heart and muscles going”. That has translated into cycling all the way up to Grand Tours, with dedicated time and facilities for warming up. But does it work? And if so, how does it work, and how do we get maximum benefit from it?

Doing any kind of exercise will warm you up because the human body is not very efficient at harnessing the energy it releases from food. About 75 per cent of it is immediately lost as heat, warming up the tissues and blood nearby. The body tries to get rid of this heat by transferring it to the skin, and the entire body