Key result
Moderate-intensity warm-up increases running distance ~9% vs low-intensity in adolescents with middle-to-high baseline fitness.
Why the study?
Does a moderate-intensity warm-up improve running performance compared to a low-intensity warm-up in adolescents?
RCT (n=110)
Open-label
Counterbalanced sequence assignment by class
No
Does a moderate-intensity warm-up improve running performance compared to a low-intensity warm-up in adolescents?
Absolute Event Rate: 2.34% vs 2.15%
p-value: p=0.0091
Baseline fitness moderates the effect of warm-up intensity on running performance in adolescents, suggesting a need for individualized warm-up prescriptions.
Fitness may moderate warm-up effects on adolescent running performance; hypothesis-generating and requires randomized confirmation before practice change.
This study investigated the interactive effects of acute warm-up intensity and baseline physical fitness on cardiovascular responses and subsequent running performance in adolescents within a school-based physical education setting. In a counterbalanced, repeated-measures crossover design, 132 adolescents completed a low-intensity warm-up (self-paced walking) and a moderate-intensity warm-up (modified interval-based circuit, ~70% estimated HRmax) on separate occasions, each followed by a 20-minute self-paced running task. After quality control, valid running performance data were obtained from 110 participants, and heart rate data were analyzed in a stratified subsample of 100 participants. Baseline fitness was categorized into middle-to-high fitness (grades 1–3) and low fitness (grades 4–5) based on national normative data from the Physical Activity Promotion System. Cardiovascular response, assessed as mean heart rate during the warm-up, and running performance outcomes, including total distance and mean speed, were analyzed using a mixed-effects model. A significant interaction between warm-up intensity and baseline fitness was observed for both total running distance (p = 0.027) and mean running speed (p = 0.030). Following the moderate-intensity warm-up, the middle-to-high fitness group demonstrated greater running distance and speed compared with the low-intensity condition, whereas the same standardized moderate-intensity warm-up did not improve performance in the low-fitness group. The moderate-intensity warm-up elicited higher mean heart rate than the low-intensity warm-up across participants (p < 0.0001), with no significant interaction between warm-up intensity and fitness level. These findings suggest that baseline fitness may moderate the performance response to an acute warm-up in adolescents. Overall, a universal warm-up prescription may not be equally effective across students with varying fitness levels, and individualized, relative-intensity approaches warrant further investigation in school-based physical education settings.
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Kim et al. (2026) conducted an RCT in Healthy adolescents (n=110). Moderate-intensity warm-up vs. Low-intensity warm-up (10 minutes self-paced walking) was evaluated on Total running distance in middle-to-high fitness group (km) (p=0.0091). A moderate-intensity warm-up significantly increased total running distance compared to a low-intensity warm-up in adolescents with middle-to-high baseline fitness, but not in those with low fitness.
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