University of Birmingham-led research saw 3% reduction in one-mile time trials after adding brief cognitive tasks to regular warmup
Runners adding a brain priming exercise to a warmup could hit a new personal best, after University of Birmingham academics showed a 3% improvement in test conditions.
In a paper published in the European Journal of Sport Science, a team from the University of Birmingham in UK and Extremadura University in Spain worked with runners who took part in a series of one-mile time trials. The team found that runners completed the course between 2-3% quicker by completing a series of brief cognitive tasks alongside a physical warmup compared to only doing a traditional warmup alone.
The research team worked with 25 recreational runners, who had an average one-mile time trial personal best of around 6 ½ minutes. Each athlete was tested on three track sessions over a period of two weeks.
In each session, they were instructed to run ‘on feel’ rather than having a watch or device to pace their effort. The sessions were conducted after one of three warmups and the runners aimed to set a best time over four laps of a 400m track. The warmups consisted of either physical only activities (a combination or steady state jogging, sprints and stretching); or a combination of low-cognitive load and a physical warmup, or high-cognitive load and physical warmup.
Professor Christopher Ring from the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham and senior author of the study said: “It might sound incredible, but our study shows that adding brief demanding cognitive processing operations to a standard warmup could shave a meaningful amount of time off an endurance effort such as a one-mile time trial for runners.
“We know that cognitive warmups have a host of benefits including helping to create a ‘flow’ state where athletes find they can push a pace or power more easily than usual, as well as be more attuned to their surroundings. Our latest study shows that doing some form of brain priming drill alongside sprints and stretching can help push your mind to tolerate the pain and effort of going all out in a time trial effort.
“Take for example Roger Bannister, who famously broke the four-minute mile barrier by a matter of a few tenths of a second in 1954. While we don’t have detailed records of the warmup that Bannister might have done, it’s possible that had Bannister added some kind of puzzle or test to some stretches and sprints, he could have broken the fabled barrier by more seconds.”
Athletes considering what type of brain priming to add to their warmup routine might consider adding a simple task, such as pressing buttons and catching balls, however, at the moment the research only supports use of more demanding cognitive tasks that require athletes to complete executive function cognitive operations.
In the study, both cognitive warmup routines consisted of four, three-minute tasks interspersed with an easy jog, two laps of alternating strides and easy jogging, and a series of dynamic stretching and plyometric, or explosive drills. The tasks included:
In the low- and high-demand cognitive sessions, the difficulty of the tasks were set at 20% and 70% respectively.
The research team did not record any clear advantage in times between higher and lower intensity cognitive warmups compared to a physical-only routine. Participants who took part reported that the higher-intensity cognitive warmup had no advantage over lower-intensity cognitive exercises for helping them to feel better prepared and run faster times.
The results demonstrate just how important the cognitive aspect of physical performance is, and how warming up your brain is just as important as your legs in a competitive running situation
Dr Hannah Mortimer, who completed the research at the University of Birmingham and is first author of the study, said: “The results demonstrate just how important the cognitive aspect of physical performance is, and how warming up your brain is just as important as your legs in a competitive running situation. We can’t yet say what the ideal series of preparatory cognitive activities are, but the negligible difference between the high and low-cognitive group suggests that doing any form of demanding cognitive warm-up can be helpful in priming your brain to compete.”
“This effect was seen in recreational runners, so it’s possible that the additional demands of a higher paced effort and the extra psychological preparations that elite runners and other endurance athletes go through might see diminishing returns. However, in sports where marginal gains and fractions of a second can be the winning difference it’s possible that brain training can give a competitive advantage.”
The study is the latest evidence about the benefits of cognitive priming for exercise performance. Previous studies by Professor Ring and colleagues have found that brain training exercises can increase technical skills in football, power in racquet sports like padel, and endurance and cognitive skills for road cyclists. Studies also show that combined cognitive and exercise training is also associated with healthy ageing.
Professor in Psychology
Staff profile for Professor Christopher Ring
