Metabolic responses of untrained individuals to warm-up

Seven untrained male subjects were studied for the effects of mild warm-up on oxygen uptake and lactic acid production. Each subject completed two standardized workloads on a bicycle ergometer requiring 75% of their physical work capacity. Protocols of the two tests consisted of either no warm-up or a 4-min warm-up preceding a 5-min exercise at approximately 80% of their maximal oxygen uptake. The contrasting protocols did not reveal any significant differences between heart rate, lactic acid, and oxygen uptake. The dominant influence on the metabolic processes was the absolute workload of the tasks and not the presence or absence of preliminary related activity. It was concluded that an untrained individual lacks the cardiovascular and cellular adaptations necessary to demonstrate metabolic benefits from warm-up.