Race-Day Warm-Up Guide — What to Do, When, and Why

You've seen it happen: your athlete does a proper warm-up, then stands around for twenty minutes waiting for their race to be called. It's a fair question to ask — does the warm-up even help if they just sit and wait? The short answer is yes, it still helps, but how you manage that waiting period matters. This guide covers what a good warm-up includes, when to do it, what happens during the wait, and how you as a parent can support without adding pressure.

For the athlete

What a warm-up actually does

A warm-up prepares your body and mind to race. It raises muscle temperature, increases blood flow to working muscles, switches on the nervous system so movements feel sharper, and lets you rehearse the movements you're about to do at speed. It's also a chance to settle your head before the start. These are well-established principles of warming up (see [[Warm-Up Principles and Benefits]]). A warm-up won't guarantee a faster time — how much it helps varies from athlete to athlete and day to day — but going into a race cold tends to make those first efforts feel harder and riskier.

For young athletes in particular, the evidence points towards dynamic movement (leg swings, lunges, skips, strides) rather than long static holds before racing: dynamic warm-ups are generally associated with better readiness for sprinting and jumping, while prolonged static stretching just before an explosive effort can blunt it (Chaabene, Behm et al., Frontiers in Physiology, 2019; Bouguezzi et al., Youth, 2023). Save the longer static stretches for after the race.

What to include

A good race warm-up usually builds in stages:

• A light jog to raise body temperature and get blood flowing.
• Dynamic stretches — leg swings, lunges, skips — movement rather than holding still.
• Strides or short efforts building up towards race pace, so your body rehearses the speed it's about to produce.
• A little mental rehearsal — picturing your start, your race, settling your nerves.

The timeline — work backwards

The key idea is to work backwards from your race start time, not forwards from when you arrive. Decide when you want to be on your feet, sharp and ready, then plan the stages back from there. As a rough guide: light jog and dynamic stretches from around 45 minutes out, strides at around 20 minutes out, then stay warm and ready into the call-up. These timings are approximate — adjust them for your event, the weather, and how you feel on the day.

What happens during the wait

Here's the honest part: the effects of a warm-up don't last forever. Muscle temperature and readiness gradually fade once you stop moving, and how quickly that happens depends a lot on conditions — on a cold day they fade faster than on a warm one. Research on the rest periods within team sports gives a sense of scale: during a roughly 15-minute seated break, muscle temperature has been reported to drop by around 2°C, and roughly every 1°C drop is linked to a few percent less power output (Yanaoka et al., 2018; 2021). Those are findings from specific study conditions rather than a fixed rule for every athlete on every day, so treat them as a guide to the direction of the effect, not a guarantee.

The practical answer isn't to skip the warm-up — it's to keep topped up during the wait: keep moving gently, keep warm layers on, do a few strides if there's room, and stay engaged rather than sitting down and going cold. Even a short, easy burst of movement before the start can help offset the fade.

Close to the gun

In the last few minutes before call-up: do a final couple of strides or efforts, stay on your feet, keep your layers on until the last moment, and be ready when your race is called. The aim is to step to the line warm, loose, and switched on.

For the parent

Your job on race day is to make everything around the race calm and simple, so your athlete can focus on the race itself.

What helps

• Logistics — knowing the timetable, where to be and when, having kit and food ready.
• Reassurance — a calm, steady presence. Your athlete reads your mood.
• Timing help — a gentle reminder of how long until call-up so they can manage their own warm-up.
• Keeping warm layers handy for the wait between warm-up and race.

This support-not-steer approach reflects house guidance on parent boundaries (see [[The Parent Perspective|The Parent Perspective]]).

What doesn't help

• Last-minute coaching — the warm-up isn't the time for new technique points.
• Pressure dressed as encouragement — "just do your best" can land as pressure; let them set the tone.
• Comparing to other athletes warming up nearby.
• Visible anxiety — your nerves transfer easily.

The parent checklist

• Have kit and warm layers ready.
• Know the timetable and call-up time.
• Keep things calm and unhurried.
• Be the steady, reassuring presence — and let the warm-up be theirs.

Sources:

• [[Warm-Up Principles and Benefits]] — English Athletics warm-up principles: physiological effects (muscle temperature, blood flow, neural activation) and stage-based structure.
• [[The Parent Perspective|The Parent Perspective]] — house guidance on parent boundaries and race-day support framing.
• Chaabene H., Behm D.G., Negra Y., Granacher U. (2019). Acute effects of static stretching on muscle strength and power. Frontiers in Physiology, 10:1468 — dynamic vs. static work before explosive efforts.
• Bouguezzi R., Sammoud S., Markov A., Negra Y., Chaabene H. (2023). Flexibility as a component of physical fitness: a narrative review. Youth — youth stretching/warm-up context.
• Yanaoka T. et al. (2018). Very-short-duration, low-intensity half-time re-warm up increases subsequent intermittent sprint performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research — warm-up decay and re-warm-up during rest periods.
• Yanaoka T., Iwata R., Yoshimura A., Hirose N. (2021). A 1-minute re-warm up at high-intensity improves sprint performance during the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test. Frontiers in Physiology — condition-dependent decay; short re-warm-up offsets the fade.

Physiological and developmental claims are stated with evidence-aware language. Individual response varies, the stated timings are approximate and condition-dependent, and a warm-up is not a guaranteed performance improvement.