Could ‘cognitive drills’ when warming up give athletes a head-start?

Integrating cognitive tasks into physical warmups can significantly enhance sport, exercise, and cognitive performance, even under conditions of sleep deprivation, a new study has revealed.

The paper "Cognitive Priming During Warmup Enhances Sport and Exercise Performance: A Goldilocks Effect," published today in the journal Brain Sciences investigated the effects of combined physical and cognitive warmups on athletes and older adults when well-rested and fatigued due to sleep restriction.

The findings from researchers at the University of Extremadura, Spain, Gabriele d'Annunzio University, Italy and University of Birmingham, UK suggest that infusing a warmup routine with short-to-medium bursts of cognitive priming - such as classic reaction-based executive function tasks - can optimise performance, creating a "Goldilocks effect" where the right balance is key. 

Corresponding author Professor Christopher Ring, Professor in Psychology from the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham said:

“There is anecdotal evidence that some athletes use a combination of cognitive and physical activities before they compete in their sport. For instance, racing drivers may warmup for 15-min before the start of a race with a mixture of cognitive activities such as decision-making and reaction time drills along with muscular and cardiovascular drills.

"Researchers have argued that lightboard drills, that typically impose relatively low cognitive demands, can be used by athletes as part of a neuromuscular warmup protocol to activate the central nervous system and thereby prepare athletes for upcoming sport-related stimulus and response information processing demands.

“However, to date there is a lack of empirical studies to provide the evidence base to design effective warmup protocols. Our two study research project sought to address this gap in our understanding of ways to counteract the detrimental effects of mental fatigue, induced by sleep deprivation, on performance.”

Conducted in two parts, the research examined 31 padel players (Study 1) and 32 older adults (Study 2), analysing their performance in sports and cognitive tasks after engaging in physical and cognitive warmup routines. Participants who performed cognitive tasks intermixed with physical warmups showed significantly improved performance compared to those who engaged in physical warmups alone or no warmup at all.

Professor Ring continued:

“Our research provides compelling evidence that just the right mix of cognitive and physical warmup activities can improve subsequent human performance across a broad range of ages (young to older adults), experiences (fit athletes to sedentary non-athletes), and domains (sport, exercise, cognition).

"These exciting findings provide the preliminary empirical evidence to encourage individuals and trainers to adapt their warmup protocols to better prepare players for competition and seniors for workouts.”