A Plyometric Warm-Up Protocol Improves Running Economy in Recreational Endurance Athletes
Participants
n=12 healthy college students (3 men, 9 women; 20±2 yr; VO2max 38.4±6.4 mL/kg/min) with no regular, systematic endurance training (<5 h/week). Despite the paper's title, these are not trained endurance athletes.
Protocol
Three warm-ups in counterbalanced order, 48 h apart: control, plyometric, resistance.
Measured running economy (RE) at 7, 8, 9 and 10 km/h, VO2max, heart rate, RER, ventilation, perceived race readiness, RPE, time to exhaustion and leg stiffness.
Key Results
Plyometric warm-up improved RE: 6.2% at 7 km/h (ES 0.66), 9.1% at 8 km/h (ES 0.71), 4.5% at 9 km/h (ES 0.48), 4.4% at 10 km/h (ES 0.44).
Leg stiffness +20% after the plyometric warm-up (p=0.039, ES 0.90), correlated with the RE gain at 8 km/h (r=0.475).
No significant change in other metabolic/gas-exchange variables, time to exhaustion, perceived readiness or VO2max.
Resistance warm-up: no RE difference from control (only 2 participants improved; the authors suspect the intensity was unsuitable).
Mechanism
Suggested by the data, not proven: higher leg stiffness after plyometrics may improve elastic energy return, lowering the metabolic cost per stride (stiffness correlated with the RE gain at one speed).
Practical Application
In 12 untrained students (mostly women, VO2max ~38), a plyometric warm-up improved running economy by 4.4–9.1% across 7–10 km/h and raised leg stiffness by 20%, with no change in time to exhaustion, while a resistance warm-up did nothing — a few jumps before a run may make easy-to-moderate running cheaper for novices; whether it helps trained runners is untested here.
Add a short set of hops/jumps after a general warm-up and before the run. The abstract does not give the exact plyometric protocol (full text).
No performance gain was shown: time to exhaustion did not change.
Limitations
Small, untrained, mostly female sample — transfer to trained runners is unknown.
Slow speeds only (7–10 km/h); acute effect only.
No performance benefit (time to exhaustion unchanged).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from B+: crossover, n=12
Content correction 2026-09-27
"n=15 recreational endurance runners", two conditions, "3.2% improvement" -> n=12 untrained students (3M/9F, VO2max 38.4), three conditions (control, plyometric, resistance), RE +4.4–9.1% by speed, leg stiffness +20%.
EMG pre-activation and "no change in RPE" claims removed -> not in the abstract; the resistance warm-up's null result added.
Tier 2-3 -> 0-1; Sport "cycling, running" -> running; Level B+ -> B (crossover n=12); journal article number 158 -> 197 (matches the DOI).