INSULATED MUSCLES, ACCELERATED GAINS

Written by James Witts

The lengths Tadej Pogačar and his team go to in search of peak performance revealed itself prior to stage 13 of the 2025 Tour de France, a 10.9km mountain time trial from Loudenvielle to Peyragudes.

Via covert smartphone work from Thomson Bike Tours, we caught a glimpse of the Slovenian belting out a ridiculous cadence as he warmed up against the backdrop of two fans with cotton wool shoved up each nostril, presumably perfumed with an ointment like menthol to deliver an “open‑airway” sensation.

It did the job. The Slovenian stormed to stage victory and ultimately his fourth maillot jaune, and in the process highlighted the importance of the oft‑neglected warm‑up. But not neglected at Nopinz, where Warm‑up Leggings are an integral part of our apparel line‑up. And, as Pogačar understood and you’ll discover, they’re not just for winter riding…

Boost power and reduce injury

Why do you actually need a warm‑up?

“Regardless of the discipline, a warm‑up is essential in preparing the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and muscles, for training and competition,” says David James, emeritus professor of exercise science at the University of Gloucestershire. “The discipline influences which muscles to prepare, but cardio requirements are the same whether it’s cycling, triathlon or running.”

This preparation takes many forms, one of the most cited being to literally warm up your muscles. A study back in 1987 revealed that a group of cyclists’ power output and peak force rose by a sizeable 11% after the warm‑up had elevated muscle temperature from 36.6°C to 39.3°C. Beyond that figure, fatigue impacted output.

Warming the muscles is also believed to reduce your chances of injury. And there’s a metabolic element to proceedings, too.

“The cardiovascular and respiratory systems both require warming up to ensure matching of blood supply (perfusion) and fresh air supply (ventilation) in the lungs,” adds James. “The heart needs to warm up to deliver the required cardiac output and needs a good supply of freshly oxygenated blood to sustain the cardiac work rate.”

A proficient warm‑up isn’t solely about the body – it engages your mind, too, improving motor control, which is particularly important in technique‑heavy disciplines like swimming. Practising your swim stroke on dry land, for instance, allows your mind and neurological system to remind itself of correct technique before diving into the pressure‑cooker situation of the race swim.

Taken one step further, recent research out of the University of Birmingham revealed that integrating cognitive tasks into your physical warm‑up can further enhance your subsequent exercise performance if it contains a significant cognitive element, in this case the increasingly popular sport of padel.

The researchers discovered that tagging on a Stroop Test at the tail‑end of a warm‑up resulted in stronger performance compared to the physical warm‑up or no warm‑up. (The Stroop Test is a common psychological test used to measure cognitive flexibility and processing speed. Subjects are shown the names of colours but the ink colour may differ from the word. The task is to say the colour, not the word.)

This isn’t really relevant to cycling and is arguably impractical for most, though is something that’s commonly seen in Formula One where reaction speed and alertness can be the difference between victory and defeat, safety and an incident.

What’s in a good warm‑up?

So, the evidence is persuasive that a proficient warm‑up cranks up performance. But what format should your warm‑up take?

Broadly, there are two types:

1. Active warm‑up – task‑ or movement‑specific. In cycling, that’s often achieved on a turbo trainer or set of rollers.

2. Passive warm‑up – where you use external means to heat up your muscles and body temperature.

An active warm‑up typically takes around 10 to 20 minutes. You start easy (zone one) before ramping through zones two and three. Often, it’ll feature PAP efforts (Post‑Activation Potentiation) – short, explosive bursts to fire up the muscular and neural systems. This is particularly important for track cyclists, who are after maximum wattage from the get‑go.

Many espouse the benefits of dynamic stretching, often performed via resistance bands. They’re in Pogačar’s toolkit, and he regularly uses them to engage glutes, quads, core and upper body – all crucial for stabilising the hips and generating pedal power.

A passive warm‑up can take many forms, including hot‑water immersion, heated blankets and infra‑red heat lamps. Or, more practically, a pair of warm‑up leggings like those from Nopinz.

Passive warm‑up has been around for a good while but was arguably made famous by the British track team at the London 2012 Olympics. The battery‑powered “hot pants” used by riders like Victoria Pendleton to raise leg temperature to around 38°C – similar to tyre warmers in Formula One – took four years to create and were a collaboration between British Cycling, Loughborough University and Adidas. They worked, with Team GB winning six golds in the Lee Valley Velodrome.

These ‘hot pants’ bridged the gap between an active warm‑up and racing, which is of particular significance in track and BMX cycling, albeit applicable to all cycling disciplines, especially if it’s hard from the off, like when the road immediately tips upwards.

For recreational athletes, that gap could be the race briefing after you’ve already warmed up. By adding a passive element to your active foundations, you maintain a higher muscle temperature for (hopefully) a stronger outcome.

That was certainly the case with a 2013 study, which showed that heated trousers improved peak and relative sprint power by 9–10%, increased blood lactate (which is a good thing in the context of a sprint) and kept muscle temperature higher after an active warm‑up. Research that same year from Northumberland University showed that 200m freestyle performance was 1.5% faster 20 minutes post‑warm‑up compared to 45 minutes post‑warm‑up.

You don’t need expensive heated trousers to extend your active benefits – warm‑up leggings will do the job. But it does raise a question: do we really need an active warm‑up or will a passive warm‑up suffice?

Active vs passive warm‑up

A detailed meta‑analysis, published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science at the end of 2025, potentially has the answer. The team, led by Dr Cody Wilson of Edith Cowan University, Australia, dug deep into 33 studies that involved 929 subjects, focusing on how increases in muscle temperature impacted muscular performance. This warming derived from either active or passive means.

Based on their analysis, they concluded that:

• Increasing muscle temperature, via active or passive means, improves dynamic, fast‑velocity force production and rate of force development but not maximal force capacity. In other words, you might not grow stronger from a warm‑up but you will likely get faster and more explosive – both desirable athletic traits, even in endurance sport, for those moments where you require maximum power, like accelerating from a corner or dropping a rival on a pitchy hill.

• Active warm‑up doesn’t necessarily lead to significantly better performance over passive heating strategies.

• Factors such as warm‑up specificity, gender and training status don’t appear to impact the temperature‑related performance enhancement, although the researchers do stress that current data is limited.

So, the evidence is compelling that passive warming delivers similar benefits to an active warm‑up. That’s not a green light to dispense with your active warm‑up just yet, though. Not only is further research needed for firmer conclusions, but we shouldn’t forget the mental benefits of an active warm‑up.

Numerous studies have revealed that active warm‑ups raise physiological arousal levels, ensuring athletes are focused and ready to perform. This priming effect improves reaction time and coordination, which can prove invaluable on an early, technical descent.

Focus for the task at hand cranks up during an active warm‑up – you start to enter “the zone” – and it also disperses pre‑race anxiety, so you can direct your energies on the task at hand, namely delivering a new PB.

Where does that leave us?

Raising your muscular temperature without causing undue fatigue for the main effort is key to the perfect warm‑up. As we’ve seen, there are clear benefits to both passive and active warm‑ups, and arguably the ‘perfect’ preparation for peak performance involves a combination of the two.

Ultimately, with a set of Nopinz warm‑up trousers, you can slip them over your race suit to maintain muscular warmth from your active warm‑up or even wear them during your active warm‑up. Just ensure you don’t overheat and fatigue.

They’re clearly useful for winter racing, like cyclocross or late‑ and early‑season sportives, which highlights their benefits for winter run races, too. They’re also easily removed via a full‑length zipper.

All in all, the evidence is compelling that a set of warm‑up trousers results in better performance, whatever your sport of choice.

Author: James Witts
James Witts is a writer who specialises in endurance sport and sports science. He has three books on his palmarès including The Science of the Tour de France and Riding with the Rocketmen. He also writes for a broad range of consumer publications including Rouleur, Cyclist, The Observer and 220 Triathlon.