Characteristics of warm up and warm down procedures used by the professional football clubs
| Characteristic | Premiership (N = 8) | Division 1 (N = 10) | Division 2 (N = 6) | Division 3 (N = 6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where applicable, values are mean (SD). | ||||
| *Active warm up involves gaining body temperature through one’s own physical activity. †Passive warm up involves gaining body temperature through the use of an external heat source (application of hot material or use of additional clothing to retain heat). | ||||
| Active* | 5 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Passive† | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Active and passive | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Stretching before warm up | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Stretching during/after warm up | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| Duration of warm up (minutes) | 23.1 (4.4) | 24.9 (8.3) | 22.5 (4.2) | 25.8 (4.1) |
| Duration of warm down (minutes) | 17.2 (11.5) | 14.4 (12.7) | 10.1 (3.6) | 14.6 (3.7) |
| Regular use of warm down protocol (after training) | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| Regular use of warm down protocol (after match) | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 |