No / The effects of exercise and warm-up were investigated in patients with claudication. This case-control crossover study involved two treadmill exercise tests, one preceded by a warm-up. Exercise continued until maximal leg pain (patients with claudication) or exhaustion (controls). Blood was taken before, and 5 and 60 min after exercise for flow cytometric analysis of platelet activation and platelet-leucocyte aggregation. Both cohorts (eight patients with claudication of median age 63 years and eight healthy controls of median age 63·5 years) demonstrated improvement in exercise capacity after warm-up (13·1 per cent, P = 0·012 and 15·6 per cent, P = 0·008 respectively). Platelet activation increased after exercise in patients with claudication (fibrinogen binding: 1·11 per cent before exercise versus 2·63 per cent after exercise, P = 0·008; P-selectin: 0·68 versus 1·11 per cent, P = 0·028). Neither agonist stimulation nor warm-up altered this trend. Platelet-leucocyte (PLA) and platelet-neutrophil (PNA) aggregation were similarly increased immediately after exercise in patients with claudication (PLA: 7·6 versus 13·0 per cent, P = 0·004; PNA: 6·8 versus 10·2 per cent, P = 0·012). These remained high 60 min after exercise only in patients with claudication, but recovered to baseline levels when preceded by warm-up. Warm-up significantly desensitized PNA after stimulation with 10 µmol/l adenosine 5-diphosphate at all time points. Warm-up increased the exercise capacity of patients with claudication. Exercise induced a thromboinflammatory response, with PLA and PNA persistently increased after 60 min in patients with claudication, an effect diminished after warm-up.

Background: Foam rolling (FR) is a promising new trend in the world of resistance training, sports and  athletics. It is often used as a warm up activity as a substitute or addition to  stretching modalities such as static stretching (SS). The proposed benefits behind FR is that it can lead to  both acute and chronic increases in performance and flexibility. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two different warm­up intervention protocols  of the hamstrings musculature on: 1) Performance in the bilateral standing long jump 2) Flexibility in a  supine active­knee­extension test. Method: The study consisted of sixteen male participants who were all healthy adult recreational athletes.  The two different interventions were, a) Static Stretching protocol (SS) and b) a Foam Rolling protocol  (FR). These were compared to a baseline warm up (BLWU). The SS consisted of 1 x 30 seconds of active  SS using the lying supine active­knee­extension position after a short warm­up. The FR consisted of 1  bout of 30 seconds of FR of the hamstrings musculature of each leg after a short warm­up. BLWU  consisted of a short warm­up (5 submaximal bilateral standing long jumps). Performance was measured  using a bilateral standing long jump test. Flexibility was measured with a goniometer using a lying supine active ­knee­ extension test. The student’s t­test was used to study differences between and within groups (BLWU, SS, FR). Results: No differences between BLWU and Post­SS (p=0.89) as well as BLWU compared to Post­FR (p=0.86) was detected for performance. However, an increase in flexibility was shown favoring Post­SS over BLWU (p=0.021) as well as Post­FR over BLWU (p=0.045). No significant difference was seen  between changes in the Post­SS and Post­FR groups in either performance or flexibility (p=0.887 and  p=0.944 respectively). Conclusion: It seems that both SS and FR are similarly viable and effective methods for acute increases  in flexibility in the active­knee­extension test without subsequent decreases in performance of the bilateral standing long jump.