Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a general warm-up (GWU) on anaerobic exercise performance between power and endurance athletes. Methods: Twenty male power athletes and twenty male endurance athletes participated in this study. The participants performed 20 minutes of cycling at 60% of their predicted maximum heart rate as a GWU. Their anaerobic exercise (countermovement jump [CMJ] and 6-second sprint cycling [SC]) performance was assessed before and after the GWU. Results: A significant interaction effect (group × time) was observed in CMJ height (p = .041). The endurance athletes showed a significant improvement in CMJ height after the GWU (p < .001), whereas the power athletes did not (p = .794). No significant interaction effects were observed in mean power (p = .957) and peak power (p = .197) during the SC. Conclusion: These results suggest that training history influences the effect of a GWU on anaerobic exercise performance, and endurance-trained individuals may benefit more from the GWU consisting of continuous cycling. Furthermore, these findings demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all warm-up cannot optimize an athlete's performance and emphasize the necessity of designing warm-up programs tailored to their training history.
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