Warming Up

Over the years, one aspect I have felt that is not well understand by those new to running is the warm-up.

It is generally well accepted that the aim of the warm-up is to prepare the body for exercise and reduce the risk of injury. Traditionally this takes the form of some easy jogging, some stretching and then into the main session we go. The main issue I encounter is that this traditional approach is often still used, and it isn't effective.

The research has never shown stretching prior to exercise to be beneficial for injury reduction. Actually, some research has shown that pre-exercise stretching will actually impair performance by reducing the speed and force of muscle contraction. 

One of the key goals of the warm-up is to increase core temperature, however if we follow that traditional warm-up approach, we may not actually achieve this. We start with the easy jog which warms the body up; we then stop and stretch which in turn starts bringing us back to our resting state. By the time we start into our session our body is back close to it's resting state.

So what better way could we approach this?

My recommendation would be to start out easy, even walking if required. Then gradually lift the intensity to a comfortable aerobic pace for at least 8-10 minutes. This achieves our initial goal of getting the body moving, loosening up and increasing core temperature.

Secondly, we want to stretch our body out a little, but rather than stopping and having a stretch, lets try and achieve this dynamically. The goal here is to increase the range of motion around our joints. This is best done through completing suitable running drills and some dynamic stretching; examples include high knees, butt kicks, leg swings etc.

The third aspect of our warm-up then needs to specifically prepare us for our session and the intensity we will be running. If we are going to complete some high intensity efforts, then we need to undertake some warm-up efforts in preparation for this. At some stage most of us will have had the experience of a poor warm-up where we start our first efforts and after a few hundred metres the intensity really catches up with us and we slow dramatically. This is definitely something we want to avoid and thus we need to include some intensity in the warm-up so the body is ready for the session. To do this, I recommend some short surges, starting at ~10seconds and building to ~30seconds. 

Ultimately, everyone will have different variations of a warm-up that suits them, but as a guide I would recommend starting with something like this:

1. 8-10 minutes of easy jogging.
2. 3-5 minutes of drills and dynamic stretching with jogs between (keep moving throughout)
3. 4-6 short surges with a full recovery between.
4. A couple of minutes of jogging, then off you go into the session.

When preparing for an aerobic session such as a long run, there is no value in completing this thorough warm-up as the speed will not greatly exceed your warm-up speed anyway. For these sessions just start out easy, then build the speed gradually over the first 10-15 minutes.

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