Warming up before a run?!

Why bother warming up before a run? Surely a 5-10 min walk is enough to get you warmed up? Some of you may count the first mile or so as the warm up. Some of you may diligently go through your stretches and some of you may not bother at all. In my experience runners are notoriously bad at warming up before a run. You may be unsure what you should actually be doing and what you are trying to achieve. Hopefully after reading this you'll have a bit more of an understanding of the benefits of warming up and what you are trying to achieve. It really doesn't need to take long, around 7-10 minutes and can improve your performance.

Research has shown that dynamic warm ups can increase over all flexibility and improve running performance. A dynamic warm up is where you move joints through their range of movement. This increase heart rate and blood flow and gets the muscles warmed up ready for the activity being performed. Some research suggests that doing a warm up prior to running may reduce your risk of sustaining an injury but the research is lacking. Most running injuries happen due to excessive load which usually comes from poor training, weakness, overload or changes in intensity. You may pull a cold muscle but a calf is more likely to be injured due to poor running form and stiff hips.

Some small studies have shown that warming up using weighted vests can improve leg stiffness and improve running economy and scientist believe this is because it primes the body's soft tissue ready for the impact of running. Stiffness in soft tissue is important for running, to absorb the forces the body is subjected to. Soft floppy joints aren't good for running and that's where strength and conditioning is so beneficial for runners. Resistance type training improves the stiffness in the soft tissue and makes muscles, tendons and ligaments stronger.

So how do we warm up?? In the S&C world the acronym RAMP is used

R- raise

A- activate

M- mobilise

P- potentiate

If you want to find out a little bit more about this type of warm up then have a read here

You want to start low level but start to get your heart rate increasing, you want to activate the big muscles that you will be using for running, you want to mobilise the big joints like your hips, knees and ankles; also the joints in your spine. You want to wake up the neurological system to prime your mind and body for running and start to fire those neurons that will work the running muscles. If you keep it simple you can start to bring elements of the RAMP in as you warm up.

My simple warm up would be:

1- start to gently jog on the spot and circle your shoulders forwards and backwards 30 secs

2- rotate your upper body left and right whilst keeping your hips facing forward 10 times

3- flick your heels up to your bum 30 secs

4- lift your knees as high as you can 30 secs

5- swing your Left leg forward and back 15 secs the side to side 15 secs (make sure you get the movement from the hip)

6 -swing your Right leg forward and back 15 secs the side to side 15 secs (make sure you get the movement from the hip)

7- squat down as low as you can go x 10

8 - start low- jump forward and jump backwards 30 secs

9- walking lunges alternate legs 30 secs

REPEAT

10 - Finish off with 3 x 20 secs of fast feet on the spot sprinting, getting your ankles as close to your sitting bone as possible. Use your arm drive. Think about being light and quick. This gets your body ready for running.

Try to tailor your warm ups to the type of session you'll be doing. An intense hill or interval session may benefit from a slightly longer warm up with a focus on more explosive movements and more upper body movements. I more sedate run may can just be more generic. If you are coming back form injury you may want to focus on specific areas, tendinopathies may benefit from some isometric (long hold) contractions prior to the activity or you may spend a little longer arming up through the hips if you've

been sat down at work all day.

Have a go at this warm up and tell me how you get on.