Running Warm-ups and Cool-downs to help prevent injury

All your runs should start with a warm-up and end with a cool-down. These two bookends to your run will help you prepare your muscles to perform optimally, will also help recovery at the end of your workout and reduce injury risk.

How to Do a Running Warm-up

Take these steps for your warm-up:

1. Complete 5 to 10 minutes of light aerobic exercise to loosen up your muscles and warm up for your run. Some good pre-run warmup exercises include walking briskly, jogging slowly, or cycling on a stationary bike. Make sure you don't rush your warm-up.
2. If you like doing dynamic stretches or exercises before your run, do walking lunges, high knee lifts, jumping jacks, or opposite toe touches.
3. Begin your run. Don't start out racing, but instead jog slowly at first and gradually build up your speed. You should be breathing very easily. If you feel yourself getting out of breath, slow down. This is part of knowing how fast you should run, and it's easy to start off too fast.
4. Pay attention to your running posture and form?when you begin your run. Ensure you are using the best technique before you speed up.

Benefits

As you begin to warm up, your blood vessels dilate. Because of this increased blood flow, your muscles are primed with oxygen and ready to perform at their best. Blood flow also increases the temperature in your muscles. This warmth prepares your muscles to enhance flexibility.?

?Allowing your heart rate to increase gradually is beneficial to your heart. Rather than immediately demanding max heart output by jumping full speed into your running routine, warming up allows your heart rate to rise gradually.

How to Do a Proper Cool-down

?At the end of your run, take these steps:

1. ?After you finish your run, cool down by walking or slowly jogging for five to 10 minutes. Your breathing and heart rate should gradually return to normal.
2. Drink water or an electrolyte infused drink?to rehydrate your body.

?Benefits

The cooldown keeps the blood flowing throughout the body. Stopping suddenly can cause light-headedness because your heart rate and blood pressure might drop rapidly. Winding down slowly allows them to fall gradually.

While you will often hear that the cooldown helps you work the lactic acid out of your muscles and prevent delayed onset muscle soreness?the next day, research has not found this to be the case.

The cool-down is also a good mental transition between a hard effort and the end of your workout.

Let’s talk!

To arrange an initial chat to discuss how you should warm-up and cool-down for running or if you have a running related injury then please contact our team, send us an email at?[email protected], or call on 07833 447663.