The Correct Warming-up Exercises Before A Run

Whether you have been running for a long time or are only starting to get into the habit, it cannot be denied that warming up is an essential part of your routine.

If you are like many of us that start running right out of a dead start, you might not have realized that this could be the reason for unnecessary soreness after your run. It is also generally established that this is also the reason for many sports related injuries. Stressing your muscles immediately off the block is harmful for athletes. To get the most out of your muscles, it would be best to ease in them into activity.

To do that, gentle activity can be done for 5 to 10 minutes to warm up the muscles and increase flexibility. “Cold” muscles typically under perform and never achieve optimal output. If you don’t tease your joints and muscles by flexing, you risk injury from pulling a tight muscle or a cold joint.

To warm up, you could try light cardiovascular activities to get blood flowing through the system. This activity also primes up the muscles for activity. After warm up activities, the body is now ready for increased activity. Light jogging in place is generally one of the best ways to warm up. Other activities are also available and recommended as long as they remain light and low impact. Other exercises that accomplish this include – light stairs and lunges.

Make sure that when you warm up, you don’t rest afterwards. That is because after priming your body for the activity ahead, resting will cool off your body, effectively defeating the purpose of warming up. So after warming up, don’t idle around or sit about. Get ready to stretch and do so purposefully so you don’t lose your momentum. So try to stay away from idle chatting and staring at nothing after warming up to get the best results.

After warming up, stretching will be the next order of battle. Good stretching is essential to improving performance and avoiding injuries. You can start with the head and arms, swing and stretch in counts of 12. Focus your stretching activities on your lower body because this is where most of the action will take place. Stretch and tease every major joint, and even the minor ones.

Be careful that you do not overstretch these muscles and joints, doing so could cause injuries. Stretch yourself enough to challenge the tightness, but don’t go overboard and cause an injury yourself.

After your running session, don’t forget to cool down by tapering down your activities to ease your nervous system into lower activity. Here are a few exercises to help you focus your warm up activities specifically for running; they may be a little hard to perform at first, but when you get used to them you can gradually up the ante for most of them.

Lunge walk – this exercise is perfect for loosening hip joints and improving leg drive. It will also strengthen your glutes and your quadriceps. To perform this exercise, get into a lunge position and do lunges, moving forward at the same time. When doing this exercise, keep a straight upper body and look ahead. Repeat this six times for three sets.

High knee lift – this exercise improves ankle strength and improves hip flexor performance. Walk forward while keeping up on your toes and marching your thighs up high. Your thighs do not have to be too high. They only have to be parallel with the floor.

Elbow-to-inside-of-ankle lunge – this exercise improves hamstring strength and improves hip flexor performance. It also works well with stretching the lower back. It is very similar to the lunge walk, except that you have to stretch forward to touch your elbow to your ankles while doing so. This exercise is pretty challenging, you will need good balance to pull this off.

There are lots of other exercises that focus on the running muscles, and you may want to consult with professional trainers to learn of them. Make sure you take the time, no matter how tedious it may seem to warm up before you start running. Make it part of your routine to maximize your running experience and to promoter better performance and health.