Running is a high impact sport that places significant stress on your bones, joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons.
Without a thorough warm-up, it can break you down and cause injury.
One way to warm up is to start jogging slowly and gradually increase your pace as your muscles begin to warm up.
Another is to do a dynamic warm-up.
I recommend a combination of both. First, do a short dynamic warm-up, then ease into a slow jog that progressively increases to your planned intensity.
What is a Dynamic Warm-Up?
A dynamic warm-up is a series of movement drills used to warm up your body before exercise.
An effective dynamic warm-up increases your range of movement and blood and oxygen flow to your muscles, tendons, and ligaments before they’re called upon to do a serious training session.
These movement drills reduce your risk of injury from increased elasticity in the muscle.
How To Do A Dynamic Warm-up
- Find an area with plenty of space to move within.
- Make sure you target and activate the same muscle groups you are about to use in training.
- Simulate a similar movement pattern you will do during training to warm up your tendons and ligaments that support your joints.
- Ease into each movement and gradually increase your range of motion.
- Each warm-up that you do should last between 5-10 minutes.
Ready to Warm-Up? Here’s How …
I demonstrated some of my favourite warm-up exercises in the video above. So watch that and give the exercises a go. They will help you warm up various muscle groups and prep you for your session.
You can use these exercises as part of a warm-up for any sport, but I have found these work particularly well before running.
Enjoy!
