I’ll admit for a long time, I never put thought into warming-up when preparing for long runs. Because I never got injured or experienced a cramp, I didn’t think it mattered if I warmed-up. Then I read an article on my favorite blog Cupcake and Cashmere, on how Alicia injured herself for not warming up before runs. Since I was preparing for a marathon, I needed to incorporate a warm-up routine, before I got injured. After doing a wide research on proper running warm-up routine, and seeing what was bothering me after runs, I began putting one in place.
Here are the areas I focused on:
- Joints and smaller muscles stretches, since these are used less frequent and easier to injure.
- Hip flexors stretches,as they are normally limited in its range of motion and are typically tight. Tightness in these muscles can lead from lower back pain to other indirect injuries.
- Dynamic stretching, which is stretching that mimics the same range of motion as the exercise you’ll be performing.
A warm-up routine should take between 10-15 minutes, as we don’t want to utilize time from running. Click the links on each exercise for videos.
- Start with a 5 minute run at 50% of your normal speed. This will get the lungs working, blood circulating, and wake up the muscles.
- 10 air squats, as this is a compound exercise that will warm-up the entire lower body muscles.
- Perform 10 front and back leg swings and then side to side leg swings on each leg. If your balance is not great (like mine), hold on to a wall or a railing. Perform 10 of each exercise on both legs.
- 10 single calf raises. By lifting one knee up in front of you and with the other leg raise to you toes. Hold for 3 seconds and slowly lower the foot. This warms up the plantar fasciitis muscles that can easily injured due with intensive stress…I should know…as I got this injury before I knew this was important
- Take 10 walking figure four steps alternating each leg. Start by landing on one leg, lift the foot of the opposite leg toward the middle of your body. Then grasp your knee and foot, and pull toward your chest until a stretch is felt through the glutes. Keep head and chest upright. Hold stretch for 1-2 seconds. Alternate legs as you walk forward.
- Perform three 30 second lunge stretch on each leg. Place one knee on the ground, and the other bent in front of you. Leaning the body towards the front foot (without by passing the knee), stretch the hip and groin. Hold for 30 seconds and alternate to the next leg.
-Danni