- In order to get the most out of your run,
whether that's a race or a training session,
you need to have a thorough warm up.
This will help prepare your mind, and your body,
so that you can preform to the highest level.
And also, it will reduce the chance of injury.
I'm going to be taking you through
a step by step guide to a warm up
to help you be best prepared for your run.
If you're anything like me, you might be a bit
sluggish getting going at the start of a session.
It's not really surprising, if you've spent hours
sat at your desk, and you expect you body
to suddenly go out and run and perform.
It's going to take a while to get going.
And that heavy legs, sluggish feeling
can put you off your session, sometimes even
hamper the beginning part of the quality of your set.
In order to overcome that, you need a thorough warm up.
And I'm talking about more than just a jog here.
And I know you might worrying,
what if I get too tired in the warm up?
Well, trust me actually having
a thorough warm up is more likely to help
with your session, rather than detriment it.
(upbeat music)
Yes you can, and even should include a jog.
It's going to get your heart rate up,
your blood flowing, and your muscles
nice and warm.
But it needs to be a very easy pace.
Conversational pace is the best idea.
Don't look at your watch, 'cause it really
doesn't matter for that.
So, keep it to around 10 minutes,
and if you are somewhat cold, you can start
with quite a few layers on, and if you're say,
running laps somewhere, you can always
take them off as you get nice and warm.
But if you don't actually want to move forwards,
or run anywhere in particular,
you can even skip on the spot using a rope.
But you need to do a little less than 10 minutes,
otherwise, you will get too tired at that.
It's a good idea to get the whole of your body moving.
Add in some side steps, and some jogging twists.
make sure you rotate every force,
so you're working your body fully.
Ensure you use your arms, and trunk entirely,
as it will make your body start working effectively
ahead of your run.
But if you are doing it, say, on some grass,
just check the surface. 'cause you will be going sideways,
and you need to look after your ankles.
Now, we're going to slow things down a little,
and wake up those smaller muscles
that support your foot, your ankle,
and your lower leg.
Starting with heel walks.
Here, you need to lift your toes off the ground,
activating those muscles down the front of your shin.
And then, swap over to toe walks,
so you're on your tippy toes, and this will
activate those muscles at the back.
Mainly your calves, as well as the smaller ones
that you require for balance.
So, walk out for 20 steps, and then return
back for 20 steps, first going on your heels,
and then on your toes.
Moving to single leg work now, to activate those
larger muscles, and make sure they're firing correctly too.
This is going to challenge your balance a little bit.
It's going to activate your glutes,
and it's also going to really help keep you warm.
If you are a very proficient skipper,
you could even do this skipping,
by doing single leg skips, or if you're
anything like me, then it's probably
best for you to stick to hops.
I want you to do 10 hops on one leg,
swap to the other leg for another 10,
and repeat that twice through.
Moving on up to the hips.
Some dynamic leg swings are going to help
open them up, and reduce any restrictions
that you might have in this area.
Now, if you've got good balance, great.
But if not, then you might want to find a friend,
or a tree, or something similar to hold on to.
If however, your balance is good enough,
and you can do it standing on one leg,
this will double up.
It will help actually activate your glutes,
and restrengthen your core muscles at the same time.
Swing forwards and backwards, trying to
keep the trunk relatively stable,
and limit that movement that you've got
at the pelvis, and then change the direction
to swing the leg across the front of the body,
so you're opening up the hips in a different angle.
You need to repeat both sets on each leg
10 times through.
Sticking with the hips, we're going to move on to lunges.
Now these are going to open up with hips further,
but we're also going to be adding in
a little bit of activation work with a
single leg hold, in the middle.
So, start by lunging forwards,
so that your front knee goes to 90 degrees
as your ankle is also at 90 degrees
Then you're going to step forwards over that,
and then instead of going straight into
your next lunge, I want you to hold and A frame shape
with that spare resting knee, so your thigh's
basically parallel to the ground.
Once you've held that in a nice, stable position,
then lunge forwards onto your next leg.
From there, if you want to add in some
thoracic rotation, you can do a bit of a twist,
which will just help with mobility
for your trunk as well.
So, make these, continuously stepping forwards,
a total of five times for each leg.
That will give you 10 lunges in total.
Have a short rest, and then repeat it twice through.
(upbeat music)
It's time to get things moving again
with some nice, straight forward
high knees, and bottom kicks.
Aim to get your knees up to hip level,
as high as you can.
And then, when you are doing to bottom kicks,
try to get your heel towards your bottom.
I'm just going to make these nice and straight forwards.
Start off with moving forwards, or on the spot.
10 high knees, straight into 10 bottom kicks,
followed by 10 easy strides of jogging.
And then, repeat the whole thing continuously,
three times through.
Finally, a few sets of strides are just going to
tune your body and your mind, into this session ahead.
So, start off at around 40% of your maximum effort,
and you can build up to around 80% over an 80 meter stretch.
And then jog back to the beginning is your recovery.
You're going to go through this again, but this time,
building up to around 85% of your max by the time
you reach the end.
Jog back, and for the final one,
I want you to really stretch it
to around 90 or 95% by the time you finish.
I know that might seem like a lot to get through,
and if you are restricted for time,
then choose those exercises that you know
your body will benefit from the most.
The effort you put into the warm up
will most certainly be paid back,
when you can nail that first rep,
and have a great, consistent whole main session.
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If you want to see a warm up for swimming,
we've done a dry land version, just down here.
If you want to know how to run faster,
without training more, well you can find those secrets
just here.