The purpose and importance of warm ups

They are not just a slow run!

I am as much culprit here as anyone else, I love to run so I would do just that - go for a run. However it wouldn’t be until the pain of an injury creeps up that I would look into what is going wrong.

What is the purpose of a warmup?

Warmups are an incredibly important! Training programs you find online will usually say 5 minute warm up, 20minute run, 5min cool down. However this gives you no insight into what you should actually be doing for those 5 minutes. Before I knew what a warm up really was I would do a walk/jog to the end of the drive and then off I’d go. From here during my intense runs I would have a flaring pain in my calves and my overall performance would be limited. This led to my physio believing I had compartment syndrome and the only way to fix it was by surgery. However, I started to take warm up’s seriously and found that by doing 15 minutes of running, leg swings, calf pumps, sprints, lunges and high knees I was able to run – pain free! It made all the difference, carrying out that warm up and then a 5 minute rest before the starting horn and I would be good to go.

How do they help?

1. They warm up your muscles by getting your blood pumping

2. They loosen up your joints and get them moving efficiently

3. They lengthen the muscles you will be using

4. They get muscles firing that you will be using

Where to start…

• Raise the heart rate - brisk walk or jog for a few minutes

• Get the joints moving through full extensions

• Get the core engaged

• Ankles – waddle https://youtu.be/bP6RC1AvyL0

• Hips – Leg swing https://youtu.be/DiDOyl0nIVw

• Bend and reach https://youtu.be/k_01B9JJrGA

• Ankles, knees and hips – the squat https://youtu.be/sLxJPylGK48

This is a basic warm up you should do before a leg workout or run. A good warmup will improve your workout and the rate at which your fitness and strength progresses. Tracking your joints through their full extensions will mean you will be able to move freely and correctly, preventing yourself from injury.

Fitness is Fun is a boot camp for those who want to do strength training, intensity training, mobility and stretching, and of course run! We make you a stronger, faster and injury free runner by incorporating great warm ups and cool downs in our sessions.

Contact us at anna.a_pt@yahoo.co.nz, 021 296 2798, www.fitnessisfun.co.nz