Long Term Training Principle #3 of 6: Warm up and cool down…
Here at South Bank Runners we want all our members to keep doing what they love and make running part of their life’s. To help ensure all our members stay running head coach Chris Hand has laid out his long term training principles to keep you running injury free.
Follow along for the whole Six part series on successful training.
Missed Part 1 or Part 2? Read those first here:
LTTP #1: Consistency
LTTP #2: Be Patient
So you are now a patient and consistent runner. Well done. Today’s principle is all about what you do before and after a run - which is probably more important than the run in between!
The warm up
Warming up helps prepare your mind and body for exercise by increasing blood flow and activating your muscles you are about to seriously abuse. By warming up, you can reduce the risk of injury. At SBR, we warm up for every single one of our sessions… even the drinking sessions.
For speed sessions, we:
Start a 1-2km warm up jog
Do activation drills in this order:
Skipping
Butt kicks
High knees
Grapevine
Leg swings
Run throughs
Why do we do the warm up in that particular order?
A good warm up should start from low intensity and as your blood flow increases and your muscles start to activate, you move to high intensity warm ups. Jogging and skipping has a low impact on the body but something like High knees and Run throughs are harder - that’s why we start with low impact skipping and progress towards high knees towards the end of the warm up.
A warm up can scale with whatever session you are going to run. Going out for a 20 minute jog? Walk or run the first 3-5 minutes. Slammed for time but need to run a 30 minute tempo between businessing? Jog for the first km and do a few continuous run throughs.
A final tip on the warm up:
What you do in the warm up should replicate what you are about to do in the session. Try to keep the motion of movement in the warm up a similar cadence and extension as what you will run at. E.g. when doing butt kicks, don’t over exaggerate the movement and actually kick your arse. No one does that when they run and if they do, tell them they look like an idiot.
The cool down
After a hard run, your heart is racing a million beats a second. A slow jog or even a walk will help with a gradual recovery of pre-exercise heart rate and blood pressure. Cooling down for runners specifically is very important because it helps regulate blood flow which in turn should heal your muscles quicker. Again your cool down should scale with that of the session. If you just went to the well a 2 minute walk to the car, although it is something, probably isn’t enough.
Cooling down contrary to popular belief does not clear lactic acid and does not appear to help reduce muscle stiffness and soreness after exercise… To fix this, when you get home, you need to stretch your muscles and jump on the foam roller before jumping in bed.
It’s OK to cry during foam roller exercises…
Make sure you get plenty of rest and don’t forget to hydrate. All the benefits of running happen when you sleep. Try to get in the habit of getting the best possible sleep after a hard run. You will wake up feeling like… you can run again!
I hope you have found these principles somewhat helpful and I wish you all the best in your future running! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s principle!