More information please

[HeavyFoot]

What exactly is the toxic 5 or 10 minutes? Is it when that little voice asks “Why exactly are you doing this?”

[skysue16 Graduate]

Yes!!! 😄But someone else will explain the science - something to do with the body adjusting to the sudden need for more oxygen etc.

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to skysue16]

Yes - when we are just sitting around or maybe even walking, our bodies are "aerobic" - but for the first 5 minutes or so when we start to run , we go through an anaerobic stage where our muscles are demanding more oxygen, and the heart responds by pumping blood harder but our muscles are still starved of oxygen for some time while the whole system catches up. This is why warmups should achieve two things - and most of us only do one of these - the first is to warm muscles and ligaments up ( eg by walking) , the second is to elevate our heart rate and breathing rate before starting to run to shorten/eliminate that 5 minute anaerobic stage. This pic goo.gl/R758ed is a good illustration of the energy sources we use when running aerobically ( blue line) - you can see the lack of aerobic energy during the first few minutes of running which has to be replaced by anaerobic energy for that time - meanwhile you are huffing and puffing and trying to get more oxygen to your muscles - after around 5 minutes you enter the flat blue line aerobic steady state. Lesson to learn is have a good warmup that elevates your heart rate before running.

[HeavyFoot Graduate in reply to Bazza1234]

Thank you very much

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

There you go...

[HeavyFoot Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

Many thanks.