Warm up / warm down

[Marcomanc]

Hi all. I’m on Week 3 of consolidation since graduating and I have a question about the 5 minute warm up / warm down walks. Once graduating, have you continued with the warm up walks? I use the walk to warm up and the walk to warm down plus stretches. If I stretch before and after do I still need to walk? I quite like doing the walks but I’m really busy at work and losing this 10 minutes of walking would allow me to be a little more flexible about when I do my runs. Thanks.

[Lizcanrun Graduate]

I still do them, but I've been meaning to ask this exact question!!

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Elite athletes with finely honed bodies still warm up to avoid injury. Perhaps us mere mortals should follow suit.

Especially with colder weather coming.

Graduation does not confer superhuman powers.........

[RacingintheStreet Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

😂🦹🏃🏻‍♀️

[Marcomanc Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

I wasn’t suggesting it did. Nor did I suggest that I wouldn’t warm up. My post was asking if stretches are as good as the warm up walk.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor in reply to Marcomanc]

A good dynamic warm up (not static stretches) will go a long way to getting your muscles warmed up but if you do research you will find most authorities suggest, brisk walking, gentle jogging before you start to work muscles hard.

[Couchpotato2 Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

although it did in my case (but I still stretch)

[Instructor57 Graduate]

I continue to do the dynamic warm up, then 5 min walk , then 5 min cool down walk and then after run stretches .

Why would I not ?

[Tasha99 Graduate]

I don’t warm up or cool down unless I’m at club. I do stretch after every run - half heartedly. If I’m doing speed work, I do a slow one mile run first.

[nowster Graduate]

Definitely keep with them. However no static stretches before a run, only dynamic (moving) exercises. Static stretches are for afterwards.

[Couchpotato2 Graduate]

So I found in colder weather I needed more than just 5 minutes. I have kept the walking before and after for over a year post graduation. Nowdays I am doing something slightly different but still warm up and include drills (knees up etc) which are pretty tiring but good to warm up. Before the run - as I'm sure you know - you should do dynamic stretches and leave the static ones till after. It really isnt worth cutting corners with stretching, you dont recup as well and then you dont run as well etc. You might need to loose that extrs 10' sleep... sorry

[ShufflingShepherdess Graduate]

I was wondering the same. I suppose it depends on your lifestyle. If you spend the majority of the day sitting down (desk, car, etc) then you really owe it to your body to get things working gradually, but if like me, you've a pretty active morning before a run anyway, I suppose you could reduce the 5 minutes to just a couple, but I'd still stick with the 5 mins afterwards.

[paulb68 Graduate]

I still do 5 minute warm up walk but also a dynamic warm in the house have a look at strength running on YouTube he has a few good quick routines. I'm 7 weeks into consolodation runs and my routine is dynamic warm up, 5 minute brisk walk and warm down stretches once finished. So far it's working for me.

[Newbie59 Graduate]

I agree, warm up walk is even more important in the colder weather. I would never run without a warm up walk first and the cool down walk is usually quite enjoyable. Doing the post run stretches can feel like a real chore, but they are so important, just check out all the comments on this forum