Running Warm Up Drills: How to Prepare For Your Workout
Updated: Aug 6
Warm ups are one of those things which we kind of know we need to do, we may know a couple of reasons why doing warm up drills is important for running but often we don't know how to properly do a warm up effectively.
What really blows my mind is the actual benefits of running a proper warm up for your long term performance. It is one of the most underrated ways to learn how to run with proper efficiency!!!
This guide will give you all the information you need about which runs you may need a warm up for, the benefits of a warm up and how to do an optimal warm up to get you ready to run your best.
Pulse raiser
Before we go and get into any running specific drills which you may see a lot of faster runners doing, we need to do a pulse raiser.
A pulse raiser just means some very easy exercise to raise our pulse a little bit, seeing as we are warming up for running, it makes sense that we do a slow jog as our pulse raiser. This slow jog should start out very very slow, just to get your muscles moving and loosen up a little bit. View your pulse raiser the same way you would view a recovery run, by this I mean start of really slow- can even be a walk if you like- and then slowly increase the pace as your muscles start to loosen off. The idea of a pulse raiser is just to loosen off our legs so that they are ready to do the dynamic stretches that come before the running warm up drills.
Top tip: If you are extra stiff before your run then pop a pair of compression sleeves on
Disclaimer: A warm up can be as long as you like and it should vary depending on your ability. For some a 5 minute jog, 5 minutes of dynamic stretches and 5 minutes of running drills is enough for their warm up.
However, for some a warm up makes up a good part of their weekly mileage, I always used to stick to a 2-3 mile warm up and warm down and doing this 3 times a week. This meant I was running 12-18 miles in just warm ups and warm downs, these miles still count as miles and especially if they were either side of a tempo as these were just miles making the run a longer continuous run.
I have even known some people do a 4 mile warm up and warm down. This makes up a lot of their miles and they would use about 3 of these miles at the low end of an easy run pace and they would get huge aerobic gains of these runs. These runners were doing 8 mile tempos which were effectively just slotted into a 16 mile run as they had a 4 mile warm up and warm down either side, but they would do the same warm up and warm down for their hill sessions etc.
Dynamic stretches
Dynamic stretches means you are putting your body in a position where you are going to stretch a muscle but you only hold it for 1-3 seconds. Dynamic stretches is often the part of the warm up which goes neglected by a lot of runners, especially if someone is in a hurry and doesn't have as much time as they would like. However, dynamic stretches offer many benefits and are quite an enjoyable part of my warm up to be honest.
Why should you include dynamic stretches in your warm up routine?
Dynamic stretches offer many benefits to your pre-run warm up routine. These benefits include:
Increased range of motion
Increased mobility
Increased flexibility
Improved blood flow
Increases stride length
Improves athletic performance
Reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
Improved running economy
Most importantly- reduces risk of injury
One other benefit is that it teaches your body to relax and contract muscles at the right time, improving sequencing to improve your economy. For example when you do a dynamic stretch for your hip flexor, your glute contracts, and when you do a dynamic stretch for your glute, your hip flexor contracts.
But more importantly, right after a muscle is stretched it has to contract again, but you need the right dynamic stretches for this (I will show you a great routine below). For example when you stretch your calf you then go up on your toes to contract it, this teaches your body to allow a muscle to fully stretch (like loading up an elastic band) and then telling it to fire with more power- this is a great way to teach your body how to runner with effortless power!
This teaches your body to relax a muscle before contracting it to allow your body to fully access a long stride where muscles activate at the right, instead of muscles firing at the wrong time when you are trying to run fast which causes a shorter stride.
Part of what I believe is key for runners is improving flexibility, range of motion and mobility. This is so you have access to a nice lengthy stride like the elite runners have, however strength training is also needed to get this stride.
The thing is though, your a runner- you hate stretching, its in your nature to hate stretching. But what I have found and what other coaches have suggested as well, is that if you do static stretches to get your flexibility to a really good point then you can maintain this flexibility and also improve it without doing static stretches if you just do a short dynamic stretching routine at least once a week. So, improve your flexibility with 4-6 weeks of static stretching and then you can maintain this level of flexibility with minimal effort!
Your dynamic stretching routine:
These are the dynamic stretches I have used to the past 10 years and I find them to be absolutely perfect. They teach your muscles to relax and contract at the right time, by putting your body in a position where the right muscle is stretches whilst the right muscle contracts. This routine also stretches every muscle in your body which is used in running and gets them to contract right after to teach your muscles how to work with maximal efficiency.
Running warm up drills
So, I feel I have gone very in-depth about how to get to the point of your warm up where you start to do your running warm up drills. Hopefully, now you are starting to understand how a warm up is a really quick and effective way to improve your running performance to take you to the next level.
Now, its time for your warm up drills to get your primed for running.
Why do warm up drills for running
Warm up drills for running get your body primed and ready to run faster, they activate and train your fast twitch muscle fibres to improve your sprint speed. They also exaggerated perfect running form to get your body to a point where you can run with better economy.
Warm up running drills are an absolutely vital way to improve your running form and develop your sprint speed. For sprinters a huge chunk of their sessions are dedicated to running form drills and focusing on doing these drills as perfectly as possible. You can really train your fast twitch muscle fibres with these drills and you train them in position which you are not able to get in when just running. This means you training muscle fibres which are not usually trained so you can improve your ability to recruit these fast twitch muscle fibres and then you can use them to get a stronger, more powerful, longer stride.
Overview of the benefits of doing warm up drills:
Improved athletic performance
Improved mobility
Train fast twitch muscle fibres
Improved sprint speed
Improved running form/economy
Reduced injury rate
Improves co-ordination
Wakes up neuromuscular system
Get your body ready to run fast for your session/workout
Your warm up drills for running
These are the warm up drills I have used before running for about 1o years and they get your body ready in the perfect way for your session/workout. These drills start of slow and then focus on some faster movements to train your fast twitch muscle fibres.
How long should my warm up be?
Your pulse raiser can be anything from 800m to 4 miles, you can chose if your dynamic stretches take 3 minutes or 15 minutes depending on how many times you repeat each movement and your running warm up drills can take 3-15 minutes as well depending on how long you do each drill for.
Overall, you can do an amazing warm up which will get you primed for your session and also help with your long term running performance in all of about 10 minutes. Which seems like a bargain to me!
However, you can make this warm up routine last 30-60 minutes if you really want to, just by doing a longer pulse raiser, a lot of dynamic stretches and drills, this warm up has everything.
Lastly, don't forget some strides
Strides are just accelerations to about 90% sprint speed where you focus fully on form and last about 50-100m. You should add 2-8 strides in to your warm up after your drills and take a slow walk back after.
Strides are a key part of every warm up and they boast many benefits and should never be left out of a warm up routine.
Key benefits of strides include:
Increase stride length
Increase running economy
Makes race pace feel easier
Improved sprint speed
Gets your body ready for faster training
Reduced risk of injury
Improved recovery
Trains your ATP-PC system
Faster kick at the end of your races
Trains fast twitch muscle fibres
Improves neuromuscular co-ordination
If you want a full guide on how to run your strides like the pros then click here: https://www.georgelewishealth.com/post/how-running-strides-will-benefit-your-training
What runs do I need to warm up for?
Warm ups should be used for any of your faster runs like sessions/warm ups. If you are going to do a 5k session, tempo or anything which involves faster running then I heavily advice adding doing a good warm up.
I also used to use dynamic stretches, drills and then strides at the end of my easy runs as an extra time to get the benefits these drills and improve my performance. I found huge benefits to adding these after easy runs.
Top tip on running a good warm up
Key part of what a warm up does is it gets you physiologically ready to run fast. Therefore, you should keep your warm up consistent every time you do it, then you are always mentally ready to run well.
So, when it comes to race day doing the same warm up is a key part of running well and being mentally ready on that start line. Doing the same warm up for your sessions/workouts will be a huge part of securing a PB on race day!
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