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Warm Up and Warm Down
By starting to run, or starting any exercise program for that matter, you are going to subject your body to new stresses and strains.
As long as the level of those stresses are sensible, that’s a good thing!
Our bodies react and adapt in response to those stresses by getting stronger and making us fitter.
Remember, the overall plan is to:
- Raise base fitness levels
- Make small adjustments to eating habits
- Lose lots of weight, sustainably
But on the way you have got to make sure that you stay injury free and improve your well being overall and not just relentlessly pound the pavement. (that is no fun either!)
Warming Up and Down
Warming up and down should be an integral part of your training sessions.
I’ve included in the sessions on stage one of the beginners running plan, bit what is it for exactly?
Well most people know what Warming Up is about.
You are trying to activate your body and get it ready for the exertion it will need to cope with once you are in full swing.
Your warm up needs to prepare you whole body, ideally:
- Warming up your muscles
- Helping to stretch out and loosen tendons and joints
- Getting the blood flowing by raising heart rate to around 100 -120 beats per minute
But what is Warming down?
If you are not familar with the term it can sound odd, but its the period the end of your training session where you slowly cool down and easy out of the exertion of your session, so that you can comfortably rest.
Okay, so why not call it ‘cooling down’?
Well warming down is often used to convey the fact that you shouldn’t just stop flat at the end of your session.
Ideally you want to gradually reduce how hard you are exercising down a gentle gradient until you hardly notice that you have dropped back to a slow walk.
This is less of a shock to the system and is good start to some active recovery from your training which is a very good habit to get into.
So how to go about Warming up and Warming Down the Running to Lose Weight way?
Warming Up Tips
I am assuming that you are in stage one of the plan.
At this stage, there is no real need for stretching during warm up, so warm up should concentrate on easing in to your session by focusing on prep for aerobic exercise.
Here are some mental steps that I use in my warm up sequence over around a 5 minute period.
- Set out at a comfortable pace
- Be mindful of your stride. Don’t lengthen it but walk purposefully and roll through from heel to toe
- By mindful of your posture. Don’t slouch, walk purposefully
- Swing your arms
- After 2 minutes raise the pace
- Keep raising the pave every 30 seconds or so until you hit your exercise pace at the end of 5 minutes
- Remember to keep your arms moving too
After that, if you are brisk walking the first part of your session then just keep going at that pace.
But if you are running ease into your run by picking up pace into a jog then slowly increasing to your run speed. I like to deliberately transition very slowly.
This is a very good way to ease into your running stride for your leg muscles, tendons and joints and avoid any nasty twinges. It might look a bit odd for a few seconds though.
Warming Down Tips
Warming Down is simple as reversing the Warming Up sequence. You have just got to remember to transition slowly, don’t to anything abrupt and keep going at a pace that allows you to slowly recover. Here are some useful Warming Down steps:
- Drop out of your run to a brisk walk by reducing your running pace and your stride, until you have no option but to walk (sounds odd but try it!)
- Keep you arms moving and swing them a little more than you were when you were running
- If you can manage start breathing through your nose or in through your nose and out though you mouth
- Keep a brisk walking pace for 30 second to 1 minute
- As you feel your heart rate dropping slowly drop your pace too, I like to do it in steps every minute or so
- Keep your arms swinging throughout.
After 5 minutes you should have dropped to a slow walk. Keep walking a minute or so before stopping and doing your post run stretching.
Build the habit
As you increase how much you are running over time, your preparation and recovery ‘rituals’ will need to become a bit more involved.
This is to keep you flexible and injury free over the loinger term.
For now you just need to get into the habit of warming up and down each and every session.
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