The Importance of Warming Up and Cooling Down

I just had my first back-to-back running days in years and it felt really good. Though my legs are sore after the run, I know that it feels quite normal and tolerable. I'm sure my basic knowledge of warming up and cooling down helped a lot and that's what I will share now with you.

Let's think of our running sessions (whether it's easy runs, intervals or even long runs) as sandwiches. Our runs should be sandwiched by Warm Ups on top and Cool Downs on the other end.

Warm Ups

First, I'd like to set this one straight: It's not recommended to do stretching (specifically static stretching) pre-run without warming up. Studies have shown that it can increase the risk of injuries when we stretch our 'cold' muscles. For now, let's save the stretching for after the run.

Now, Warm Ups to simply put it is just preparing our body for the high intensity activity we are about to do. The goal is to raise the body's temperature and get more blood flowing to the muscles. We want our muscles to loosen up so that it could perform the activity (in our case, Running) at it's best.

As simple as a 5 to 10 minutes of walking, jogging or any light movements that will raise the temperature without putting stress on our bodies will do as our warm up.

Cool Downs

This is just as important as the Warm Ups. Instead of stopping our run suddenly that may cause your blood pressure and heart rate to drop, we should gradually slow down the pace to a walk or a light jog of about 5 to 10 minutes.

Right after your cool down, this is when we do our stretching. Our muscles are warm enough which will make stretching easy and effective. Stretch the muscles that were most stressed by your running and be careful not to overdo it. Stretching should not in any case feel painful.

It vary individually but the common areas to stretch for most runners are the Calf, Quads, and Hamstring muscles. Practice holding each stretch for about 10 to 30 seconds and repeat the stretch 2 to 3 times for each muscle group.

Doing the Warm Ups and Cool Downs will not guarantee that you will perform excellently on your run or you won't feel any soreness after. But doing these practices will surely help our bodies to recover properly.

So, enjoy your every sandwich!

If you have more tips or questions on properly warming up and cooling down, please feel free to drop me a comment!

Keep on Running

It's one thing to "start running" and another thing to "keep on running".

And I've learned this the hard way...

At the start of my journey back to a running lifestyle, everything was perfectly looking good: I had that renewed drive to run, I've committed myself to a running group, started a running blog, and finally, I was able to run again after years of no consistent running.

But right after that great Saturday morning run, it came – all the busyness, laziness and excuses once again crawled into me. The next thing I know, it's May 2013, and my last run was February 2013. Three months.

So how do we really "Keep on Running"?!

I honestly believe that I need this topic more than any newbie runner out there right now.

Let me share a few tips that I know works and what I will definitely do myself:

Training log.

Having a Training Log gives a lot of runners motivation to keep going. It's always nice to see a filled up log and being able to track down your progress every run. All you need is paper and pen... Or just download that amazing App.

Morning run.

Running early in the morning have some great advantages. It sets the tone of your day and before all the demands of the day creeps in your schedule, it's great to already have running done on top of your checklist.

Prep up.

Before going to sleep, it's wise to prepare all your running gears for next day's run. You will have less reasons not to run when everything is up and ready. Sometimes, you can even go as far as wearing your gears in sleep. Then all you need is to wake up and run!

Patience.

There is no instant in the sport of running. Every successful runner trained their way into their current form. Understanding that success in running comes from patiently training and gradual improvements is key. Maybe now you are dragging yourself to finish that 3K run, but I guarantee, stick to your running program and the next thing you know, finishing that marathon might be a usual thing.

Just run.

Sometimes, all we need is to get out there and run. Once we get that feel of the pavement, it's hard to stop!

If you have some more tips to help newbies run consistently, please feel free to drop me a comment!