Running Road

Everyone puts a lot of effort into their running and work outs but how many of us actually pay attention to stretching, warming up and limbering down?  

Warming up does more than just loosen your muscles, it can improve your fitness and your performance.  The warm up should begin with you rotating your joints beginning from your toes and then working your way up or alternatively from your fingers and working your way down.  This helps your joints to participate more easily when called upon during physical activity. Perform circular motions in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

After this you require some sort of aerobic activity wherein you should do roughly five minutes of jogging, jumping, skipping or any such activity that will increase your cardio vascular output.  This raises your body temperature and increases blood flow. In turn increased blood flow improves the performance of muscles and their flexibility and makes injuries less likely to occur.

After this you need to do some static stretching where you exercise the various parts of your body.  Start with your back, then your upper body and finally your lower body.  Here stretching should include the following body parts – back, sides, neck, forearms, wrists, biceps, triceps, chest, thighs, hamstrings, shins, insteps etc.

Once you have completed this you should perform some light dynamic stretching like leg raises and arm swings in various directions.

Lastly you should perform movements that resemble movements that you will make during the sport.  This is important because it improves balance, strength, coordination and reduces response time. It also makes you less prone to injury.

Thus warming up is essential for you to perform better during activity and more importantly to reduce your risks of injury. Limbering down is also extremely vital and shall be dealt with later.