How to Warm up for a Winter Run
Winter warm up before your Run
It is always important to warm up before running, but especially important over the winter period when the temperature drops and muscles might feel shorter and stiffer. It will help avoid injuries sneaking up on you.
Starting off a run at a slower pace is one way to steadily warm up, this is not always as easy in the winter and running slowly to warm up can be unpleasant in the very cold weather.
Your natural instinct may be to start fast in order to warm up, this might not be the best idea. Muscles work more efficiently when they’re warm so running hard with cold muscles is a recipe for injury.
Traditional static stretches do not help much, these types of stretches are more effective after a run.
Start off with some dynamic stretching, for example, a lunge walk with a twist. By starting with these types of stretches it will help our active muscles during a run to overcome a certain amount of resistance from our non-active muscles.
Dynamic stretch exercises should only take a few minutes. It is important to do them before running on a cold day, particularly if you are running fast. Take it easy for the first 10-15 minutes of your run, using the time to slowly build up to your target training pace.
A few more dynamic stretches can be found below:
1. Leg kicks – from a standing position, hold both arms out straight in front of you at 90 degrees from your torso. Start walking slowly forwards by kicking each leg as high as you can. Aim to gently kick your left hand with your left foot and your right hand with your right foot. Try not the bend forwards and keep your legs as straight as you can. Do this exercise for 30 seconds.
2. Body rotations – lift your arms out to the side at 90 degrees to your body. Then rotate your torso as far as you can to the left, before reversing direction and swinging back to the right. Try to stay relaxed throughout – it is not a race. Do this 10 times in total before you start running.
3. Side leg swings – face a wall and lean against it with both palms flat. Swing your straight leg left to right in wide arcs between the wall and your standing leg. Do 10 swings on one side, before changing to the other leg. Keep your swinging leg relaxed throughout, and don’t try to swing too far.
4. Tilt walking – you may look a little silly doing this one, but it works! From standing, take a step forward with your right foot and then balance on that forward foot. Lean your body forward at the waist until it is parallel to the floor. While you are doing this, lift you rear leg off the ground, arms can go out to the side for balance. Return back to standing and repeat with the opposite leg. It is important to try and hold your form and balance, so do not rush it. Do this for 30 seconds.