How to warm up for running

In life, we all know that people who like running always do some warm-up exercises before running, which is very helpful for the body to better adapt to running. In fact, many people understand this principle, and are willing to know that warm-up exercises are important, but they don’t know much about how to do it specifically. So, how do you warm up for running?

1. Warm up and stretch before running

I have previously written an article titled "Nine Principles to Follow in Fitness", in which I wrote that "Training without warm-up and stretching is an incomplete training. If you neglect warm-up and stretching for a long time, you may suffer from long-term injuries." Do not neglect warm-up and stretching when doing any training!

Warm-up stretching before running mainly focuses on two aspects: moving the joints and warming up and stretching the muscle groups.

Here is a general pre-run warm-up stretching routine:

1. First, move your knee joints (shake your knees), ankle joints (shake your legs on tiptoe), hip joints (pinch your waist with both hands and rotate your waist back and forth), wrist joints (hold your hands together and shake your wrists), cervical vertebrae (rotate your neck), and waist rotation (twist your waist left and right to activate your spine), then do 10 to 20 squats and jog for 1 lap (400 meters) to warm up. (In fact, these warm-up exercises were learned in physical education class)

2. After coming back, do some simple stretching, mainly stretching the quadriceps, hamstrings, back muscles, buttocks and calf muscles. (Keep each movement for about 15 seconds)

3. Start a formal run

4. After running, perform systematic stretching exercises. The stretching time should be longer than before running, and each movement should be maintained for about 30 seconds. If conditions permit, you can also do a massage to relax your muscles. If there is no one to help you with the massage, you can use a "foam roller" for auxiliary massage, which is also very effective.

The above content is a detailed introduction on how to do warm-up exercises for running. I hope it will be helpful to everyone. Because warm-up exercises before a competition or regular fitness exercises are very beneficial, it will not harm you to choose some appropriate warm-up exercises according to your personal physique at this time.