Warm-Ups and Cool-Downs: Why What You do Before and After a Run Matters
As the summer heat abates and the soles on our running shoes wear out, the calendar continues to tick towards race day. (We’re now less than 3 months from the start of the Berkeley Half Marathon!) The closer you are to a race, the more you focus on hitting your mileage. However, the run itself isn’t the only thing you should focus on; what you do immediately before and after your training sessions matters as much. A thorough warm-up routine and a good cool-down exercise are a necessity.
Written by Lucas Collins
Edited by Pavlína Marek
Back to the Basics
Some may be asking, “Is this really the golden advice you’re giving us?” The answer would be a resounding yes. If you already have good warm-up and cool-down routines, then you’re ahead of the game and that’s great! However, there are a lot of people who don’t. Whichever group you belong to, you’ll find something here for you to learn and improve further!
The Why
Warm-up and cool-down routines are an essential part of your training. They prevent injury and help prepare your body for physical exercise or gradually return it to a resting state. A wellness site backed by Texas A&M lists a range of benefits of warm-ups; they raise your body temperature and increase blood flow, promote muscle elasticity and the range of motion in your joints, and reduce unneeded stress on your heart before jumping into the intense stuff.
Rather unsurprisingly, the goals of a cool-down routine are the inverse of many warm-up ones. As an article from Cleveland Clinic states, it gives your heart a chance to ease back into a resting state instead of bringing on sudden changes to heart rate and blood pressure.
It also helps reduce the amount and severity of muscle cramps as it gives your body time to flush some of the lactic acid out of your system. Furthermore, a good cool-down can further lower your chance of injury by reducing “microscopic tears within the muscle fibers,” and reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.
I’m sure many of you have heard of the “rubber band” metaphor. If you put a rubber band in the fridge and then try to stretch it, it will be a lot more likely to snap. However, when you let it warm back up to room temperature first, the probability of that happening lowers. While the human body isn’t a rubber band, the same kind of principle can apply.
What does a Proper Warm-Up Entail?
As runners, we’ll want to match the movements of our sport. One exercise Harvard Health recommends are step-ups, as shown here. Lunges would also work if you don’t have a good “step.” Skip hops are a great overall warm-up exercise as they also mimic the arm movement of a running person. All in all, the warm-up should last between 5-10 minutes. After that, you’ll be ready to go!
What’s Sufficient for a Cool-Down?
The goal of a cool-down is a gradual stop. There’s a difference between gently pressing and slamming on your car brakes and the same goes for your body.
The Cleveland Clinic article recommends a cool-down to last anywhere from 3-10 minutes, similar to a warm-up. It suggests going with static stretches to “release muscle tension and aid recovery.” (I personally find that taking a little time to transition slowly from running to jogging and, finally, walking helps bring my heart rate down nicely before stretching.)
From hamstring and calf stretches to arm extensions and shoulder circles, many of these are stretches you’ve probably heard of before. (The linked article has good step-by-step instructions for each one if you need to review them.)
The Mental Game
The mind is a tool, too, and as such requires its own warm-up and cool-down routines. Remembering your why, meditating, or simply finding a good playlist for your run can get your brain ready for the run. As motivation can take a day off here and there, it’s important to know what can get you out there and going.
Reflection is a great post-run tool that can be viewed as a cool-down, too. Many athletes have training journals or simply use Strava or other training-specific apps to record their thoughts and feelings. Besides the typical time-and-distance stats, you can focus on other crucial variables, like:
- What place was your mind in?
- Was it easy or hard to get out on the run?
- How did your mental state change during the exercise?
- What did you do right, what went wrong, what will you do differently next time?
- Did you have too much clothes on or too little?
- Did you drink enough?
- How did your nutrition plan work out?
By deconstructing your run, you can gain a lot of valuable insight and better prepare for race day!
Final Words
Preparing yourself by warming up and promoting recovery with a cool-down are, in my opinion, some of the most valuable 10-20 minutes you’ll spend each time you lace up your shoes. I’ll leave you with an anecdote from when I did track & field.
A friend of mine was a long jumper preparing for his event. He was just about done with his warm-ups when they needed him last minute for a sprinting event. He ran the 100m sprint, then almost immediately had to do the long jump. He beat his personal long jump record twice. It was all the evidence we needed; from then on, we took warming up much more seriously. I hope it can bring you the same success!
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