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How much, how long? It may take only a few minutes to warm up for a recreational run, before competition it could be 40 minutes, carefully planned so that you fit in each item of your preparation to finish no more than 5 or 10 minutes before the race begins. What if the race is delayed? Keep warm if you have to wait for any reason before your run, go through some of your warming-up routine again. Put jogging bottoms and jacket on once warm, remove trousers before approaching the starting line but keep the jacket on until you begin. The sweat that you have created during your warm up will be mostly on your upper body. Marathons can have delays of up to half an hour before all competitors begin, plan how you are going to keep warm during this time. Can you get warmed up any other way? Not properly. Beware of hot muscle rubs, they merely irritate, drawing blood to the skin making it feel hot; the action of rubbing them onto your limbs is the most useful warming of the muscles that they do. There is no substitute for the action of the muscles themselves. A hot bath can be a useful prelude to exertion. What is warming down? A gradual decrease in activity so that the continued use of muscles flushes out the waste products from the hard work they have done. This can help prevent the aching the next day due to build up of lactic acid in the muscles. Ten minutes of gentle movement at the end of strenuous exercise will help recovery. Catherine Holland NAMMT (RM) Practising in Oxford and Abingdon Tel: 0701 7415310 | ||
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CATHERINE HOLLAND Tel: 0701 7415310 Email: catherine@catherineholland.co.uk | |
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