How to Warm Up

Before any physical exercise I would highly encourage a warm up. No, not a jog around the field or that thing people do right before a race where they straighten one leg out and point their toes up and bend over to stretch their hamstring. I am talking about a real warm up. Let's think about the phrase, "warm up." The name implies the entire goal, which is to get hot. If you are not sweating by the end of your warm up, I dare say that you did not warm up. We'll get into all that later though. 

Why do we warm up?

A warm up is necessary for two main reasons: 1. To help your body better succeed in the intensity ahead. 2. To prevent yourself from getting injured. 

In college I ran a lot of races, but normally for track I would run the 800meter and the 1500meter. These two events allowed for a lot of time to spectate. I would bounce around from event to event cheering on my teammates, and analyzing what people were doing and why they were doing it. One day I was watching one of my teammates get ready for his 100meter race. This guy was the real deal, I watched him run a 10.4 in the 100meter and he could not have been taller than 5ft. However, rewind to me watching him. I had actually just finished warming up for the 1500meter. I was getting some last minute encouragement before I headed to the line. I go run my race, get some water, talk to some people, do a cool down jog, and when I come back this guy is still warming up. Side note incase you do not know the order of track events, the 100meter is a long time after the 1500meter. This guy warmed up for maybe an hour. He did all this to race for 10.4 seconds. He was preparing his body for the intensity of those 10.4 seconds. Let's explore a little further why.

Helping your body succeed

I know many, if not all of you, probably won't be running sub 11 seconds 100meters, but the principle still applies. When we run hard, we demand a lot from our body. We are triggering a survival mechanism that prioritizes getting out of whatever situation we are in over everything else. When we run our digestive system shuts down. We begin to divert oxygen from everywhere in our body to send to our legs. Our body begins to raise its core temperature and in response we begin to perspire. Every stored amount of energy gets prepared to be used. If you run hard enough for long enough your body even begins to produce energy without the use of oxygen. This ranks in the most primal feelings I believe someone can experience. Your body will then produce lactic acid in exchange for this energy. This is your body saying we have to get away from whatever is chasing us, and we are dipping into the negative to do it. When you run to the point of producing lactic acid your body is quite literally using energy you do not have. Your body can only produce energy this way before the pain gets too great or you throw up from so much lactic acid. Really makes you want to run right? 

The warm up in essence helps to delay all of these things as long as possible. Doing a proper warm up allows your body to get adjusted to the new core temperature and activate the perspiration process gradually. A warm up allows the heart to slowly increase in speed and demand of blood flow. It allows your brain to relax with the fight or flight instinct and give a slow drip of adrenaline rather than an all at once style dose. When you warm up you actually open up capillaries that were previously closed which allows more blood to reach your muscles quickly and efficiently. That blood carries oxygen that your lungs are able to provide through deep breaths rather than shallow panicked ones. The oxygen rich blood keeps your body from needing to produce energy without oxygen (anaerobic respiration), which in turn keeps you from producing lactic acid as quickly. If you successfully do this, you will stave off fatigue associated with anaerobic respiration. If you skip the warm up process your body is forced to trying to adapt while running. This can result in a poor performance. 

Preventing Injury

Muscles

Throughout the course of a warm up it affects our muscles in three main ways: 1. it increases their temperature. 2. It increases their elasticity. 3. It increases their viscosity. Whenever we injure a muscle it is almost always a type of tear. You may hear it called something else (strain, tear, pull), but to a large degree these are all types of tears. Muscles are layers and layers of fibers that all run one way. It is when these fibers separate, sometimes microscopically; sometimes entirely, that we encounter an injury. This normally happens when we demand too much from the muscle. It is like in an overly dramatic action movie when someone is hanging off the edge of a tall structure, but barely hanging onto a rope. The viewer is slowly panicked because they can see the rope begin to fray and unravel. Then narrowly at the last second someone grabs their hand before it completely rips. Alright, well your muscle is the rope. When you put too much strain on it, it will begin to tear and fray. A warm up helps discourage this in the three ways listed above.

When the temperature of the muscle is increased the speed at which it can contract and relax is too. Let's say you are trying to kick the last 200meters of your race. The speed at which you are contracting and relaxing your muscles has suddenly increased. If your muscles are not properly warm (temperature wise) then they will not be capable of meeting the demands your nervous system is placing on them, and failure will result. 

In the same illustration above, imagine now that the rope is now elastic. If it were elastic enough it could safely lower the person dangling all the way to the ground without worrying about tearing. When you warm up you are allowing your muscles to do the same thing. You are not just lengthening the muscle but you're making it more akin to a rubber band than a rope. If a rope is met with too much tension it tears. If a rubber band is met with too much tension it lengthens. When your body is at rest the muscle is closer to a rope than a rubber band, but after 20 minutes of light exercise it moves up on the elastic spectrum. 

Viscosity sounds complicated, but really it is simply fluid inside your muscles that prevent it from contracting too quickly. Alright, this is the last time I will use the rope illustration I promise. Imagine you have two trucks back to back with a rope tied to their trailer hitches. On the count of three you tell one to take off full speed. The result, a disaster. Someone is going to ruin their truck or the rope is going to break. In this illustration your muscle is still the rope and your joints are the trucks. Now imagine the same situation, except now the truck slowly pulls forward until the rope is tight. Now instead of breaking the rope or trucks, one truck just pulls the other. This is the role that muscle viscosity plays. When we are running hard our muscle contractions begin to happen more frequently with greater intensity than our muscle relaxations. The fluid inside your muscles help keep a proper balance so this does not happen. 

Joints

Your joints receive kind of the same thing your muscles do, but in different ways. Through a proper warm up your joints will do two main things: Increase their range of motion and become more lubricated. 

Increasing range of motion is definitely a long term goal, but it is achieved gradually by every warm up and cool down. This is done by frequently moving the joint to a position it rarely assumes. A great example to this would be various Eastern cultures. Many cultures of the East frequently assume a squat position more than cultures of the West. My friend has coached in a few CrossFit gyms around the world, and a few of them were in Thailand. He was describing to me how his new athletes were progressing and learning, when he started to rave about their squat positioning. Nearly everyone in the class could achieve a proper squat formation. This is compared to the nearly 50% he experienced coaching in the United States. It is simply because they assume that position frequently. When we warm up we control the speed at which we our joints experience a new position. We give the ligaments time to adapt to the position rather than forcing them into the position under heavy amounts of stress. If you fail to allow them the time to be comfortable in the new position, the bones of the joint will collide, separate, or over extend causing damage to the ligaments and sometimes bones. Think of spraining your ankle by stepping in a hole. The foot is forced to a position it never assumes under a great amount of stress. This causes the  ligament to stretch too far, and results in swelling, pain, tenderness, and weakness. If you run hard without a proper warm up, you will put a great deal of stress on your ligaments without allowing them time to lengthen. 

Lubrication of joints is a tricky topic because an over lubrication is possible. However, this over lubrication is normally the result of extensive use or too intense of use without proper time to adapt. It is important to note that diet plays a large factor of joint lubrication as well. However, we will be talking about the role a warm up plays. Much like a warm up chances the viscosity of your muscle it also does so with your joints. This is controlled by a substance called synovial fluid. Synovial fluid is basically a buffer between the two bones of your joint. The fluid allows them to move more freely without friction. When your body is at rest your ligaments absorb the synovial fluid, but when you begin moving it releases it based on the demands of the body. Without a proper warm up your joints will not have the adequate amount of synovial fluid and will put a lot of stress on the ligaments. A warm up releases the fluid at a slow and controlled rate that allows your joints time to adjust to the stress and strain.

How to Warm Up

Finally, the moment you've been waiting for. A good warm up has these four qualities: Gradual, Intense, General, and Specific.

Gradual- The warm up begins at a low intensity and throughout its duration it incrementally increases in intensity. 

Intense- At the climax of the warm up, the intensity is equal to or greater than the intensity of the exercise.

General- The warm up implements as many areas of the body as possible. Most of the muscle groups, most of the joints, and the cardiovascular system. 

Specific- The warm up targets the main muscles and functions that will be performed in the exercise.

Running Warm Up Example

.5 miles of a very slow jog.

Dynamic stretching of the arms, neck, trunk, hips, and legs. I like the one this guy does here.

Leg swings

Plyometric exercises for legs

2 X 100 meter strides with a 100 meter slow jog in between.

This warm up is gradual through the intensity of movements, it reaches a high intensity with the strides and plyometrics, it is general with the dynamic stretching and slow jog, and specific with the plyometric exercises and strides. It is important to take the warm up slow and controlled, make sure you get a sweat on but you aren't too tired, and that you allow yourself enough time to relax before the actual exercise. I suggest 5-15 minutes of relaxation before your actual exercise. Do not sit during this time, stay walking and moving. 

Having a good warm up is useless unless you implement it regularly. I use the warm up above before speed workouts twice a week, before races, and sometimes on off days if I am extra sore. The warm up is a great way to get the blood flowing and speed the recovery process. 

Good Luck,

Josh Moore (Coach)