I bet you’re thinking, what’s she talking about, heh? Well, I am talking about all those funny looking running drills that you are SUPPOSED to do before you run any distance, but don’t- since you left the cozy nest of high school and college coaching years!!! Here’s a memory; Coach Ede yelling at us “kick your butt!!” followed by “high knees” and I don’t remember what else. Wasn’t much of a listener when I was 16.
Well, guess what, those drills were important and it’s time to bring them BACK TO LIFE.
For me, when running a 5km race or participating in a bike race, I would never show up to the starting line without being sweaty first. Ha. That would be a bit ridiculous! Why, do you ask? Cause in a bike race you will jack your heart rate up immediately- like in the first lap and you better be ready for it. And in a running race, you need to be warm and ready so that you can go HARD at the start. For me, it’s hard to accept this when you are just going out for a casual run, but, it is still as important. For any run or any distance.
I have no idea how long dynamic warm-ups have been around but I went through all my running books tonight looking for clues as to WHY I need to kick my butt before a run.
Here’s the lowdown:
Running Well: Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy found that a warm-up performed at 60 percent of maximal effort resulted in a 6 percent improvement in aerobic performance and a 7 percent improvement in anaerobic performance. (page 25)
Warming up reduces the risk of injury (page 25)
Coach Al:
He says that a dynamic warm-up should be done before any workout whether it’s running or strength training. He says that you need to do a dynamic warm-up to wake up your nervous system to be ready to run.
Running for Mortals: By John Bingham and Coach Jenny Hadfield:
They call the warm-up the “appetizer” and it gradually increases blood flow to the working muscles, heart and lungs.
Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald: Refers to the warm-up as dynamic flexibility and it is written into his running plans on high intensity days. “Dynamically stretching your muscles before running will gently warm, loosen, and lubricate (really lubricate??) your muscles, preparing them to perform better in the workout that follows (page 125).
What should you do?
High Knees
Butt Kicks
Crossovers
Fast Feet
Backward Walking
Power Skips
One leg hops
Paw Back Leg Swings
Lateral Leg Swings against a wall
Finally, a link to a Runner’s World post of some dynamic warm-ups! (link)
Get back into the “swing of things” and add a 5 minute warm-up to all your runs!!!!
8 responses so far ↓
1 MizFit // Jan 13, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Can we make this a BUTTKICKINGPAYITFORWARD?
Coach Al kicks yours and you come over and kick mine?
2 Amanda // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:06 pm
wow, I always always walk to warm up but have never done any of the others. I will have to start doing this too…good in the winter especially cause i warm up faster
3 Jim White // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I have to admit that I Do Kick My Butt!
But there’s a bunch of other stuff here that we can do now. Thanks for the list!
4 kch // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I do some of these – butt kicks, high knees, leg swings, crossovers – but not before every run. I do try to do them before speedwork though.
kchs last blog post..Do You Use Visualizations When You Run?
5 Jill Will Run // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I have thought about incorporating drills into my workouts after this marathon. It’s just that I worry about what it would look like! The main entrance to my community is about 1/2 mile from my house. So I usually walk there, then start my run from that point. I can’t imagine bounding, skipping and butt-kicking past all my neighbors to get there!
Jill Will Runs last blog post..Road ID
6 Joe Hrdlicka // Jan 13, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I regularly do workouts featuring these exercises. It’s a great way to warm up or just do something different. You can either build a workout doing these activities for a certain length of time or I like to do them for a minute in between weight exercises to add a little cardio spice to a weights workout.
Joe Hrdlickas last blog post..Are You Running Safe?
7 Fit Mommy // Jan 13, 2009 at 9:27 pm
@Miz- I’ll try next time I’m in Texas!
@Jill- I do the butt kicks on the way out of my street. Let them look. They are sitting in their houses being unfit, so you are doing the right thing.
8 ttfn300 // Jan 15, 2009 at 3:04 am
funny, i’ve done some of these before a race, but not my everyday runs… guess i should get to it
ttfn300s last blog post..Pear Gorgonzola Risotto
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