Warm Up

Prior to any rigorous activity it is important that the body is prepared properly. A thorough warm up reduces the risk of injury during the main running session and will improve performance.

As with many areas of sport there are different approaches to warming up and organising a session which can be adopted – here we’ll use probably the most conventional "menu" for a session, which involves doing some or all of the following in this order

The aim of the warm up is to raise the bodies temperature and loosen off the muscles that are going to be used during exercise. We like the idea of jogging prior to dynamic stretches, although these do take some effort and therefore raise the bodies temperature as well - some coaches will go straight into these stretches without a jog.

The length of the warm up (including jog and dynamic exercises) should be about 10-15 minutes.

The stretches done whilst warming up should cover the whole body, including arms and trunk. After the warm up, it is time to start strides and drills.