Warm-up before running

People tend to skip the warm-up although it is a very important component of every training. By warming-up you prepare your organism for greater effort. Do a number of simple exercises presented hereinbelow in order to stretch and warm-up the main groups of muscles and avoid injury.

Forward bend

Throughout the entire exercise keep your feet aligned with your shoulders and your legs straight at knees. Count to three: ‘1’ while bending your trunk towards your left leg, ‘2’ while bending your trunk towards your right leg and ‘3’ when your straighten your body up. Then join your legs and try to touch your knees with your head (maintain that position for at least a few seconds). Repeat the entire exercise 30 times.

Forward bend with rotation

Spread your feet to match your shoulders, keep your legs and arms straight; while bending forward make a wide swing of the arms and keep your eyes on your upper arm – repeat 15 times to the left and 15 times to the right.

Hip rotation

Spread your feet to match your shoulders and put your hands on your hips. Make a wide movement with your hips drawing circles around the vertical axis of your body; make 20 rotations in each direction.

Warming-up the Achilles tendon and the biceps femoris muscle

Take a step forward and bend the lead leg at the knee while the trail leg remains straight with the trail foot along the line of the trail leg. Keep your trunk vertical above the ground. Use the weight of your body to push the foot of your trail leg to ground. Repeat the exercise 2 times for 30 seconds.

Knees warm-up

Keep your legs together and slightly bent at knees. Rotate your knees with the help of your hands pushing down on the knees. Continue for approx. 2 minutes.