Desk to 3K

Benefits of a warm-up

A good warm-up dilates your blood vessels, ensuring that your muscles are well supplied with oxygen before you give them a vigorous workout. It also raises the temperature of your muscles for optimal flexibility and efficiency. By slowly raising your heart rate, the warm-up also helps minimise stress on your heart when you start your run.

Benefits of a cool-down

The cool-down keeps the blood flowing throughout the body. Stopping suddenly can cause light-headedness because your heart rate and blood pressure might drop rapidly. Winding down slowly allows them to fall gradually.

While you will often hear that the cool-down helps you work lactic acid out of your muscles and prevent delayed onset muscle soreness the next day, research has not found this to be the case.

Should you stretch before or after running?

Stretching used to be part of every warm-up and cool-down, but the evidence doesn't find that it has the benefits it was thought to bring. Static stretching before, during, or immediately after exercise hasn't been proven to prevent injury or delayed onset muscle soreness.

Dynamic stretching after a warm-up has some evidence it might be beneficial for performance. This form of stretching is done with exercises that take your muscles through their full range of motion. Dynamic stretching exercises also mimic the actions you'll be taking in your workout.

Stretching cold muscles is never a good idea, so if you decide to include stretching, do it after you have warmed-up or as part of your cool-down.

How to do a proper warm-up

Take these steps for your warm-up:

1. Do about 5 to 10 minutes of light aerobic exercise to loosen up your muscles and warm you up for your run. Some good prerun warm-up exercises include walking briskly, marching, jogging slowly, or cycling on a stationary bike. Make sure you don't rush your warm-up.
2. If you like doing dynamic stretches or exercises before your run, do walking lunges, squats, spinal rotations, shoulder rolls etc.
3. When you begin your run, don't start out racing, but instead jog slowly at first and gradually build up your speed. You should be breathing very easily. If you feel yourself getting out of breath, slow down.
4. Pay attention to your running posture and form when you begin your run. Ensure you are using the best technique before you speed up.

At the end of your run, take these steps:

After you finish your run, cool down by walking or slowly jogging for 5 to 10 minutes. Your breathing and heart rate should gradually return to normal.

Drink water or sports drink to replenish yourself.

Stretching tips after your run

If you think you benefit from stretches, you can do them after your run or as a separate activity. Typical post-run stretches include the hamstring stretch, quad stretch, calf stretch, low lunge stretch, IT band stretch, butterfly stretch, hip and back stretch, arms and triceps stretch. Use these tips for proper stretching:

• Don't bounce while stretching. Hold still on each stretch for 15 to 30 seconds.
• Don't stretch through pain. Don't stretch beyond the point where you begin to feel tightness in the muscle. You shouldn't push through muscle resistance and never stretch to the point of pain. As you feel less tension, you can increase the stretch a bit more until you feel the same slight pull.
• Make sure you stretch both sides. Don't just stretch your left calf because you feel tightness on that side. Make sure you're stretching both sides equally.
• Don't hold your breath. Stay relaxed and breathe in and out slowly. Make sure you don't hold your breath. Take deep belly breaths.

Look ahead

Your eyes should be focused on the ground about 10 to 20 feet ahead of you. (Don't stare at your feet.) Not only is this proper running form, but it's also a safer way to run because you can see what's coming and avoid falling.

Is your head jutting forward as you run? This puts a lot of stress on the neck and shoulder muscles, which can lead to tension. To make sure you're not leaning forward with your head when you're running, hold it so that your ears are right over the middle of your shoulders.

Imagine yourself as a puppet on a string as you run, with your whole body held long and straight.

Foot placement

Don't be a toe-runner or a heel-striker. If you land on your toes, your calves will get tight or fatigue quickly and you may develop shin pain. Landing on your heels means you have an overstride and you're braking, which wastes energy and may cause injury.

Try to land on the middle of your foot, and then roll through to the front of your toes. If you don't already land midfoot, there are some things you can do to correct your form.

Try practising your stride when running barefoot on a soft surface. While you don't want to run barefoot all the time, people tend to naturally land midfoot when running without shoes.

Make sure you aren’t overstriding – shortening your stride might help correct your landing.

Toes forward

Make sure your toes are pointed in the direction you want to go. Running with your feet pointed in or out could lead to running injuries. If you don't naturally run that way, it may take practice to keep your feet pointed straight. Try doing it for short distances and then increase the time or distance that you run that way. Eventually, you'll start to get used to running with your feet pointed straight and it will feel more natural.

Hands at your waist

Try to keep your hands at waist level, right about where they might lightly brush your hip. Your arms should be bent at a 90-degree angle. Some beginners have a tendency to hold their hands way up by their chest, especially as they get tired. You may actually get even more tired by holding your arms that way and you'll start to feel tightness and tension in your shoulders and neck.

Arms relaxed

As you run, keep your arms and hands as relaxed as possible. Avoid tightening your hands into fists. If you're clenching your hands, the tension will move from there up your arms to your shoulders and neck.

A relaxed fist is ideal. Pretend you're holding an egg in each hand that you don’t want to break.

Posture

Keep your posture straight and erect. Your head should be up, your back straight and shoulders level. Keep your shoulders under your ears and maintain a neutral pelvis. Make sure you're not leaning forward or back at your waist, which some runners do as they get fatigued.

Check your posture once in a while. When you're tired at the end of your run, it's common to slump over a little, which can lead to neck, shoulder, and lower-back pain. When you feel yourself slouching, poke your chest out.

Maintaining good form at the end of your run is important for fighting off fatigue and finishing strong.

Relax your shoulders

Your shoulders should be relaxed and square or facing forward, not hunched over. Rounding the shoulders too far forward tends to tighten the chest and restrict breathing. You'll breathe a lot easier if your shoulders are relaxed.

Don't shrug

Check that your shoulders are not shrugged up close to your ears. If they are, squeeze your shoulder blades together on your back, as if they’re elevator doors that you need to close. Keep them in that position and allow your shoulders to drop.

Periodically check the position of your shoulders to make sure they stay relaxed. If you discover you're shrugging again, repeat the shoulder-blade squeeze manoeuvre.

Keep your arms at your side

Avoid side-to-side arm swinging. If your arms cross over your chest, you're more likely to slouch, which means you're not breathing efficiently. Inefficient or shallow breathing can also lead to side stitches, or cramps in your abdominal area.

When runners get tired or tense, their hands start to move up towards their shoulders, shortening the distance between upper arm and forearm. If you notice this happening, allow your arms to drop by your sides and shake them out. Reposition them at a 90-degree angle with your shoulders back and relaxed.

Rotate your arms from the shoulder

Your arms should swing back and forth from your shoulder joint, not your elbow joint. Think of your arm as a pendulum, swinging back and forth at your shoulder. Drive your elbow backward and then let it swing back toward you.

Your hand should be almost grazing your hip as your arm comes back in front of you.

Your arms should swing by your sides. If they're crossing over your chest, they'll start moving up toward your shoulders and you'll find yourself hunching over. Hunching can make it hard to breathe. Keep your arms at your sides, parallel to each other.

Imagine a vertical line splitting your body in half – your hand should not go past that line.

Don't bounce

If you bounce when you run, known as vertical oscillation, your head and body are moving up and down too much, which wastes a lot of energy. The higher you lift yourself off the ground, the greater the shock you have to absorb when landing and the faster your legs will fatigue.

Try these tips:

• To minimise bound and save energy, run lightly, and land softly on your feet.
• Try to keep your stride low to the ground and foucs on quick stride turnover.
• Take short, light steps, as if you’re stepping on hot coals.

Optimise your form to prevent injury

If you are still struggling with problems related to poor running form, you might want to do a gait analysis. This is often done by a physical therapist who may analyse your Z angle, or the angle formed by the connection of your hip and ankle as you run.

How to find your Z angle

Use a still photo of yourself running, taken from the side when your back foot is still on the ground. The best way to get this sort of photo is to take a still photo or screenshot from a video.

1. Draw a line through the hip joint parallel to the top of your pelvis.
2. Draw another line down your stance leg, from your hip to your ankle.
3. Draw a final line from your ankle joint through your toes.

If you are running with proper form, your final diagram should be Z-shaped.

What to do about poor form

If your analysis reveals problems with your form, you should take steps to correct your technique in order to avoid strain or injury.

If the angle is larger at your ankle than at your hip, it might be indicative of weakness or tightness in your calf muscles. Specific exercises that target this area, such as a towel calf stretch or anterior tibialis strengthening, may help.

If the angle is larger at your hip than at your ankle, it can be a sign of poor hip extension. Exercises such as hip flexor stretches or hip strengthening may help to correct your running form.

Ask your doctor or PT

If you are still experiencing pain that might be related to your running form, it's time to get advice from your doctor or physical therapist. They can make an assessment of your pain, check for possible injury, and recommend any changes or exercises that might help.

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