Proper Warm Up

[Monkey]

I have to say, I'm still struggling a little with my calf muscles tiring quickly as, although this App is fantastic, I have to say, when I went to the gym and got on the treadmill, the trainers always used to say I had to warm up and stretch first before speeding up - but this App says nothing about that - and even on future weeks I notice that there isn't even a brisk 5 mins warm up, instead you go straight into jogging for 25 or 30 mins non stop without warming up - just wondered what other people thought about this? I think I will stretch my muscles on Week 2 (which starts on Monday for me) - hopefully my calf muscles won't feel so fatigued as quickly as they did this week (Week 1). I have to say though, I am thoroughly enjoying, and actually look forward, to my run days - and have noticed even after Week 1 that I am not out of breath as much - but I took the advice from one of you guys on here who said about the deep, controlled breathing, and that definitely made a huge difference tonight! Anyway, interested to hear what others think about stretching/warming up before brisk walking

Luv
Monkey
xxxxxxx

[laurie]

hi glad you are enjoying it so far I think that the 5 minute brisk walk uses most of the muscles you need for the running so I see it as quite a good warm up. however you could maybe try some of your own warm ups before you start. If i remember correctly from GCSE P.E (which was a while ago now so please, any one should feel free to correct me if i'm wrong!) but before you exercise you should do dynamic stretches rather than static ones, it will help losen your muscles before you run. maybe try and find one that works your calves particularly.

heres a webpage i found with a quick google search... there are pictures of different stretches which seems quite good . http://www.momentumsports.co.uk/TtDynamicStretches.asp

hope this helps

[Ruthyo]

You are still instructed to do the 5 min warm up walk and 5 min cool down walk on all runs including 25/30 min ones. When it says 'with no walking' it means during the run.

[benjohn]

Hi Monkey,

Just to emphasise what the others have said, Get Running will instruct you to warm up and cool down for all of the runs, and please do this as it's important to avoiding injury and also to enjoyment of the run!

In the first two weeks, in the descriptive run text, the warm up and cool down are explicitly emphasised, and this is made briefer in later weeks to save on visual space. I'm thinking about amending this though: other users have thought (as you have) that this indicated that these later weeks did not require a warm up or cool down.

Thanks for your feedback, and please do the warm up and cool down!

Thanks,
Benjohn

[Monkey]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your feedback - much appreciated.

I certainly will continue to do the warm up and warm down - and I always do stretches after my warm down - but I think I might try some of the dynamic stretches (thanks Laurie!) before I do my warm ups - mainly the calf muscle stretches. I wonder though if I'm walking too quickly (I always walk at 6m per hour) - and I wonder if I should slow that down? I'll see tonight when I start Week 2. So, on Week 9, it's actually 40 mins of exercise, which is 5 mins warm up, 30 mins running and 5 mins of warm down?

Thanks!!

Luv
Monkey
xxxxxxx

[Mimsy Star Delux]

Hi Monkey

Yep that's right, it still puts five mins walk at each end of the runs as you progress. I always do tonnes of stretches before and then walk on the treadmill at 5k while I get my music and apps on the go and then up it to 6k walking when I start the program... It means I do a little bit longer than the app states but stops me getting lead legs half way through!

[Monkey]

Cheers Mimsy - is that you Emma?

Luv
Monkey
xxxxxxx

[Mimsy Star Delux]

It sure is... I'm using the full title on here!!