Move With Us Through A Running Warm Up
Today’s Move With Us takes us through a great warm up to do before you go for a run. Quite often we neglect warming up and forget how important it is to activate our muscles and mobilise our bodies before we exercise.
This 5 minute warm up targets the major muscle groups that we need to fire to run at our best, as well as mobilising through our back and hips so that we’re free to move!
Try to incorporate this warm up before your next run and see how you feel! And don’t forget to have a look at our previous Move With Us through an after run stretch for afterwards too.
Calf Raises
Our calf muscles are very important in dealing with the load running places through our joints
Standing with your legs hip distance apart, lift your heels off the ground into a calf raise
Feeling the squeeze through the back of your lower legs, slowly and controlled lower your heels back down to the ground
Try to keep your heels in line with your feet and not rotate inwards or outwards
Repeat 8-12 times
Lunge with Knee Drive
Standing with your knees hip distance apart, step back with one leg into a lunge trying to keep your legs hip distance apart
Drop down into a lunge, trying to achieve a 90 degree bend at both knees
Trying to use the glute muscles of the front leg, straighten the front leg to return to standing while driving the back leg through to stop at 90 degrees of hip flexion
This is great at mimicking the running action and making sure your glutes are firing
Repeat 4 times and then do the same on the other leg
Hip Openers
Standing with your feet hip distance apart
Lift and bend one leg to hip height, while opening and moving it out to the side
Touch your foot down on the ground with your hip abducted and externally rotated
Circle back to the centre and touch your foot down in front of you
Repeat 4 times and then do the same on the other side
Thoracic Rotations
Our aim is to encourage more movement through your mid to upper back
Cross your arms across your chest and gently twist to one side as far as is comfortable
Return back to the center and then twist around to the other side
Repeat slowly and continuously 5 times each side or as many as you feel are needed
Standing Book Openers
Our aim is to open up through your chest and help with shoulder and thoracic mobility
While seated bring both arms out in front of you with your palms facing each other
Run your right hand along the inside of your left arm towards your chest while rotating your upper body towards the right
Extend your arm fully and then bring the arm back to the start position
Alternate sides and repeat with the left arm
Remember to keep both shoulders relaxed and down
Make sure your hips stay facing forward and that the rotation is coming from your upper back
Repeat slowly and continuously 5 times on each side or more if desired
We hope you found this helpful! Feel free to repeat this series multiple times through out the week and keep Moving With Us. If you have any questions or need any advice on any of these exercises, please don't hesitate to reach out and chat to us.
Remember that you shouldn’t feel pain during any of these exercises. If they are painful for you, consider avoiding that exercise or decreasing the intensity. We are always here to help if needed.
If you’re after some more advice or are in need of some hands on help, we’d love to see you at Collective Motion! Collective Motion offers Osteopathy, Myotherapy, Dietetics and Pilates and is conveniently located to service our Bentleigh community as well as its surrounding suburbs including Bentleigh East, McKinnon, Ormond, Glenhuntly, Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Oakleigh, Gardenvale, Brighton East and Hampton East. Click below to book an appointment and let us help you get moving again.
