TLDR;
Three days ago on Tuesday I broke down the science of stretching vs warm up, and why most people get it wrong.
Today, I’ll be going into how I approach warm up as a coach working with athletes running 50, 100, and 160 km+ races.
You might not even need to warm up if the race is in the hundreds of kilometers.
The window of most benefit is smaller than one would expect.
How media culture has normalised stretching as a warmup with an aesthetic quick bend and call it a day.
Do you even need to warm up…?
On Tuesday we learned that the primary benefit of warming up is to reduce injury and improve muscle performance.
And while that’s obviously important in many contexts (sprints, medium- and short-distance races) the reality is that when you look at ultra running it plays a relatively small part.
Anyone who’s familiar with the ultra scene will know the average pace is pretty slow, especially compared to something like a marathon… there’s a reason people call ultras a “fast hike”.
In such low intensity movements, the movement itself might even act as a warm up.
Slowly shuffling the legs at the start line as the dense crowd slowly splits up, those 10-20 minutes is a perfect example of healthy warm up.
So in that scenario the slow gentle running is the warm up for itself.
And ultimately, the best way to warm up for any activity is simply to do the activity; but at a much lower intensity.
In such low intensity movements the risk of injury is very low, and not warming up is unlikely to cause immediate injury.
So if you’re standing at the start line of an ultra seeing people run around, do stretches, and various movements don’t let yourself be caught up in it.
Save your energy, and know that the running itself will be enough of a warm up.
But then what about my training runs?
You might even be warming up at the wrong moment
For many, finding a safe and enjoyable spot to run requires a short walk, bike, or car ride. That’s all fine and dandy, but what happens to the warm up then?
Some do it before, and some after arriving to their running location of choice. But only one is doing it right;
The benefit of warming up mostly disappears after 15 minutes.
So if you’re the type of runner who maybe does some active stretching before hopping in the car, you’re likely better off doing it upon arrival.
Might sound obvious, but I see people getting straight out of their car and immediately put the shoes to the ground and start jogging.
It might be fine to do for some, but regardless, it massively increases the risk of injury.
What I recommend
So as a coach I always recommend to spend about ten minutes right before you start running on some gentle active stretches.
Leg swings front to back, side to side, or simple squats.
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How I approach warm up as a coach and ultra runner myself
To be honest, in the end it’s a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.
In a perfect world I always do a short couple minutes routine of squats, calf raises, leg swings, forward lounges, and single leg straight-knee jumps. About 40-60 seconds each.
But I’ll be honest and say that the reality looks pretty different.
Most of the time I do some leg swings and high knees while walking the first 10-15 minutes of my session.
Generally that works for me, but I also know it’s not optimal. Neither for performance or injury prevention.
In ultra distances I’m even worse
My most recent ultra distance was when I ran the entire length of Portugal over 10 days (744 km).
Most days I did absolutely zero warm up. Just hit woke up, put the shoes on, and started pounding the asphalt.
That’ not ideal, especially for that type of distance, but it is also the truth.
So I hope you found this more opinionated take on warming up before your runs useful.
And remember, do as I say, not as I do.
If any of this seemed confusing you’re more than welcome to book a 1:1 call with me, completely free, no strings attached.