A Good Start: Looking Closer at Our Warmup

The Warmup for
​the Warmup

In the last few weeks, we've examined the overall structure of our summer training, from the weekly structure to individual training parameters.  Most recently we've also explored shoes and watches, the two greatest tools for runners in our program.  

In the coming weeks, I want to begin discussing the individual components of our summer training.  That begins with the activity that starts every one of our sessions:  the warmup.  I've briefly discussed before the importance of a dynamic warmup, but this week I want to look at our warmup more closely, unpacking its various aspects and the roles they play in our training.

The Purpose of a Warmup​

The warmup we adopted last year was a significant departure from what our program did previously.  Many might still question why a change was necessary, whether the new components are worthwhile and the dropped portions--namely static stretching and preliminary running--were expendable. 

I do wish to address those concerns, but I want to start by analyzing the purpose of a warmup.  This will provide a perspective from which to judge whether certain components of a warmup are more or less valuable.

From my viewpoint, a warmup should serve five main purposes, each of which can be summarized by one of the first five letters of the alphabet:

A--Aerobic Activation:  A good warmup raises the heartrate, This increases the flow of blood to the muscles, allowing them greater supply of the oxygen and nutrients they need to produce the energy required for the run.

B--Biomechanical Buildup:  The increased blood flow also raises body temperature (literally a warmup).  This makes muscles more pliable, allowing them to function properly with less risk of injury.  A good warmup also includes movements promoting the flow of synovial fluid around joints, lubricating them for greater motion.  These movements further increase elasticity in tendons and ligaments to extend range of motion.

C--Circuitry Calibration:  A good warmup primes the nervous system, providing more efficient communication between the brain and the rest of the body.  This allows the recruitment of more muscle fibers during activity.  It also permits faster feedback from extremities, enhancing balance, coordination, and proprioception.  A warmup can even stimulate the release of endorphins that help the body cope with the stress of a workout.  From a psychological standpoint, the consistency that a warmup provides can give a runner a sense of control against the uncertainties of a challenging workout or race.

D--Diagnostic Data:  This quality is often overlooked.  By mimicking the motions required for running, a good warmup serves as a sort of test drive.  With experienced coaches and/or athletes, this can mean a screen for any imbalances, limited motion, or soreness.  Those might signal the need for closer attention and possibly additional treatment or modifications to the scheduled workout.  This can prevent a minor niggle from being forced toward a more serious injury.

E--Efficiency Education:  This is a quality that is also underemphasized.  A good warmup provides opportunity to practice the mechanics required for efficient running in a slower and more controlled setting than out on the roads.

Checking the Boxes

Having considered the goals of a warmup, we can now look at the components of ours to see how it fares under evaluation.

Our warmup comes from the expertise of Coach Jeff Boele.  Coach Boele has worked with all levels of athletes, from middle school runners to professionals.  He's studied under world-caliber track and field coach Dan Pfaff.  He coached state champion teams at Lyons High School in Colorado and served last year as a consultant for the girls team at Niwot, champions at Nike Nationals.  There are few people at the high school level who have put more time and energy into refining the strength and mobility work of runners.

One can find a video of Jeff's athletes completing the warmup here and a full list of the exercises here.  But in general, our warmup has three parts:  low skips, hip and thoracic mobility, and sprint mechanics.  Together they form a structure that checks quite a few boxes, as seen below.

Aerobic Activation:  Our warmup certainly has the ability to raise the heartrate, especially during the skipping phases.  I've seen this firsthand, particularly on warmer days.  However, it isn't extremely intense, meaning the heartrate and core temperature will rise slowly.

Biomechanical Buildup:  At a fundamental level, running is just a series of single-leg hops and/or squats.  So is skipping, only with limited intensity.  The various components of our warmup contain similar motions to running.  They are going to activate muscles, work connective tissues, and prime joints in the ways necessary.  Furthermore, components like side shuffles and 360s introduce movements in the frontal and transverse planes, areas where runners tend to be weak and prone to injury.

Circuitry Calibration:  The complex motions of components like windmills, giddyups, and B-Skips require coordination that draws significantly upon the central nervous system.  We also do this warmup every single day, even before races.  This can definitely serve as a psychological anchor, helping a runner see races in continuity with all of the work they've already done in practice.

Diagnostic Data:  Most of the components of our warmup come in pairs.  These often function as a forward-backward or left-right dyad.  This allows runners and coaches to make a relative comparison.  Maybe during the eagles the left leg has more extension than the right.  This could be a sign of some sort of imbalance/weakness on one side.  Or maybe a runner's arms aren't getting as high during the jumping jacks as in previous days.  This could be a sign of shoulder soreness that needs to be addressed.

Efficiency Education:  The various skips are all a chance to work on motions like dorsiflexion that can then carry over into running.  The form drills at the end of our warmup are so named because they reinforce an efficient running form. 
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I'm not willing to say that our warmup is the perfect one.  I honestly don't think such a thing exists across every runner.  However, it does check all of the boxes, and that's what makes it a good fit for our program.

Coaches John O'Malley, John Sipple, and Jeff Boele all ran together at Sandburg High in the 1990s. Since then they've each gone on to coach a team to a state title.

Clearing Up the
Static Stretching

Even though our warmup has many desirable qualities, it took the place of the longstanding practice of a short run and static stretching.  And so it's natural to wonder if a change was really necessary or whether we fixed something that wasn't really broken.

There are a number of contentious topics within the running community.  Like running shoes, static stretching--holding a muscle or group of muscles in a single position for an extended period of time--elicits all sorts of debate.  

Many coaches swear by it.  Some see it as an unhelpful waste of time, while still others profess that it decreases performance and increases injury risk when done before runs.  To make matters worse, the scientific research on the topic isn't particularly clarifying, with studies out there used as evidence for each of the above positions.

However, not all opinions come with equal authority.  Success and expertise win priority.  That means listening to the coaches of successful programs like Jeff Boele, Scott Christensen, and Jeff Messer.  I was with some 200 coaches at the Boulder Running Clinics in January, many of whom have coached state champions.  Not one of them mentioned static stretching as part of a warmup.  That doesn't necessarily mean they don't include, but it wasn't something they prized enough to discuss.

Beyond coaches, I value the thoughts of physical therapists and exercise physiologists who specialize in running, People like Jay Dicharry, Matt Phillips, Greg Lehman, Brad Walker, and David Behm match that description. Each has their own opinion.  Not all of them are vehemently opposed to static stretching in a warmup.  However, not a single one of them opposes a dynamic warmup or recommends a strictly static warmup.  At best one or two suggest static stretching in conjunction with a dynamic warmup.

Across the array of "experts", the majority don't include static stretching in their warmup.  That majority could be wrong, but in the absence of definitive evidence, I'm going to side with those who have coached some of the top high school teams in the nation or studied and/or worked with some of the world's best runners.  That means excluding static stretching from the warmup.

Does that leave no place for static stretching?  Not necessarily.  A larger number of the individuals above recommend static stretching after a run as part of a cooldown.  While the research data here is also mixed, some of them suggest it could either serve as a diagnostic for mobility and/or stimulate hormones associated with recovery.

Brad Walker is literally known in the sporting community as "The Stretch Coach". While he believes that static stretching is valuable, even he thinks dynamic work serves the better role before a run.

Should a Warmup
Include Running?

In addition to stretching, the warmups of many programs (like ours in previous seasons) include running.  And like stretching, the question is whether that's helpful.

If the point of a warmup is to prepare the body for running, then at first glance it does seem odd for that warmup to be running itself.  And in the case of easier running, that intuition is reasonable.  If someone is preparing to run at their slowest pace, then a running warmup isn't really any different than simply starting to run.  In fact, it could sometimes be worse.  Numerous times I've seen people run an 8:30 mile as a "warmup" in preparation for an easy run at a pace of 10:00 per mile.  That's like doing a one-rep max bench press as a warmup for some pushups.  Someone can't prepare for something strenuous by doing something as or more strenuous.  

For easy days, the slower controlled exercises of the dynamic warmup--and maybe some walking--are more than sufficient as an onramp to the running.  Only for up-tempo days--aerobic workouts, race-pace workouts, and races themselves--is a running warmup advantageous.  Even then it needs to begin as an easy run ... possibly even a jog.

A warmup can be thought of as an onramp. The faster the highway, the greater the need for an extended ramp.

Ready to Run

I don't think the running community has settled on the perfect warmup.  Room for much more research and analysis remains.  A year or two from now the knowledge might change, and our program's warmup with it.  So while I wouldn't say our warmup is a "best practice", it is a practice of the best.  To summarize that practice, I would say the following:
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• A good warmup increases heartrate, prepares muscles and connective tissue, primes the nervous system, allows a diagnosis of mobility, and teaches good mechanics.
• Our warmup does a fair job of each of these.
• If there is a place for static stretching--especially the kind designed to lengthen a muscles--it seems to be after a run.
• Slower running is a key component of a warmup on faster days but isn't necessary on easy days.

Now that we're warmed up to explore the core of our summer training, next week we can look at the easy/recovery days that make up the majority of our work.