STARTER FOR 10

WARMING UP FOR 10 MINUTES IS A STANDAR DRECO MMENDATION FOR RUNNERS - BUT WHAT EFFECT DOES IT REALLY HAVE? WE FIND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT WARM - UPS

WORDS: DR JULIET MCGRATTAN

WARMING UP

I want you to be honest. Hands up if you warm up before you run? Sometimes my warm-up consists of rushing around the house trying to locate my socks; or simply the first mile of my run. Is that good enough? Does it really matter how well you warm up and, if it does, then what type of warm-up is best?

WARMING UP HEART AND LUNGS

You might have heard of the toxic 10: this is the first 10 (some would argue 20) minutes of a workout, when you feel as if you want to give up. Your body has an amazing capacity to adapt when going from resting to running, but the surge in performance needed to sustain it is controlled by complex chemical and hormonal pathways activated only once your body detects it’s struggling. Suddenly your muscles are screaming out for oxygen – they’re in oxygen debt. It feels unpleasant, but it triggers the very mechanisms that reverse it. Suddenly your heart pumps faster and more forcefully to speed up and increase the circulating blood volume. Your breathing quickens to draw in as much oxygen as possible. Before you know it, you feel good and want to run on. You can’t avoid the toxic 10, it’s just part of your biology. But once you know it happens to everyone, regardless of fitness, it helps you get beyond it and enjoy your run. Warming up will not eliminate the toxic 10, but will gradually prepare your heart and lungs for the increased effort to come. Dr Kay Brennan, Consultant in Sports and Exercise Medicine at onestopdoctors.co.uk, says, “Warming up improves the elasticity of connective tissues and prepares your lungs.