A runner's warm up, from a physio

Most runners either skip the warm up entirely or spend five minutes doing static stretches in a car park. Neither is doing much.

What a warm up is actually for

Three things. Raising your temperature so tissue is more compliant, waking up the muscles you're about to use, and getting your nervous system ready for the pace you're about to run at.

Holding a hamstring stretch for thirty seconds does none of those particularly well before a run.

The five minute version

This is what we'd suggest for most runs. It takes about five minutes and it beats what most people currently do by some distance.

1. Walk or jog easy, two to three minutes

Genuinely easy. You're raising your temperature, not starting the session.

2. Leg swings, ten each way per leg

Forwards and back, then side to side. Controlled, not flung.

3. Walking lunges, ten total

Opens the hips and gets the glutes involved.

4. Calf raises, fifteen

Both feet is fine. This is the one runners skip and it matters, because your calves take an enormous amount of the load.

5. Thirty seconds of gentle skipping or high knees

Gets you off the ground and ready for impact.

Then build into the run

Start slower than your target pace for the first five to ten minutes. If you're doing intervals or anything fast, add a couple of gradual accelerations before the first hard effort.

What about stretching?

Static stretching before a run isn't harmful in the amounts most people do, and it isn't doing much for injury risk either. If you enjoy it, keep it for afterwards or for a separate session.

Mobility work has its place. Before a run isn't really it.

The bit that actually reduces injuries

Warming up helps you feel better in the first mile. What reduces running injuries over a season is strength training, sensible increases in mileage and dealing with niggles early.

Warm up because it makes the run better. Do the strength work because it keeps you running.