It’s all in the warm up

by Georgina Spenceley

Warming up may not be at the top of your priority list, especially when you have limited time for a workout, but taking a few minutes to raise your heart rate, get increased blood pumping (and therefore oxygen) to your muscles, and priming your nervous system can make all the difference to how a session feels. Especially when you’re doing a faster effort or time trial. The jury is still out as to whether it significantly reduces injury risk, but it certainly doesn’t increase it, so what have you got to lose?!

A warmup doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated either, and the simple steps outlined in this post mean you won’t need any more space than your trusty NoblePro treadmill provides.

Step One

First, get your blood pumping! Set your treadmill to walking pace and spend five minutes here, gradually upping the pace to a fast walk or maybe even a light jog, depending how you feel.

Step Two

Mobilise your muscles and drill your movements. Pause the treadmill and complete some mobilisation of your hips, knees and ankles. The great thing about doing this on the treadmill is you can use the raised surface and treadmill arms to your advantage.

Leg swings. Standing on one leg, perform 8-10 forward and backward leg swings. Repeat on the other side.
Open the gate. Now, standing side on to the treadmill, lift your knee in front of you, rotate it out to the side, and then lower. Alternate legs until you’ve completed 8-10 each side.
Single leg hip hinge & drive. Again, standing on one leg, slowly hinge at the hips to lean forward, trailing your non-standing leg behind you. Then, powerfully drive the trailing leg forward, squeezing the hamstrings and glute of your standing leg to bring you to standing, raising the knee out infront of you. Use your opposite arm to help drive the position and mimic running (holding on with your free arm if you need!). Do 8-10 of these on each leg.
Calf power-ups. Stand with the balls of your feet on the edge of the treadmill and your heels hanging off. Lower until you feel a slight stretch in your calf muscles and then squeeze your calves to lift you up on to tip-toes – try to keep the up phase snappy to stimulate your body’s “power” signals. Repeat until you’ve done this 8-10 times – doing both legs together for beginner or single leg for advanced.
Toe taps. Standing on the floor behind your treadmill, hop from one leg to the other, tapping the toes of your free leg on the top surface of the treadmill. Keep these really snappy and focus on pulling your leg up to tap the toes. Do this 16-20 times (8-10 each leg).

Step Three

Speed bursts. Now to get the treadmill belt moving again… and those legs! Set the treadmill to a comfortable jogging pace and get your heart rate back up for at least two minutes. Now gently up the speed to a fast effort – around 70-90 percent of your all-out pace, and hold that for 10-20 seconds. Lower the pace back to your jogging speed and hold this for 30 seconds. Repeat four more times for a total of five bursts. Really focus on your form in these bursts, as this is what will set your technique for the whole session. A lot of us actually run our most efficiently when we’re running fast, so get those good habits in.

Step Four

Your main set! Now you should be ready to run, having eased your body into movement with a gentle heart raiser, some mobility and muscle prep, as well as stimulating those explosive senses. Of course, if any of the exercises feel too much then scale back to a level that feels appropriate for you.

Let us know how you get on and whether a quick warm up like this helps you to get the most out of your session.

by:

Georgina Spenceley

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