Doing a warm-up or stretch exercise first before a strenuous activity such as training or exercising has always been the norm. Athletes, whether they’re amateurs or professionals still do warm-up stretches before a big game, event, or their training regiment.

Benefits of Full-Body Warm-Up Stretches

There are many benefits to doing full-body warm-up stretches before you get into a race or training.

Warming up helps you perform better

In simple terms, dynamic stretching and warm-up exercises prepare your body for the strain that it will go through during a workout. This is the same when you first start your car’s engine. You don’t immediately go from parked to 60kph in a few seconds, it takes a bit of time before it can perform at its max efficiency.

Your body is the same. You need some time first before you can do heavy lifting or exercises to the best of your ability.

Avoid getting injured

No one wants to get injured. It limits your movement at best and it can stop you from training altogether at worst. Oh, and it hurts!

By doing warm-up exercises, your muscles and tendons become more pliable. This means you get more range of motion and they can stretch to their max capacities. Because of this, you avoid tearing your muscles and tendons.

Imagine your tendon like a dough. It starts with being stiff and brittle wherein sudden force can rip it. But, knead it a bit and it starts becoming more flexible. Warming up is roughly the same concept.

Prepares your blood circulation

Imagine resting for one second then running at 150 SPM cadence the next. What do you think that sudden jump would do to your heart?

Doing full-body warm-up stretches also allows your heart to keep up with your activity. It gets prepared to do serious work because of the warm-up which not only avoids serious injury but improves your blood circulation as well which is important for your muscles as you train or perform.

How to do Full-Body Warm-Up Stretches

When it comes to running, the majority of your body is involved. While your legs get the most beating, you also use other muscles such as your core and arms.

This is why it’s important to make sure you involve your entire body when it comes to warm-up stretches. That being said, here’s what you can do:

Stand Tall and Reach Up

Start with standing tall and reaching up high as your first warm-up exercise. This targets most of the muscles in your arms, back, and spine, loosening them up. This feels particularly good for your spine which is an important part of any training.

To do this:

1. Stand up straight in place with your feet apart.
2. Interlace your fingers or put them together in a praying position
3. Slowly raise your arms up above your head and try to reach as high as you can
4. Hold this pose for at least 20 seconds

When doing this stretch, remember to keep your heels on the ground. At the same time, try to keep your neck muscles relaxed and keep your head looking straight forward.

You can do some variations of this by bending your spine to the left or right to give it a bit more stretch.

Squat

This is a simple but really effective warm-up stretch that targets your lower body which is, again, a really important part of run training and racing. This has been around since forever, and for good reason.

To do this:

1. Stand straight with your feet in a good, wide stance
2. Stretch your arms forward for balance
3. Start sitting back as if you’re sitting down on a chair
4. Hold this position for at least 20 seconds

In doing a squat, make sure to keep your knees stay behind your toes. Keep looking forward, your chest up, and your back straight.

The Founder

When it comes to back warm-up stretches, the founder is one of the best. It also reinforces proper movement aside from strengthening your entire back.

To do this:

1. Start with a wide stance similar to the squat with knees slightly bent, keeping your weight on your heels
2. Pull your hips back so that your knees are aligned with your ankles
3. Keep your chest up and place your arms to your sides
4. Take a big breath and stretch your arms as high as you can
5. Take another big breath and start bending your hips forward until your hands touch the ground slightly. Keep your weight behind you.
6. Hold this position for at least 10 seconds
7. Slowly raise up back to starting position

You can do this warm-up 2 or 3 times.

Plank

If you want to strengthen your core, the plank is a great exercise to do. A strong and warmed up core muscle is very valuable in many activities, especially running.

To do this:

1. You can use a mat or towel on the ground.
2. Get in a push-up position with your arms stretched
3. Bend your arms so that your forearms and elbows now support your upper body
4. Your toes support your lower body
5. Engage your core muscles and buttocks and hold this for at least 60 seconds

By doing full-body warm-up stretches, you essentially ensure that your body is prepared for the rigors of a race or the training that’s needed in order to complete one.