This is being written on a particularly chilly November evening which makes it all the more important to our running community. Let’s take a look at why running injuries are more prevalent in the cold. It is all too easy to grab those running shoes and go from nothing to an all out run. The problem is that, when you do this, you usually end up calling us the next day with a pulled muscle.
Why are running injuries more prevalent in cold weather?
So what is going on here? Why are we more likely to pull a muscle when it is cold? Your muscles are a bit like an elastic band. When they are cold they are less flexible and can take less strain. When they are warm, they are more pliable and they can take more forces and adapt to forces faster. Running injuries are therefore more likely to occur when your muscles are cold.
Our muscles don’t get warm by passive means, so just coming out from a warm house won’t necessarily stop you pulling a muscle. It is blood flow that warms muscles and helps them move more flexibly. Muscles have huge numbers of capillaries that transport blood to the muscles, providing them with oxygen and nutrients that give them the energy to move.
So when you head out for a run, it is important to go through several stages of warm up to get the blood flowing and warm the muscles up.
Stages of Warm up in Running
As Ian often says, if your neighbour were to watch you go out for a run, they should never see you actually running. The start and end of the run involves walking not running.
- Stage 1 – Head out for a slow walk, the colder the weather the less vigorous the walk. Focus on really striding out with your feet, from your heel to toe so your ankles and hips need to move. Swing your arms and get the blood flowing.
- Stage 2 – Speed up the walk, increase your pace to increase your heart rate. This will help the synovial fluid around the joints to become more viscous and allow smooth movement within the ankle, knee and hips. swinging the arms gets the torso rotating, helping the lower back and pelvis warm up.
- Stage 3 – If you want to do some ballistic stretching, this would be the time, you are warmer and blood is flowing so the joints won’t mind a bit of extra range being applied.
- Stage 4 – We are now looking at a slow jog, so the stride length needs to be shorter than for walking, putting more force through the arch of the foot and away from the heel bone, keep it slow and steady, you aren’t warm yet.
- Stage 5 – Build up to your usual running pace, your legs should now feel warm and the joints should be moving easily, preventing running injuries.
What about after the run?
After the run is no different, when you are running your hearth is pumping blood around the body at a vast pace. If you stop abruptly the heart doesn’t know to lower the volume of blood it is sending to the muscles, ideally we want to finish the planned run by slowing down.
- As before we want to slow the pace initially, spending several minutes slowing to a fast walk. Your heart rate is key here, if you have a monitor on your watch allow your heart rate to slow as your pace slows.
- Then take a fast walk for a good few minutes before slowing to a slow walk again watching your heart rate as it lowers.
- Finally, once your heart rate is back to a resting level, you can stop and ideally do some static stretches while your muscles are still warm.
As Ian says, all you neighbour should see is you walking away from you house slowly and calmly and returning to your house walking slowly and not being out of breathe. They will wonder why you put your running kit on just to go for a walk! 🤣
If you need help with your running, give us a call and we can help you with your training program, running gait or fix that injury.