With the weather heating up, it can be easy to forget about your pre-run warm-up. After all, it’s warm outside, so you must be too, and you only need to warm up in winter, right? Not exactly. Just because it’s warm outdoors, it doesn’t mean you are. The bottom line is that you should never skip your warm-up, even in spring and summer.

It’s no secret that running is hard on the body, with almost half of all hobby runners sustaining injuries. It’s estimated that around 75% of runners don’t do a proper warm-up before hitting the streets, but warming up properly is one of the best ways to avoid picking up an injury. Find out everything you need to know about following the right running warm-up protocols, even during the spring and summer, below.

What’s so important about warming up before running?

Spending time on your warm-up pre-run is essential for preparing your body for exercise and preventing pesky injuries. The type of warm-up you do will depend on your age, level of fitness, and running plan. A warm-up has three main functions:

• Gets the muscles and joints warm: A warm-up helps to get your muscles and joints warm, loosening them up ready to run, which can boost your running performance.
• Boosts heart rate and circulation: Warming up kickstarts your blood circulation and heart rate, ensuring your muscles get the important oxygen and nutrients they need to work at their best and fight against fatigue.
• Reduces injury risk: Warming up effectively massively reduces your risk of getting injured when out on a run. It will keep you agile and flexible, both of which work to lower your risk of injury.

Warm-up steps you should follow even in spring/summer

What a warm-up looks like will be different for everyone, depending on your running goals. Professional runners can spend up to an hour warming up before a race. As a recreational runner, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to spend the same amount of time on your warm-up. For most people, five to 15 minutes spent warming up and activating those joints and muscles will be enough to prime yourself for your run.

The bears in our pack love honey, and we think the best way to look at your running warm-up is as bringing fluidity into the joints – just like smooth, runny honey!

It’s vital that your warm-up concentrates on the major muscle groups and works on getting your joints flexible.

These are our top tips for warming up in spring and summer:

Keep warm with layers if you need to

We all know how unpredictable the Great British weather can be. Just because the calendar says it’s summer, it doesn’t mean the weather has got the memo. Cool temperatures can make the joints and muscles feel stiff. Wearing an additional outer layer can help maintain your body temperature so you perform at your best. Bearhug compression sleeves are a great way to bring warmth to your leg muscles and joints to prevent inflammation and injuries from happening.

Dynamic stretches

Dynamic stretches will improve your mobility and help get those muscles warmed up. Leg swings, walking lunges, hip circles, and arm swings can all help to prepare your body for running.

Muscle activation

Proper muscle activation is the secret to preventing injury, so you should always concentrate on the areas that will be putting in a shift when you’re running. Skipping movements, high knees, and butt kicks can all work to get those leg muscles awake and activated.

Make warming up part of your routine

It’s important to make warming up a consistent part of your routine. Lots of people skip the warm-up, thinking it’s a waste of time, but this isn’t true. Once you have a warm-up that works for you, make it part of your routine for every run, and it will be a lot easier to stick to.

More than a warm-up

Ideally, your warm-up should gradually flow into your main run. There should not be a clean line between your warm-up and run. Once you get running, you should gradually build up your pace and distance and ease yourself in to avoid getting injured.

Your post-run cool-down is just as important as your warm-up. The build-up of lactic acid can cause delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMs), so you need to stretch out tight muscles to promote blood flow and improve recovery.

At Bearhug, these are our post-run go-to stretches to help you do just that:

• Standing quad stretch
• Hamstring stretch
• Deep lunge stretches
• Standing calf stretch
• Lower back stretch

The bottom line

Running is tough on your body no matter the time of year. Yes, it might be warmer in the spring and summer months, but that doesn’t mean that you are warm enough to run without picking up an injury. By prioritising your warm-up all year round, you’ll be able to perform at your best and avoid injury.

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