A Proper Warm-Up

A. Flashback to the School Yard Days

You’re 9 years old again. You’re hyped up with energy and you’re ready to let it all out as you’ve finally made it to recess time. Your teacher opens up the door and walks you across the courtyard until the playground and basketball courts are in finally in sight, and off you go! You’re running, jumping over things, swinging from monkey bars, with your joints and soft tissues not feeling a thing. What a time! Now you’re sitting at your desk with everything feeling tight, you get up from your seat before placing a hand over your lower back for support as you shuffle over to the water fountain to say Hi to Bill from Accounting. You stretch every joint in your body, pace around the office for a few minutes to loosen everything up and then go sit back down at your desk before you do it all again in an hour. You sit back and wonder, “what in the world happened to me?”

Unfortunately, none are sparred from the effects of aging. Cartilage within joints starts to wear down and lead to stiffness, tendons and ligaments start to lose their flexibility, and muscles lose strength and size. You now take longer to get moving, and to feel better doing so as well. “Out” are the days of our ancestors spontaneously running from sabretooth tigers, “in” are the days of sitting at our desk chatting with AI agents. Most have a vague understanding of the usefulness of stretching or warming up before exercise but are unsure of what exactly to do. Keeping this related to running itself, I’ll highlight why we need a sufficient warm up and how we are to construct one based on the goal of run itself.

B. Static vs. Dynamic Stretching

As I even begin to entertain discussing the topic of a proper warmup or stretching with other runners, many will almost bow their head in shame instinctively admitting, “I know I don’t stretch like I should.” But the good news for them is that they may not even need to stretch as often or for as long as they think they need to, depending on the activity. First things first, let us define our terms to make sure we’re on the same page.

When people refer to stretching, they are almost always referring to static stretching. Your toe touches, standing bent knee calf stretch, bent knee hip flexor stretch; a slow movement toward a certain end position – these all fit into the bucket of static stretching.

Dynamic Stretching refers to a set of active movements working through a larger range of motion to prepare the following joints and the soft tissues that span those joints for a specific activity.

What do we know about the two forms of stretching, the pros and cons of each, and when should they be used?

• Static stretching is best practiced AFTER any kind of semi-strenuous activity or extended aerobic warmup activity when the soft tissues are warm and most receptive to being stretched. This can help facilitate improvements in range of motion and flexibility, reduce muscle soreness, and potentially aid in recovery.

• On the contrary, static stretching BEFORE strenuous activity has been linked to several potential negative consequences, despite its seemingly universal recommendation. There are numerous studies indicating that static stretching before activity can have a negative effect on force production, strength endurance, reaction time, and running speed. This is likely because static stretching reduces muscle stiffness and decreases neural activation, both of which are needed to produce that “spring” in your legs sensation that helps you to run faster.

• If you are not concerned with running fast or experiencing any of the above potential consequences, then you are free to incorporate static stretching before exercise. Consistent static stretching as part of a daily routine for an extended period has been shown to increase range of motion around the involved joints and potentially improve strength. It has been found that positive results are most evident when focusing on stretching frequency (stretching more often throughout a given week), rather than stretching duration during a single daily session.

• It is worth noting that, for good or for bad, the acute effects that are seen when performing static stretching are quite transient, ranging from a few minutes to about an hour, depending on the study you look at. This means that if you want to perform some light stretching several hours before a race, it will likely have no effect on race performance. If you are not concerned with performance and want the benefits to be longer-lasting, then you will need to increase the number of times per day and week that you stretch.

• When it comes to injury prevention, the institution of a static stretching program before exercise has not been found to have any consistent effect on overall injury risk within multiple randomized controlled trials. Some speculate that static stretching alone before high-level activity could increase injury risk by increasing one’s subjective pain threshold through prolonged stretching, and increasing musculotendinous units excessively, causing microtrauma in the process. There is no evidence to support this currently. If you want to incorporate static stretching before activity, it is likely safe if it is performed in conjunction with dynamic stretching and light exercise.

• Dynamic stretching is preferred prior to activity because it will move the involved joints through a greater range of motion than static stretching can accomplish and the movements generally should be more sport specific, targeting the involved muscles while also psychologically preparing the athlete for the movements needed to compete.

• There is no current evidence that dynamic stretching decreases injury risk compared to static stretching or those that do not stretch.

• Dynamic stretching is likely to improve performance due its warming effect on muscles, ability to increase muscle tension, and increased recruitment of motor units within the involved muscle groups.

Everybody has different goals, events, and sports entirely that they are training for where they will experience the effects of the two primary forms of stretching to varying degrees. Use the information above to help you decide how you would like to stretch to best fit your needs.

C. Creating a Pre-Workout Warmup Routine

Here I will discuss creating a warmup routine for running workouts specifically, since that is what I am most frequently asked about and tasked with leading athletes through.

For starters, the extent of the warmup routine that is needed will depend on the intensity of the main activity that you’re preparing for. If you are going out for a relaxed easy run, you probably don’t need much beyond some leg swings and a couple minutes of optional dynamic exercises (single leg hops, high knees, karaoke). I recommend approaching easy runs in a way that is akin to the “Kenyan Shuffle”, which is the name that has become associated with how many elite Kenyan runners run their easy runs. They will start out at a very slow jog that is several minutes/mile slower than their race pace and allow the pace to slowly increase incrementally in a way that is natural and not forced. Starting out at this slow pace allows for the muscles to slowly increase in temperature, increasing elasticity of the soft tissues and allowing them to stretch and glide over time in a way that carries very low risk of injury because the training demand is so low. The early, aerobic portion of the warmup (i.e. 2 miles easy), which some may call the general warm-up, should also be approached in this way before going into the more dynamic, specific phase of the pre-workout routine. This very easy, jog warmup serves multiple purposes, including but not limited to:

1. Increase blood flow to active muscle groups
2. Prepare the cardiorespiratory system for increased activity and output
3. Activate metabolic processes to provide the necessary energy during the workout
4. Increase psychological preparation for performance

After completing the general warmup, the athlete goes into the specific warmup, which is more dynamic and prepares them for the workout. When going through a set of dynamic stretching activities, the goal should be to go through a set of activities that are increasingly specific and intense in nature, as the body gradually ramps up in preparation. This allows for a gradual increase in mobility as well as muscle contraction, which has been found to compound and produce greater force when exercises are introduced in the following stepwise fashion. Below is an example of a dynamic ramp-up protocol that I use before workouts:

• Light skipping
• Light single-leg hops
• Light two-legged hops
• Z-hops (basically a zigzag two-legged hop bouncing between both sides of a line on a track)
• High-knee skips
• Single-leg hops for distance
• Two-legged hops for distance
• Side-Shuffles
• Karaoke’s (startling low and then high with hip drive)
• Single-leg bounding
• 3-4 80-100m strides
• Optional 200m at 90% sprint effort prior to intense, anaerobic workout
• 5–8-minute rest period for shoe swap, drink, etc. before starting workout

If you are not accustomed to going through a comprehensive dynamic warmup routine before a workout, or at least one of this magnitude, I would suggest compartmentalizing it and finding the middle ground between what makes your body feel prepared and what make you fatigued, potentially hurting the quality of your workout. Something is certainly better than nothing, and I’m confident you will see a significant difference in the results of your workouts when you prepare for them with a thorough warm-up routine.

References:

• Arntz F, Markov A, Behm DG, Behrens M, Negra Y, Nakamura M, Moran J, Chaabene H. Chronic Effects of Static Stretching Exercises on Muscle Strength and Power in Healthy Individuals Across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review with Multi-level Meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2023 Mar;53(3):723-745. doi: 10.1007/s40279-022-01806-9. Epub 2023 Jan 31. PMID: 36719536; PMCID: PMC9935669.
• Behm, David G., et al. “Effects of Stretching on Injury Risk Reduction and Balance.” Journal of Clinical Exercise Physiology, vol. 10, no. 3, 1 Sept. 2021, pp. 106–116, meridian.allenpress.com/jcep/article/10/3/106/470461/Effects-of-Stretching-on-Injury-Risk-Reduction-and, https://doi.org/10.31189/2165-6193-10.3.106.
• Guide, NSCA’s. “Static Stretching and Performance.” Nsca.com, NSCA, 24 Sept. 2018, www.nsca.com/education/articles/kinetic-select/static-stretching-and-performance/?srsltid=AfmBOopuoAnbZmwbnlqwxP5wx_Aj_g-yPIyPTnt8WryT-To9tuzk4LBZ. Accessed 10 Apr. 2026.
• Haff, G Gregory, and N Travis Triplett. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Human Kinetics, 2 Mar. 2026.