Max King's Running Tip of the Month

The following article was written by Max King and originally printed in The Footzone Bend's April e-mail newsletter.  Reprinted with permission from The Footzone Bend and Max King.

The Footzone is a locally owned full service running store in Bend, Oregon

It's time to get racing, or at least put one on the schedule for motivation to get into training mode. If you're not there yet, don't worry about it, you can save this tip for when you're there, it doesn't expire.

As you start training harder and you're thinking about taking that jump to interval training where you're asking a lot of your legs, don't forget to pamper them with a very good warm up routine to get them ready to go.

A warm up routine should consist of a light jog of 10-20 minutes to get the muscles warmed up, blood flowing, and all the muscles firing. After that, don't just get right into running fast, go through a series of active/isolated stretching for each of the main muscle groups; quads, hammies, calves, and glutes. This series of stretches moves muscles through their range of motion to stretch them but will not weaken them like static (stretch and hold) stretching will. This can take between 5-15 minutes depending on how much you feel like you need and how intense the workout will be. After this, a series of more dynamic stretches can further get muscles stretched, activated, and ready for big powerful movements such as a speed workout. Then, a few strides (50-100m sprints), and you're ready to go. A good warm-up should last anywhere from 20-45 minutes depending on the workout intensity (longer for more intense) and time available. A good warm-up will decrease injury risk and help you get more quality out of your workouts.

Active Isolated Stretches for Warm-Up:
Standing toe touch (hamstrings) - one leg slightly in front of the other, bend down with front leg straight, back leg bent, touch your toe (if possible), hold for 1-2sec, come up, switch legs and repeat about 7-10 times on each leg.

Standing quad stretch - same idea on stretching, grab one foot and pull it up behind you to your glute, hold for 1-2sec and release, switch legs, repeat 7-10 times

Glute stretch - while standing, lift your knee toward your chest, grab it with both hands and pull it further toward your chest, hold for 1-2sec, release and switch legs, repeat 7-10 times.

Calf stretch - standing against a wall or tree, stretch calves using the same technique holding 1-2 sec, bend knees to get the soleus, straighten knees to get the gastroc.

Max King is a Bend, Oregon based elite trail runner

Training 201 Clinic with Max King - Thursday, May 9th at 7pm - Bend, OR
Join FootZone for Training 201 with Max King, a follow up to the popular Training 101. Max will lead a discussion answering questions such as:

• How the body adapts to different training stresses and environmental stress?
• Do you respond better to speed or endurance training?

Attendance to Training 101 is not necessary to attend Training 201, but you may find attending both helpful.

Let Footzone Bend know you're coming, please RSVP!