The Perfect Warm Up And Cool Down To Improve Your 5k or Parkrun Time

If you’re a 5k runner have you ever found yourself asking these questions -

“Should I warm up for a 5k?”

“Should I be doing a cool down, and what exercises should I be doing?”

This blog article will answer these questions and show you how to run a smart 5k.

Whether it’s a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or marathon, a warm up and cool down is so important to perform at your best and avoid injury.

Think of a 5k warm up like a car engine. If you try to go straight into driving at high speeds you’re likely to have more wear and tear and damage something on your car. The same can be said for your body, you shouldn’t run a 5k at race pace without warming up first, yet so many do!

Performing a warm up prior to a 5k run increases your heart rate, pumps more blood and oxygen to your working muscles so you can prime your body for a 5k run. Not only that it also prepares you mentally for what you’re about to do. ¹

A warmup shouldn’t leave you feeling tired but energised and focussed on the task at hand. What you do to warm up will depend on your age, fitness level, and running experience. The aim of the warm up is to get your body and mind ready to run your best race without getting injured.

Your 5k warm up should take somewhere between 10-20 minutes and no more. Again the idea is to be smart about your warm up. So always make sure you turn up with enough time to do your warm up.²

There are 3 main parts that NEED to be included in every 5k warm up you do:

1. Pulse raiser

2. Dynamic stretches

3. 5k run specific exercises

Before doing your warm up, consider the weather 

The amount of time you spend warming up for your run is dependant on the weather. In the summer you may want to warm up less, whereas in winter you may need to warm up for longer because it’ll take your muscles longer to warm up. So think about this during your pre run warm up. ³

Here’s what we recommend doing to warm up before your 5k run…

You should do this in the order shown because otherwise, you run the risk of getting injured and not running your best 5k race.

1. Pulse Raiser

Jogging should always be the first part of your warm up. The idea here is the increase your body temperature, get your heart rate up, and blood and oxygen pumping to the muscles so you can progress onto the next stage of your warm up. When you’re doing your pulse raiser, you’re priming your muscles ready to race and preventing a running injury. 5 minutes of jogging will do the trick. ⁴

What sort of stretches do I need to do before running?

2. Dynamic stretches

Now that you’ve done your pulse raiser, increased your heart rate, body temperature and your muscles are more supple, it’s time to do some dynamic stretches. These are the sort of stretches you need to do before your 5k run.

Dynamics stretching is moving your body through a range of motion. Here you replicate movements that you’re about to do throughout your race.

Dynamic stretching promotes stability, improves your range of motion, increases body and muscle temperature, elongates the muscles, stimulates the nervous system so that you can perform at your best and prevent running injuries. This is your brain talking to your body to get ready for your run, think about the mind muscle connection here.

If your hamstrings are tight when running chances are it’s because you missed out this section of your warm up. Depending on how tight your muscles feel will depend on how long you spend on this section. We recommend somewhere between 5-10 minutes.

Here are the 7 dynamic stretches runners should before their 5k run… 

Forward lunge

This is a great warm up exercise for runners to increase the range of motion in their quads, hips, glutes and hamstrings, which are all going to play a vital role in the 5k run.

Here’s how to do a forward lunge and prevent getting injured when running:

• Look straight ahead and take a long step forward

• Lower your front leg towards the floor until your leg is parallel with the ground

• Your back knee should almost if not, touch the ground

• Then do the same on the opposite leg moving forward

• Repeat 5-10 times on each leg.

Hamstring Sweeps

Hamstrings are the muscles that are most commonly injured when running, especially when they are at their most eccentrically lengthened points.

This is the reason why we do this dynamic stretch because you need to get your hamstrings used to going through this range of motion pre-run. One of the best exercises we’ve found to do this is the hamstring sweep. ⁵

Here’s how to do a hamstring sweep and prevent getting injured when running:

• Take a forward step with a straight leg, heel on the floor, and toes up

• Bend at the hip, still with a straight leg, and sweep with the arms down the leg

• Return to starting position

• Repeat 5-10 times on one side and then swap legs 

If your hamstrings feel tight, we recommend doing more repetitions of this exercise. You shouldn’t feel like there’s a pulling resistance in the hamstring when you’re doing this.

After you’ve done this, go into something that is higher energy to keep your heart rate up, the blood flowing to the muscles and your mind and body prepared to run.

Heel Flicks

Here’s how to do a heel flick and reduce pain when running:

• Start to run forward with short strides and flick your bum with your heels

• At the same time, if you can, pump your arms to replicate movements you’re more likely to be doing in your 5k run

When you’re doing this the idea should be to stay tall and maintain good running posture so that it doesn’t feel like you’re sinking into the floor, don’t break at the waist.

By maintaining good running posture in your warm ups you’re more likely to replicate this in your race. Good running posture means you’ll run faster on race with less effort and ultimately your 5k time. ⁶

Top tip: Imagine someone is pulling a bit of string from the top of your head. This will help you to stay upright, maintain good posture and run faster with less effort.

High Knees

By doing this dynamic stretch, your stride length naturally increases so you’re covering more ground and running faster. You’ll decrease your ground contact time, which means you’ll spend less time on the floor, more time in the air which also helps you to run faster and also reduces the wear and tear on the hip, knee, and ankle joints. ⁷

Here’s how to do high knees:

• Keep yourself upright with a slight lean forward

• Start to run forward with short strides, lift your knees high and swing your arms

• Do 5-10 metres of this

We repeat this 2-3 times. This helps to get the right movement patterns into our heads ready for our run. Don’t go crazy on this one though, you can get tired very quickly, which is why we only do 5-10 metres.

Arm Circles

As a runner, your arms are just as important as your lower body. Your arms will guide the direction you run and the speed. They act are levers, therefore if you have poor flexibility in your arms and shoulders, you’re less likely to be able to swing your arms with the power and strength that is needed to run a good 5k time.

Here’s how to do arm circles:

• Standing up, replicate a front crawl for 10 seconds on each arm and don’t move your hips

After all of this, we make sure we reduce the risk of injury further by going back and re-stretching the hamstrings and hips. 

Forward Leg Swings

Here’s how to do forward leg swings:

• Find something to hold onto while you do this and keep as upright as you can

• Swing your leg forward with a slight bend in the knee

• Start off slower and build into it so your last few repetitions should have the greatest speed and range of motion

• Repeat for 10 swings on each leg

Side Leg Swings

Here’s how to side leg swings:

• Find something to hold onto with two hands, your hips facing forward and keep yourself as upright as you can

• Stay on the balls your feet, swing your leg across your body and then open up the other way.

• Repeat for 10 swings on each leg

Tip: When you do this, it’s important to stay on the balls of your feet, otherwise you could twist your knee. 

After this, you should be feeling warm and flexible. The last part of your warm up is to get your body prepared for what it’s about to do, a 5k run.

3. 5k Run Specific Exercise

Running Strides

• Start off by jogging and gently increasing your pace to 90% of the maximum speed that you intend to run during your 5k

• Running 60 metres 2-3 times will be sufficient. 

Now you’re now ready to run your best 5k race!

If there’s any delay at the start of your race, it’s important to stay warm. You can easily go back into a few dynamic stretches to keep yourself ticking over before the race starts.

After you’ve finished your 5k run, don’t get straight into your car or lie down, you need to do a proper cool down! 

This is so important for helping you to prevent injury and stay pain free. The last thing you want is to wake up sore and stiff not being able to move or train for days after. ⁸

The cool down is designed to bring your body temperature and heart rate back down to resting levels and also help to flush out any by products that have built up in the muscles while you’ve been running, for example, lactic acid.

How long do I need to cool down after running?

A proper cool down should include some light jogging and static stretches and should take you somewhere between 10-15 minutes to complete.

Here’s the best cool down routine for runners

1. Light Jogging (5 minutes)

Go for a light jog for 5 minutes. Let your body naturally decrease its heart rate, body temperature and flush out by-products in the muscles, like lactic acid that may still be there post-run.

After this, you should go into some static stretches. These are the stretches you need to do after running.

2. Static Stretching (5-10 minutes)

Static stretching is opposite to dynamic stretching.  Here you hold a stretch for a period of time without moving through a range of motion.

The recommended amount of time to hold a static stretch is 15-30 seconds. Any more or less than this serves no extra benefit to improving your recovery, decreasing Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), or helping you to stay injury free. ⁹

Tip: most people underestimate the amount of time they’re holding a stretch for, especially if it’s painful! So set a timer on your phone or fitness watch so you know exactly how long to hold the stretch for.

Here are the 5 best static stretches to do after running

Standing Quad Stretch

If you suffer from tight quads after running this can really help. Your quads take a lot of impact while running, so it’s a good idea to show them some TLC post 5k run. 

Here’s how to do a standing quad stretch:

• Stand tall with your core engaged, hold onto something if you need to for balance

• Pick up your right foot, hold it behind you, keep your knees together and pull your foot close to your bum to feel a deeper quad stretch

• Look straight ahead throughout

• Hold for 15-30 seconds

Standing Adductor Stretch 

Tight hips are very common in runners and can lead to injury if you don’t stretch. The hips are responsible for bringing your leg forward and lifting your knee up which you’ll do a lot of when you’re running a 5k! So – again – it’s a good idea to show them some TLC so that you can minimise your chance of DOMS, stiffness, and injury. ¹⁰

Here’s how to do a standing adductor stretch and release tight hips after running:

• Stand side on and take a big step to the side

• Shift your weight to one side and bend your knee

• Keep the opposite knee straight and feel the stretch on the inside of your thigh

• Hold for 15-30 seconds

• Repeat on the other side

Prone Calf Stretch

Here’s how to do a prone calf stretch and loosen tight calves after running:

• Put your hands and feet on the ground while facing down, think of this like an extended plank position

• Straighten your knees and try to push one heel down towards the ground

• Cross your other leg over the top to apply extra pressure to the stretch

• Hold for 15-30 seconds

• Repeat on the other side.

90/90 Glute Stretch

Here’s how to do a 90/90 glute stretch and fix tight glutes:

• Sit with one leg out in front of your hips and one leg behind. Bend both knees to 90 degrees

• Lean forward towards your front knee to feel a stretch in your bum and lower back

• Lift your torso up to release the stretch

• Repeat the movement using your outside arm to push your torso in towards your front foot. You should feel a stretch in the bum, lower back and outside of your front leg

• Hold for 15-30 seconds 

Seated Hamstring Stretch

The hamstrings are the most commonly injured muscle in runners, so make sure you stretch them.

Here’s how to do a seated hamstring stretch and fix tight hamstrings:

• Sit on the floor with one leg stretched out in front of your body and the other bent with your knee out to the side

• Lean forward towards the foot of your stretched out leg and bring your hands as far down the leg as you can

• Hold for 15-30 seconds

Summary

If you follow the advice we’ve given you, then you’ll be well on your way to running your best 5k and preventing injury.

To recap what you need to do to warm up for a 5k run:

1. Pulse raiser

2. Dynamic stretches

3. 5k run specific exercises

And then after running your 5k you must cool down.

Here’s what you need to do to cool down after your 5k run: 

1. Light jogging

2. Static stretches