warm ups and warm downs , are they really important ?

Seres

hey guys
up till recently i thought that stretching was really important till i was told otherwise on this forum , actually i was amazed to hear that diet was more important in preventing injury, anyway to get to the point:
are warm ups and warm downs crucial in preventing injury ?

shels4ever

I would say YES
warm ups before going into a race or a quality session would be something I always do. if its just a normal run or a lsd i'd use the first couple of miles really slow.
Usually stretch at the end of my runs,

RacoonQueen

Ehhh...when I'm getting home from my run I'm usually wrecked so run slower anyway...and I'm usually so excited to be getting out for a run I find it hard to run slower and 'warm up'. Always warm up before a race though. Used to stretch when I started running but no longer do it.

Technically, warm ups and warm downs are important, start too fast on cold muscles and you risk injury. On my part it's just laziness that stops me from doing them.

thirtyfoot

On warm-ups and warm-downs I follow these principles -

Warming Up
Always dynamic, starting off with low level and not so intense movements like skips and shuffles. Move onto dynamic exercises on the ground, leg lifts etc, walking drills, running drills and eventually building up to an intensity close to what you will be doing in your event which if needs be will be replicating the event, eg, if your a jumper you jump, a thrower you throw and so on. Also, an important part is the mental warmup (usually neglected by most) and this will increase and the focus will narrow the further the warm-up progresses. The mental side will vary obviously between training and racing. Maybe not so important if you are racing longer distances but still ignore it at your peril. Use training to replicate what you do pre-race, get your rituals and routines together, do the same number of strides or build ups, practice your race warmup every so often in training. In some training sessions I regiment it like a race, tell athletes they do their first run at 7.20 for example and they need to be warmed up for that, gets them used to managing and planning their warmup time etc.

Warm-Down
The state you are in after your warm-down = the state you want to be before you start your warm-up in your next session. I read that somewhere once and while I'm crap and lazy at warm downs I try to follow it. Slow jog, drinking water, eating, stretching, few shuffles and skips and getting nice and relaxed (in reality I only do that in about 2 sessions a week).

--amadeus--

I've virtually never stretched or warmed up. I do a little warmng up pre-race but only to look like I know what I'm doing!

It's a personal thing I think, I'm lucky in that I've never been seriously injured so I don't have to be too careful or mollycoddle any of my limbs into action (which guarantees I will take a tumble and break a leg this evening)

plodder

I read somewhere (maybe on this forum) that static stretching of your muscles before an activity, reduces muscle performance by quite a serious amount, and doesn't help with preventing injuries. Stretching afterwards is fine, I think. I'd always do it afterwards. And I'd warm down by walking a few hundred metres at the end of a run.

If muscles are cold, it obviously makes sense to warm up gently before hand, but if all you're doing is running, then IMO you just need to start out slowly.

tunney

Difference between warming up and static stretching. Dynamic stretching, skills n drills and gentle aerobic exercise is benefical before hard sessions.

gmurran

I like to do a few stretches and then do the first mile very slow and then stop for a couple of minutes and stretch the calf's etc.