Track Warm-Up Activities

Performing a variety of warm-up exercises prior to running in a track meet is one of the keys to success. You have to make sure that your muscles are fully stretched out, warm and freshly oxygenated in order to perform at your best. Being completely warmed up and stretched will also lessen the possibility of injury during your event. Start off with a series of stretches designed to loosen all the major muscles in your legs and lower body, then move on to specific exercises designed to loosen your feet, back and hips.

  1. Stretches

    • Stretching your leg muscles and getting the blood flowing to them is a precursor to doing well when you are running. Areas that you should focus on when warming up include your quadriceps, hamstrings, the piriformis muscle (located in the hips) and the calf muscles. Grabbing your ankles from behind and pulling them as close to your body, whether in a standing or seated position, will stretch your quad muscles. Lying flat on your back and grabbing your thigh with both hands and pulling toward you will stretch your hamstrings. Lying on your back and crossing your legs (like sitting in a chair) will loosen your hip muscles. Pushing off against a wall or other vertical surface while bending your knees will stretch your calf muscles.

    Skipping

    • Increase your lower limb strength, agility and flexibility by performing several sideways and backward skips. Use fairly short strides, remaining light on your feet. Keep your arms close to the side of your body and make sure that you push off and land with one foot before repeating the process with the other. Try to get as much distance as possible between skips. Do this about five times for each foot and job back to your original starting position and repeat two more sets of five each.

    Walks and Lunges

    • Loosen your hips, improve your leg drive and strengthen your posterior and hamstring muscles by performing a lunge walk. Assume a lunge position and step forward in to another lunge, keeping your chest straight and moving your arms in coordination with your legs. Repeat at least 10 times, jog back to your original position and repeat at least two more sets of 10. Alter the lunge walk slightly and move your torso forward over your front leg to increase hip flexibility and to stretch out your lower back. Perform a calf walk to increase lower leg strength and increase Achilles' heel flexibility. Take at least 10 steps and repeat going in the other direction.

    Half-Speed Runs

    • Once you have performed a few warm-up exercises, finish your warm-ups with a few half-speed runs. Cover around 50 yards at a time running at about 50 percent of your normal speed. This will keep you from tiring out and complete the muscle loosening process in the actual way that you will use them in your race. Jog back to your starting position when done and rest for a couple of minutes before running again. Do this a couple of times right before your race.