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Question How long should you warm up relative for different types of runs? Rafferty Anywhere from a half mile to a mile. Depending how long you're going to be running that day. Anywhere from five to ten minutes. Jenny When you go running, you want to warm up maybe twenty minutes before you actually run. Question How fast should you run during a warm up? Rafferty You want to jog. Just so your muscles get loose...get used to being in the form of running. Question When would it be necessary to have a longer or shorter cooling down run? Jenny You don't really need a cool down run except on workout days. Rafferty I would say the longer the distance the longer you want your warm up to be. The more intense the workout, the longer the cool down should be. You want to be able to let your muscles loosen up and relax. Otherwise you'll be stretching some very tight muscles which could result in pulling something and hurting yourself. Question After a warmup you should stretch. What is a reasonable amount of time to stretch? Faya I don't think it's time sometimes, I think it's the different type of stretches you do in each cycle. Stretches like touching your toes and holding it twenty seconds. Coming up, shaking your muscles out, doing it again, and possibly doing it a third time for each muscle you try to stretch and concentrating on how tight or loose you are that day. Rafferty Say you're doing a calf stretch. You stretch for twenty seconds, stop, stretch that same calf again for twenty seconds. Other people recommend that you do it for at least thirty seconds to a minute and just do it straight then move on to your next stretch. It really seems to depend on what is more comfortable for that person. Jenny And arm stretches are important. Question Does the amount of time you stretch correlate to the injuries you could get? Rafferty without a doubt. If you're not stretching at all, you have a much greater chance of getting an injury. Whether the amount of time -- be it thirty seconds or a minute -- whether that changes the level I can't say. It really depends on the person. Different people have different muscle structures. Some people have to stretch a lot to prevent an injury and that really takes time for that individual to figure out what is allowing their muscles to loosen up enough that they're going to be comfortable and not tight afterwards. Back Home		Educational    Posture    Warm Ups    Long Runs    Short Runs    Tracking    References   Personal Best site    People    Programming