Why Is Warming Up Important Before Running in Cold Weather?
On a mild day, it can be tempting to lace up your running shoes, step outside and simply start running. In cold weather, that approach deserves a little more thought.
Cold conditions affect the body before you have even taken your first stride. Blood vessels near the skin constrict to help conserve heat, muscle temperature can fall and the muscles may not produce force as effectively when they are cold. Research into exercise in cold environments has identified reduced muscle temperature as one of the factors that can impair muscular performance.
That doesn't mean winter running requires an elaborate pre-run ritual. It does mean that a good warm-up has a particularly useful job to do.
The aim is simple: move progressively from being cold and relatively inactive to being ready to run.
Key Takeaways
- Warming up before running is important at any time of year, but colder conditions give you another reason to prepare properly.
- A warm-up progressively raises muscle temperature and prepares the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems for exercise.
- In cold weather, avoid spending too much time standing still between warming up and starting your run.
- Dynamic movements are generally more useful than making prolonged static stretching the focus of your pre-run routine.
- Your first few minutes of running can form part of the warm-up — you don't need to start at your intended pace immediately.
- The colder the conditions, the more useful a gradual transition from rest to running becomes.
What Happens to Your Body in Cold Weather?
Your body is constantly trying to maintain a relatively stable internal temperature. When you are exposed to cold conditions, one of its immediate responses is to reduce blood flow towards the skin and extremities, helping to limit heat loss.
Muscle temperature can also be affected. This matters because temperature influences how muscles contract and produce force. Research has found that reductions in muscle temperature can contribute to poorer strength and power performance in cold environments.
As we discussed in our article on how cold weather affects running performance, the effect of cold isn't determined by the number on the thermometer alone. Wind, rain, clothing, exercise intensity and the length of time you are exposed all influence how much heat you lose.
A runner who steps from a warm house straight into a steady run is also in a very different situation from someone standing on a cold start line for 20 minutes before a race.
That distinction becomes important when deciding how to warm up.
Why Should You Warm Up Before Running?
A warm-up creates a transition between rest and exercise.
As you begin moving, your heart rate rises, circulation increases and working muscles begin producing more heat. Rather than asking the body to move suddenly from inactivity to the demands of running, you progressively prepare it for what is coming.
There is good evidence that an appropriate warm-up can benefit subsequent physical performance. A systematic review examining warm-up and performance found improvements in the majority of performance measures studied, although the authors also noted that more high-quality research was needed.
For runners, however, warming up shouldn't be viewed simply as a way of trying to run faster.
There is something inherently sensible about preparing the movements and muscle groups you are about to use — particularly when those tissues are colder than they would be on a mild day.
Why Is Warming Up Even More Important in Cold Weather?
Think of the warm-up as narrowing the gap between your starting state and the demands of the run.
On a warm day, that gap may be relatively small. On a cold winter morning, after sitting indoors or driving to your starting point, it can be considerably larger.
The purpose of the warm-up is not to make yourself hot or tired before you begin. It is to raise muscle temperature progressively, increase movement through the joints and prepare the neuromuscular system for the repetitive demands of running.
This becomes particularly relevant if the session ahead contains faster running, hills or intervals. Going directly from standing in the cold to harder efforts places very different demands on the body from beginning with several minutes of easy running and gradually increasing the intensity.
A warm-up should prepare you for the run you are about to do — not become another workout before it.
Should You Stretch Before Running?
This is where warming up and stretching are often treated as though they mean the same thing.
They don't.
You don't necessarily need to stand still and hold a series of stretches before every run. In fact, prolonged static stretching immediately before exercise can temporarily reduce some measures of muscular performance, particularly when stretches are held for longer periods.
Dynamic movements are different because you continue moving while taking muscles and joints through a controlled range of motion.
Depending on the run ahead, a pre-run warm-up might include:
- brisk walking or very easy jogging
- leg swings
- walking lunges
- controlled high knees
- heel raises
- ankle movements
- progressively faster running drills
Dynamic movements can help prepare the muscles and joints for the demands of running.
You don't need to include every exercise every time. A straightforward easy run may require little more than a progressive start, whereas a hard interval session or race may justify a more structured warm-up.
The important point is that movement should prepare you to move.
How Long Should You Warm Up Before Running in Cold Weather?
There isn't one ideal number that applies to every runner, every session and every temperature.
Five or ten minutes may be enough preparation before an easy run for one person, while another runner preparing for a hard session may benefit from considerably longer. Your warm-up should reflect the conditions, how you feel and what you are about to ask your body to do.
Rather than watching the clock alone, pay attention to the transition.
You should begin to feel warmer. Your movement should become more comfortable and natural. If you are doing a harder session, you can progressively introduce movements or short efforts that more closely resemble the intensity you will eventually reach.
In very cold conditions, doing the first part of your warm-up indoors can also make sense. You can begin moving without immediately losing heat to the environment and then continue the warm-up once outside.
There is little benefit, however, in getting warm indoors and then spending ten minutes standing outside getting cold again.
Don't Let Yourself Cool Down Before You Start
This is particularly relevant to races, parkruns and group sessions.
You may have completed a perfectly good warm-up, only to stand around waiting for everyone else to be ready.
The longer that gap becomes, the more of the temperature gained during the warm-up you can lose. That can be amplified in winter by low temperatures, wind and wet clothing.
If you know you will have to wait before starting, keep moving where practical and keep an outer layer on for as long as possible.
This is also where choosing the right winter running clothing becomes part of the wider picture. A warm-up generates heat; appropriate clothing helps you manage how quickly that heat is lost.
Start the Run Progressively
Not every runner needs a separate warm-up routine.
For an easy or steady run, the opening minutes of the run itself can form part of the warm-up.
Start easier than you intend to run overall and allow your pace to develop naturally as you begin to feel warmer. There is rarely anything to gain from stepping out of the door on a freezing morning and immediately forcing yourself onto your target pace.
For harder sessions, the principle remains the same but the preparation becomes more deliberate: easy running first, followed where appropriate by dynamic movements, drills or progressive efforts before beginning the main session.
The common thread is progression rather than sudden intensity.
Does Warming Up Prevent Running Injuries?
It is tempting to make a simple claim that warming up prevents injuries, particularly in cold weather.
The evidence is more complicated than that.
Running injuries have multiple causes and can be influenced by training load, previous injury, recovery, strength, biomechanics and many other factors. A warm-up cannot remove those risks, and it shouldn't be presented as a guarantee against injury.
What it can do is prepare the body for the activity you are about to perform.
That is a more useful way to think about warming up: not as insurance against injury, but as part of good preparation.
A Cold-Weather Warm-Up Doesn't Need to Be Complicated
There is no need to turn warming up into a 20-minute collection of exercises you struggle to remember.
For many winter runs, the fundamentals are straightforward: get moving, increase the intensity gradually, avoid unnecessary periods standing still and give your body time to make the transition from cold and inactive to warm and running.
The harder the session, the more specific that preparation may need to become.
And on those winter mornings when getting out of the door is difficult enough already, remember that the first few minutes don't have to feel fast. Give yourself time to warm up.
The run can come afterwards.
References
- Fradkin AJ, Zazryn TR, Smoliga JM. Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2010;24(1):140–148.
- Racinais S, Oksa J. Temperature and neuromuscular function. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2010;20(Suppl 3):1–18.
- Castellani JW, Tipton MJ. Cold Stress Effects on Exposure Tolerance and Exercise Performance. Comprehensive Physiology. 2015;6(1):443–469.
- Behm DG, Blazevich AJ, McHugh M, McKay AD. Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2016;41(1):1–11.
