A proper pre-run warm-up if you’re a runner who is chained to your desk is especially important to avoid all that sitting causing you a running injury. Sports physio Maryke Louw explains why sitting for extended periods predisposes a runner to injury and what you can do about it at work. She also demonstrates her own five-minute post-sitting, pre-running warm-up routine. Remember, if you need more help with an injury, you're welcome to consult one of our physios online via video call.
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What constant sitting does to a runner’s body
Sitting for very long periods affects your joints, your muscles, as well as your nerves. And all these negative effects can predispose you to injury if you get up from your desk and then go out for a run shortly afterwards.
How prolonged sitting affects your joints
Our joints don't have arteries and veins going in and out of them. They rely on synovial fluid to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to carry waste products away. The changes in pressure when we move our joints is what makes fluid and nutrients move into and out of them.
So, if you're sitting still for lengthy periods, your joints aren't getting as much nutrition and oxygen as it should. This is also why they can feel so stiff when you then get up and get moving again.
Have you ever seen a colleague get up after a long stint at their desk and then walk like a question mark for the first few steps? That’s what I’m talking about.
Even if you’re not walking like a question mark, you won’t have the necessary range of motion in your hips to run with a fluid gait. This might have a knock-on effect on other parts of your body when you run.
How sitting for long affects your muscles
Sitting for extended periods can cause muscle tightness, especially in the hip flexors – the muscles at the front of your hips that swing your legs forward when you run and walk. Sitting without back support will make your hip flexors even more tight, because they’ll have to work all day long to keep you upright.
Running with such stiff hip flexors will prevent you from properly swinging your legs backward, which, again, might place strain on other parts of your body.
Two other important muscle groups for running that suffer when you’re sitting for long are the hamstrings and the glutes, because quite simply … you’re sitting on them all day long. Tight hamstrings may increase your chances of getting a hamstring strain.
And lastly, your lower back muscles can also get quite stiff.
What prolonged sitting does to your nerves
Our nerves are meant to be sliding freely in our legs and along our hips and buttocks as we run. However, if your muscles are tight, they can hold on to a nerve and prevent it from sliding freely. This is called increased neural tension.
Increased neural tension in the sciatic nerve is thought to play a role in predisposing you to getting calf strains as well as hamstring strains. If the nerves that go over the front of your hips and legs aren’t free to slide, that can lead to a quad strain or pain in the outer lower leg and knee.
Increased neural tension is also thought to play a role in some cases of tendinopathy, especially of the Achilles tendon.
A more widespread nerve-related phenomenon caused by sitting for prolonged periods is that your nerves “go to sleep”. Our brains don’t like our bodies to waste energy. So, when you don’t use a certain body part for a while, the brain down-regulates the nerve activity there – the nerves go into “standby mode”.
If you then go running without “waking up” those nerves, your reaction times will be slower than usual, and you won’t be able to contract your muscles as well. This is why it may feel so difficult to get your body going at the start of a run.
Also, this may predispose you to injury, e.g. if you step in a weird way, you won’t be able to correct your movement as quickly and may end up spraining your ankle.
Extended sitting may interfere with your post-training recovery
Because of the decreased circulation in your legs when you’re sitting for long, they may not recover as well from the previous day’s running as they would have if you had been moving a bit more.
The pressure on the muscles you sit on may also hamper their recovery from exercise a bit. Especially my patients who have had issues with their high hamstring tendons (which attach your hamstrings to your sit-bones) report a lot more sensitivity in that area if they sit for long the day after they’ve trained.
This is because some of the chemicals produced as part of the normal tissue repair process after exercise are not getting transported away as quickly and are irritating the nerve endings in that area.
Adjustments at work to counter prolonged sitting
The good news is that these negative effects can be neutralised by making some simple adjustments at work – whether you’re a runner or not.
Take “active breaks”
It is common wisdom by now that we should get up every so often if we work a desk job. But it’s not just about having a chat with a colleague at the water cooler.
“Active breaks” are about consciously doing things that require you to contract your muscles and move your joints.
So, even if you don't have a lot of time, just standing up and doing five or ten free squats next to your desk is a good start. Or climb one flight of stairs while you wait for the kettle to boil.
Do anything that makes you move at regular intervals during the day and that will help to increase your circulation in all parts of your body.
Vary your sitting
Try to mix up how and for how long you sit while you’re working.
An easy way is to get a kneeling chair (see picture below) and to switch between your regular chair and the kneeling chair throughout the day.
A better way is to stand and work from time to time. But don’t stand all the time – as a runner you do actually need your legs to rest during the day. Aim for between 10 and 20 minutes of standing and working every couple of hours.
With this in mind, a desktop riser or a desk with an adjustable height for sitting and standing is a good idea.
Post-sitting warm-up routine for runners
Many of us, me included, have “warmed up” for a run by just doing the first mile or kilometre slowly and then speeding up. This might be fine when you’re young and bullet-proof. But when you’re older and you sit a lot during the day, you will find that you stiffen up, and then it’s better to warm up properly before you press the start button on your watch.
It doesn’t have to take long – I get through my warm-up routine below, consisting of nine exercises, in less than five minutes. And it can be shorter if you only concentrate on warming up the areas that actually feel stiff.
The main purposes of these warm-ups are to get your joints and muscles moving through the full range of motion they will need for the running to come and to activate your nerves.
This is a warm-up for an easy run; it's not sufficient for a speed session. You have to do some additional warming up if you want to run fast.
1. Spinal curl-downs
👉 These loosen up my neck, my upper back, and my lower back, and it starts getting a gentle stretch into my hamstrings.
Instructions:
Stand upright.
Gradually bend forward, starting by putting your chin on your chest, followed by bending your upper back and then the lower back, until you’re hanging from your hips.
Relax, and take two or three deep breaths.
Slowly reverse the movement until you’re standing up straight again.
I usually do 2 or 3 of these.
2. Standing rotations
👉 This targets my upper back, because it gets really stiff when I’ve been sitting for a long time, and I feel freer when I run after I’ve included this in my warm-up.
Instructions:
Stand upright and hold your arms straight and horizontal out in front of you.
Take one arm backwards as far as it will comfortably go, keeping it straight and horizontal, and follow with your head.
The other arm should stay where it is.
Bring back the arm you took backwards.
Do the same with the other arm.
I like to do 3 to 5 reps each side.
3. Free squats
👉 These get your joints moving – the hips, the knees, and the ankles. They also wake up your glutes and quads and give your calf muscles a gentle stretch.
Instructions:
Stand upright with your feet about shoulder width apart. Your feet can be parallel, or they can point slightly outwards if that’s more comfortable.
Squat down by sticking your bum out to the back and having your arms out in front for balance.
Just go as low as is comfortable – don’t force anything.
Come back up.
Ensure that your knees stay in line with your feet – don’t allow them to buckle inwards or outwards.
I usually do 10 of these.
4. “Good mornings”
👉 This exercise loosens up the hip joints and stretches your hamstrings.
Instructions:
Stand up straight with your feet hip distance apart and your hands on your hips.
Unlock and bend your knees slightly.
Bend forward from the hips and keep your back straight.
Try to get your back parallel to the floor, but if your hamstrings stop you from going that far, listen to them – don’t force anything.
Come back up.
Do 10 repetitions.
5. Lunge dips
👉 We're waking up the quad muscles, and we're giving the hip flexors as well as the quads an active stretch. Also, your calf muscles have to work to keep you in position. And you're working your hamstrings and glutes to an extent.
Instructions:
Stand with your feet about hip distance apart and your hands on your hips.
Step forward with one foot while dropping your hips down and going onto the toes of the back foot.
Both knees should be bent about 90 degrees.
Your front knee should stay in line with your front foot.
Your upper body should remain upright.
Rock gently up and down in this position a few times.
Switch legs and repeat.
Do 3 to 5 reps each side.
6. Quad stretches
👉 I like to do this stretch when my quads feel really tight. Now, I can hear people saying, “Oh, but you shouldn’t be doing a passive stretch before going for a run!” The research shows that static/passive stretches before exercise are fine as long as you hold them for less than 30 seconds.
Instructions:
Stand with your feet hip distance apart.
Grab one foot (or ankle) and pull your lower leg up behind you. Hold onto something with the other hand for balance if necessary.
Hold it for about 10 seconds and release slowly.
Repeat on the other side.
Do 2 or 3 on each side.
7. Bridges
👉 The bridge is excellent for stretching the front of the hips – so, the hip flexors – and for activating those glutes you’ve been sitting on all day long. It also helps to wake up your hamstrings to an extent.
You can mix up the bridges between double-leg bridges that you hold at the top and single-leg ones that are more dynamic. I like to do two double-leg ones that I hold, and then I switch to about five single-leg ones on each side.
Instructions (for the way I do them):
Lie on your back with your arms by your sides, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor.
Tighten your tummy muscles and push your hips upwards – use your glutes, not your back muscles.
Hold for 10 seconds.
Come back down.
Do 2 of these.
Now, do the same, but with only one foot on the floor.
Don’t hold at the top – come back down immediately and go back up.
Do this 5 times, and then switch sides.
8. Calf pumps
👉 This is for stretching your calf muscles as well as activating them.
Instructions:
Lean forward against something, with your arms straight and at about chest height.
Put your feet backwards so that your legs are straight, your feet flat on the floor, and you feel a gentle stretch in your calf muscles.
Go up onto your toes and then lower yourself back down.
Do this between 10 and 20 times, but take care not to tire yourself out before your run.
9. Leg swings
👉 We've loosened up the muscles around the hips, we've loosened up the muscles in the thighs and calves, and now we get the nerves to slide. It’s also another way of stretching your hip flexors and hamstrings and making sure you can move your leg through the full range it will need when you run.
Instructions:
Hold on to something sturdy next to you and place your weight on the leg on that side.
Swing the other leg forwards and backwards, like a pendulum.
Do between 10 and 20 swings.
Switch sides.
And then, go for a comfortable and hopefully injury-free run!
How we can help
Need more help with your injury? You’re welcome to consult one of the team at SIP online via video call for an assessment of your injury and a tailored treatment plan.
We're all UK Chartered Physiotherapists with Master’s Degrees related to Sports & Exercise Medicine or at least 10 years' experience in the field. But at Sports Injury Physio we don't just value qualifications; all of us also have a wealth of experience working with athletes across a broad variety of sports, ranging from recreationally active people to professional athletes. You can meet the team here.
About the Author
Maryke Louw is a chartered physiotherapist with more than 20 years' experience and a Master’s Degree in Sports Injury Management. Follow her on LinkedIn and ResearchGate.