Track Shoes For Sprinters

     There is a lot of debate about warming up and cooling down. Understanding the importance of warm up and cool down routines are vital to your success in track or any other sport. If you can improve sprinting, whether it's better warmups, better cooldowns, speed and agility workouts or just better sprinting mechanics, then you'll win more.

     In track, when we finish a sprint, the coach is always at the finish line to tell us, "walk it off, walk it off!" The coach also made us do all those warm up routines. Let's discuss why this is so important.

     Many parts of the body work better with a proper warmups and cooldowns. The body recovers much faster from exercise if we do a proper cool down. I like to explain the circulatory system because the reasons are the most obvious.

     The circulatory system includes the heart, veins and arteries. The goal is to carry oxygen and fuel to all the parts of the body, then remove the remaining waste and dispose of it.

     During a sprint, circulation can be a daunting task. In fact, the heart is simply not capable of handling this amount of blood flow by itself. Good thing the human body is so amazing. This explanation should help you understand why, but more importantly, to make sense of the need for the warm up cool down process.

     The veins and arteries are much like a soft garden hose (smaller of course). If you put blood into a hose, it just sits there. It needs a way to move through the hose in order to perform any useful function.

     If we squeeze the hose, the blood moves away from the squeeze point. When we release, and the hose expands back, the blood returns to the squeeze point. This moves things, but not with any direction or real purpose.

     The entire circulatory system includes valves, like in the heart. These valves are one-way valves. They’re kind of like a flap that opens one way, but closes if you try to go the other way.

     Notice with valves, when we squeeze the hose, the blood flows OUT only one direction. When we release the hose, blood flows IN from the other direction. Using squeeze and release together provides a consistent flow in one direction. It works quite efficiently.

     If the heart isn't capable of pumping sufficient blood for sprinting, how do we sprint? This task is performed by parts needing blood flow the most, the muscles.

Muscle Activity Helps the Heart Supply Blood to the Muscles

     The heart has chambers with valves, but it's also a muscle. Arteries and veins have valves but no muscles of their own. When the muscles are working, they squeeze these little hoses and make the blood flow. Those valves are also the reason our blood doesn't just sink to our feet, leaving our brain bloodless.

Warm Up Cool Down

     Sprinting uses our resources faster than we can get them there. The example above pertains to both the importance of warm up and cool down exercises. The muscle isn't fully fed for a sprint until you start sprinting. You sprint faster if the fuel is in position, ready to be used.

     We can't sprint all day like some people can jog. Our body is running at a deficit of oxygen. When you are done sprinting, the muscles are still screaming for fuel. This is why the coach hangs out at the finish line and encourages us to walk-it-off! Your muscles can continue to push blood to your muscles if we "walk-it-off."

     Warm up cool down routines should always be part of your track and field workouts. Warmups should get us breathing hard and sweating a little. Cool downs should continue until we stop breathing hard. The result is, we feel better, with fewer injuries, faster recovery, and improve sprinting performance too!