Lunge Matrix as Warm-Up

LOL that you had to point out that you believe in running.

Sorry (?) about your late April snow! Friends sent us pictures of their tulips buried.

This is great. I didn't realize how bad my balance was until I started the twisting lunge and the 45 deg. lunge. I'm doing this matrix at least once a day, even on days I don't run.

After doing this workout 4-5 times per week for about 5 months, I took 4 weeks off from doing it. I got back into it and was so surprised at my lack of balance and coordination. Not only is the LM great for strength and to wake up the glutes before running, but the coordination aspect of this routine is vital. I'm now scared NOT to do the lunge matrix.

Tyler -

Yes, I think using it post run is great. That said, I'd be a bit anal about trying to the Lunge Matrix (LM) with perfect angles and perfect feet. Why? You're warm and you've worked out and if you can do it to perfection then you can get a neural stimulus as well. While I don't claim to be a motor learning expert, my guess is that by doing the LM after a workout with perfect you reinforce the deep, core muscles to do what they need to do to get the limbs where you want them to go. That said, I'd take out the backwards lunge post run on the easy days, though we do a ton of those post long run as a way to see how fatigued that athlete is (see this video for an example).

Thanks for the question – I appreciate it.

I started doing the LM a few weeks ago, too. I'm just recovering from a 6 month long abdominal injury, so I'm just getting reacquainted with running. I've found that doing the LM right before I run, I start out a little faster and feel much stronger on the run. I tend to have sciatic and piriformis pain when I go from sitting to running, but the LM takes care of most of that and I can jump right in and run at a good strong pace.

Please — don't link to that anymore! Oy.

Sorry about the sickness up there.

Here is a post from a year ago that includes pdf's of warm ups and cool downs and other good stuff.

http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2009/05/three-we…

CoachJay in the the exercises 4 and 7 posted here: http://www.coachjayjohnson.com…/ the position of the arms is different than the same exercises i have seen in your videos. Is there any effect in the exercise by changing the position of the arms?

It is possible that persons may require prescription medications or have to undergo physical therapy in order to control sciatica's painful effects. Surgery or injection therapy may be necessary in some cases. Magnetic Resonance neurography (MRN) is capable of generating a detailed image of virtually any nerve in the body. MRN can accurately image the sciatic nerve, and also shows that medical experts can diagnose and treat sciatic pain that is not caused by a herniated or damaged disc.

Great video Jay, thanks,
I’m interested that you say that you do these BEFORE any other movements or warm ups. Some of the athletes we coach say that they feel that their muscles are being pulled and stretched too much too soon, for instance after sitting down for a long period. What’s your view on this? Is it worth jogging for 5 mins (or doing anything else) before starting with these.

Hi Jay,
You say you do this before any running. So on competition day if an athlete is running multiple events, say the 1600m and the 800m, would they do the lunge matrix before their pre-race warm up for each event? or would the athlete only do the LM before the first race? Thanks for your time.

I’ve done the lunge matrix wrong at times…here’s what I mean.

http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2013/01/doing-the-lunge-matrix-wrong/

Jay,

I did a post on this warmup and how useful it has been for me and my runners here: http://teachtorun.com/2013/03/02/how-should-you-warm-up-for-before-you-run/

I am working on making a version of it where I also implement a few upper body warm up movements and would love your feedback once it is up Jay.

What age? Here are some initial thoughts.

http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2013/05/should-runners-go-to-the-weight-room-part-1/

I am a 45 year old woman who used to run many years ago. I set a goal to run a 5k this fall and just signed up last week for one on Sept. 7. I am currently running 1.5 – 3 miles a day 6 days a week, followed by weight training and some strength training exercises. What do you think is the most important thing for me to focus on to have a successful first race? I don’t want to get caught up in a “time to beat”, but would like to do well and run the whole thing! Thanks