It is important to warm up properly before you perform any exercise, especially training for a Triathlon. A proper warm-up routine should last for a minimum of 10 minutes and is the most useful cause of helping prevent injury.
Start with a few minutes of gentle exercise, such as walking or jogging, to get the blood flowing to your muscles.
Steadily increase the pace until you are running briskly.
Once your muscles are warm, do some gentle stretching exercises, paying particular attention to the muscle groups that you will be using. With Triathletes, focusing on your legs and back is a good start. During the running and cycling stages, these will be key to your injury prevention. Make sure you warm your legs by the above process and then make sure all hamstrings, quads and calves are stretched well. You must only begin more vigorous activity after you have warmed up and stretched thoroughly.
Also to recognise:
Always drink plenty of water when you exercise to prevent dehydration. If you become dehydrated, your physical and mental fitness will be altered.
Make sure you wear the proper attire for training and during the event. Lightweight breathable clothing can help prevent water retention in clothing creating more weight on the body.
Correct and secure footwear is also essential. Inspect the footwear before running, if worn in a particular angle, get new shoes. Continuing to run with this footwear can cause pronating or supinating of the angle. This could then lead to an ankle injury or potential ligament damage of the ankle.
Correct thickness and fitted socks to avoid blisters
When you have finished exercising, cool down properly with 5–10 minutes:
Light aerobic activity, such as easy running, jogging or walking for a period of time
A gentle cool down will help remove the waste products that have built up in your muscles, leaving you with less muscle stiffness and soreness afterwards.
Some gentle stretching, focusing on the muscle groups you have used during exercise.
If you have exercised for a while a sports massage within 5 days after a vigorous work out, will help to remove the lactic acid (waste product) and prevent muscle stiffness and prevent injury or cause scar tissue on any affected areas of the body that could be in pain after a triathlon.
