Nope, definitely not – not static stretching, anyway, which is where you hold a specific pose for between 15 and 60 seconds. At best, it’s pointless; at worst, it may actually make you a less effective runner.

A study by the University of Zagreb found that muscle strength was actually reduced by around 5.5% when athletes static-stretched before exercising, while a parallel study published in The Scandanavian Journal Of Medicine And Science In Sports came to similar conclusions.

But while static stretching is a counter-productive waste of time, warming-up is a must if you want to avoid twanging a muscle and having to perform the Hobble Of Shame home.

“If you’re not moving while you’re stretching, you’re going to be running with cold muscles,” says elite personal-trainer Jonny Jacobs. “To warm a muscle effectively and reduce your chances of injury, you need to put it through a dynamic range. Simply walking around a bit can be sufficient.”