Last week we talked about how the weather is beginning to warm up and how we can finally start to leave our houses and venture across the permafrost for exercise. We gave some quick tips on how to get back into running without hurting yourself and our biggest piece of advice was to always make sure you’ve stretched. This week we’re going to go into more detail about proper stretching and some specific examples for running.
The biggest thing with stretching is to make sure you’ve warmed up before you do it. Stretching on “cold” muscles and ligaments can cause more problems than it helps solve. You don’t need to do anything strenuous, just some real light, quick warm ups like knees raises or a quick 10 minute jog will do the job.
Always make sure that you ease into a stretch, if you feel like you’re having to really force it you’re doing something wrong and you should stop. Your body has a pretty solid idea of what it can and can’t do, so make sure that you listen to it. Your typical stretch should last for about 30 seconds for each repetition of it.
Now for some examples stretches especially aimed at runners. Our first stretch is probably the easiest and most recognizable, the standing quad stretch. Simply take one foot and bend your knee back to bring it up behind you and grab your foot and pull until you can feel the stretch in your quad.
To perform the hip flexor stretch, start with standing up with your feet together and take one far step forward and then lean into it while keeping your torso upright.
Our last stretch for today is the groin stretch. Starting while sitting like you’re cross legged, but with the bottoms of your feet pressed together push down on your knees until you feel the stretch in your inner, upper thighs.