How to Stretch Before & After a Run

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is David Brown, and today, we're going to talk about how to stretch before, and after a run. Now, stretching is very, very simple, and we're going to go over four major body parts that are very important, when looking at running. Those four major body parts are your calves, your quadriceps, your hamstrings, and your hips. Now, stretching your calves is very, very simple. You want to get into a nice long elongated position. You want to come down to a push up position. Walk your feet out, and you want to be able to lift one leg up, and cross it over your other leg, while pushing the heel to the ground. You should feel a nice stretch. You want to go back and forth, each one, and I would stretch each calf roughly twenty seconds each, two times through, and by the second time through, really try to push down further on your calf. Now, the next stretch, is looking at your quadriceps. It's the front of your legs. A very simple stretch. You want to bring one leg up, like so. Balance, reach back. Keep your chest nice and tall, back arched, and really try to pull that heel towards your butt. As you pull, you'll feel a nice stretch, all through the front of your leg. Now, stretching the hamstring, can be done in two ways. The first way I'm going to show you, what's called an RDL. An RDL, you simply lean over your leg, while keeping this not locked out. By locking your leg out, that becomes dangerous. You want a slight bend, lean over your leg, and reach down in front of you, really stretching underneath here, and not locking your leg out. Just reaching down as far as you can, getting a nice stretch in the back of the legs. It's a fantastic, simple way, to stretch your hamstrings. The next major part to look at, are your hips, so you get the front hip flexors. You want to take a knee, keep your body nice and tall, and you want to try to push your hips forward, to get a nice stretch in the front of the leg. You may get a little stretch in your quads here as well, if you're not very flexible,but this is very important, to stretch out that front part of your hip flexor. Same thing.You want to go roughly twenty seconds each side, really pushing the hips forward. Now, the other one, while I'm down here, is looking at the other side. What you want to do, is bring your leg across. Say, your right leg. You want to hug it nice and tight to your chest. For some of you at this point, you might already be getting a stretch, and you'll feel it in the side of your butt. For most of you however, you're going to want to twist a little bit more, and really start to pull, until you can get your elbow on your knee, right here. Then you want to twist, to open up your trunk, and really pull, and at his point, you should be really feeling a nice stretch on the side of your butt, which is the other part of your hip."