How to Stretch Before & After a Run

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Les Whitley. Today I'd like to talk to you a little bit about using stretching before and after your training to improve your running performance. Stretching before a lot of people get caught up on the old static stretching where you are holding a particular movement for a short period of time. What that does is actually sends a signal to the muscle that it needs to relax. The last thing you want your muscles to do before you begin a race or before you begin any type of training program is to relax. You want them warmed up and prepped. Some of the exercises that you do involve moving them through a full range of motion but in an active movement. For example stretching out the hamstrings we actually travel through space in something like a straight leg march where you are moving that muscle or moving your leg through that full range engaging and activating that muscle but also causing to elongate it while warming it up. The straight leg march again traveling through space, staying light on the toes, kicking up ideally moving your toes up towards the ceiling, staying light on your feet, keeping the leg as straight as you possibly can while you are moving that muscle through a range of motion. The other would be stretching out the muscles of the front of the thigh through a walking quad stretch keeping both knees side by side, activating that muscle as you step but also stretching it so it is engaging to support your body but you are stretching and elongating the muscle as well. Working through all aspects of the lower body as well as the upper body through full range of movements that are active in nature starting out with beginning warming up the muscle and finishing off by cooling down the muscle. That is when you want that muscle to turn off to relax. Simple exercises such as the straight leg hamstring stretch, moving the chest down to the body or a lying quad stretch both knees side by side, then you want to look for holding it for time ideally two and three sets, 15, 20 up to 30 seconds so that muscle relaxes and actually improves in flexibility so that you are ready for the next day."