Fat Kid’s Ironman Fitness Blog

8 January 2009

My Post Run Stretches Described

Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Flexibility.

Doing well on my goals to run every day, and stretch more frequently.

Here were my stretches…

• Groin: Butterfly (or Clam Shell) - Sit on floor, with bottom of feet touching each other, bring feet as close to your body/groin as you can, stretch your knees downward toward the floor. Try to make your legs as flat as possible with as little space as possible between your legs and the floor.
• Hamstrings/Lower Back: Sit on floor with legs straight out in front of you, feet, knees, thighs together, lean your body forward bending at the waist, holding your feet or calves to help brace yourself and pull your torso toward your legs to help the stretch. If you’re flexible enough (I’ll admit I am not) you can put your hands on your toes or even beyond your toes.
• Hamstrings: I have really tight hamstrings. I need to have help to really get a good stretch, but usually I don’t have a handy coach or PT available to stretch me out. So I use a bed post… but a door frame can also work. I lie flat on my back, with my waist/hip as close to the bed post as possible, raise one leg up as straight as I can and brace it against the bed post. Try to keep your lower leg as flat on the ground as possible. Watch to make sure your buttocks doesn’t raise up from the floor. I try to hold this as long as I can, 30-45-60 seconds. After you do one side, switch legs and stretch the other side.
• Quads: Standing, balancing on one foot, or using a wall to balance yourself, fold one leg behind you bending at your knee, hold your ankle and pull your foot toward your buttocks. Try feeling the stretch in different parts of your quad by standing more straight, or bending forward slightly. You’ll get a different stretch depending on the angle of your waist.
• Calves/Hip Flexors: This is another great double stretch. I use it as my primary hip flexor stretch, but you also get a good calf stretch. Standing, take one leg extended behind you, while you bend the knee of your forward leg, keep your upper body straight up. You will feel the stretch in your hip flexor as you as you lower your upper body slowely. You will also get a calf stretch in your back leg, try to keep your foot flat on the ground if you can, this will deepen your calf stretch. Also it’s very important not to lean forward from the waist, if you do, you won’t get a proper hip flexor stretch. After you do one side, switch legs and stretch the other side.
• Calves/Hamstrings/Lower back: I finish off with a few modified downward dogs. I call this modified because, my yoga instructor always told me I was doing downward dog incorrectly, that I wasn’t “trying hard enough to do the pose”, well, what I know is, this is a tough stretch for me, so I know I’m getting a stretch out of it. Basically, make a triangular shape with your body and the floor. The floor is the base of the triangle, your arms are one side up to your waist, and your legs are the final side. I find that I need to start by “pumping” my calves, slowly trying to extend one at a time to rest flat on the floor. This is a great stretch for Triathletes, because you need flexible calves, hamstrings, and lower back to perform well.

Hope these stretches are helpful to others.

Workout:

• Type: Flexibility
• Date: 01/08/2009
• Time: 17:00:00
• Total Time: 00:15:00.00
• Calories: 49

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6 Comments so far...

Karl On Sea Says:

9 January 2009 at 6:45 am.

I’m not so good at visualising this sort of thing. Time for a Zappoman Video?

Alex Tries a Tri » crunch, click…. ahhhh » Sweat365 » Fitness Community Says:

9 January 2009 at 7:12 am.

[...] tight. He gave me a couple of stretches and I need to do them every hour! I really should follow Brad’s regime and make stretching my priority - I’m a bit lazy with [...]

alextrihard Says:

9 January 2009 at 7:18 am.

Thanks for posting these. I’m rubbish at stretching so it’s good to have this as a guide.

Yay - you should do a video! Make it really cheesy with some tacky music and eighties lycra - lol!

greenking17 Says:

9 January 2009 at 8:54 am.

Alextrihard: Karl wants video describing and showing the stretches…not an 80’s porn!!! LOL

cscolt Says:

13 January 2009 at 1:27 am.

Nice advice though i think its worth mentioning that research shows that to gain from stretching, the muscles should be warmed up.

Brad Hefta-Gaub Says:

13 January 2009 at 2:17 am.

@cscolt - Excellent point. I do these stretches POST run exactly for that reason. You can’t wait to long after your run to do this… you should still be nice and warm.