Running stretches and exercises that will make you a better runner
Running stretches and exercises that will make you a better runner
Gaby is trying to improve her running and she wants to know if there are any specific running stretches or exercises that will help her running. She also asked if things like squats and lunges help to make you a better runner.
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Brad Brown: Gaby is trying to improve her running and she wants to know if there are any specific running stretches or exercises that will help her running. She also asked if things like squats and lunges help to make you a better runner.
Lindsey Parry: The running stretches questions is a difficult one to answer over a forum like this. With stretching we sometimes need to be a little bit careful because some muscles potentially need stretching and other muscles are already probably weak and are therefore quite flexible already.
I guess a reasonably safe answer without knowing too much about Gaby would be to do gentle stretching of the glutes, the hamstrings and the hip flexors.
I’m quite comfortable that most runners probably need to work on their flexibility in that area. As well as the occasional stretching of the calves. Over stretched calves are probably more to blame for having issues than having ‘too tired’ calves.
Then from a strengthening point of view, there’s still a lot to be said for correcting whatever imbalances you’ve got. It’s not always about making you stronger. Sometimes it’s just about fixing one or two issues.
That question I can’t answer specifically for Gaby, but again in runners – typically what we’re looking to try and do is strengthen the glutes, the hamstrings and the quads. We also try and work on proprioception and focus on some core stuff.
Types of running stretches and exercises
The types of exercises that I like to get people to do for a running programme are as follows: single leg squats, single leg presser, single leg step ups onto a high bench, and single leg curls. That typically takes care of most of the potential issues runners have. I then obviously prescribe some individual running stretches or exercises if I’ve had some time to spend with the runner. I always encourage people to add a little bit of core work on top of those four exercises.
As I said before, proprioception – in lay terms it really just means teaching your muscles to turn on and off at the appropriate time. So those would typically be things like balancing on one leg on an unstable surface, and to a degree the step ups on the bench and the single leg squats will take care of that.
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