It’s been universally understood for what seems like time immemorial that stretching is an important part of running.  To that end, most of us do some form of stretching either before running or after or both, but many of us are often not stretching enough.

The conventional wisdom on stretching has been shifting a bit over the last couple of years.  Unless you’re a sprinter, stretching before a run doesn’t seem to yield any real benefits and can actually be detrimental depending on how intensely you go at it.  Stretching after a run, however, is crucial to the recovery process, reducing soreness, and preventing injury.  Periodic stretching during the day is also beneficial.

Stretch one minute per muscle

Several years ago while getting back into my running groove, I experienced a massively sharp, driving pain that felt like someone had just shoved a three inch nail straight up through the bottom of my heel.  I could barely walk.  Assuming it was a stress fracture, I visited my local marathon-running sports medicine doctor prepared for grim news.  She asked me a series of questions including “have you increased your mileage recently” and “how much have you been stretching after?”.  I affirmed that I had increased my mileage and sheepishly admitted my stretching was a bit lacking.  “That’s the problem,” she told me, “your calf muscles have pulled too tight and are putting too much stress on your achilles tendon.  The pain you feel is that tendon tugging on the other connective tissue around your heel.  Stretch properly, and that’ll go away.”  She was right.  Proper stretching solved that issue quickly and I’ve never forgotten it.

When stretching, it’s important to stretch for roughly one minute per muscle.  Too often I see people stretching post-run for maybe a minute total, which doesn’t give each muscle more than a few seconds attention.  Each runner is different and will need to stretch different areas, but as long as you give each one approximately sixty seconds, you’ll be good.

Remember, your workout’s not over until you stretch, recover, and log.  Take care of your muscles, and they’ll take care of you!

(In a future Tip of the Week, I’ll talk more about different types of stretches and how to get some of the problem spots)