Forums >General Running>To stretch or not to stretch?
SMART Approach
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
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The best advice I've heard, and what seems to work and feel the best for me, is don't stretch cold muscles. A brief warm up and then stretch before your run and/or a post-run cool down followed by some stretching seems to work well. Personally, I do a short warm up, run, then cool down and stretch. I'll hold each stretch for about 12-15 seconds and typically move through a series of stretches twice. It takes about 5-10 minutes. Also, when I was taking yoga classes once a week, I had a dramatic increase in flexibility and eliminated most post-run stretching altogether...just a worm up and cool down. I miss yoga...it was a great workout.
Courage ! Do one brave thing today...then run like hell.
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Speed my steps along your path, according to your will.
Lazy idiot
Flexibility is one of the 5 key components of fitness. If you skip it, you are missing out!
Tick tock
I do little to no stretching. I know when I need to do it, because I can feel it. But I don't specifically stretch before or after a run.
When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
I've got a fever...
When I started running - I followed the "advice" to stretch before running. After a couple of months - my left hamstring was always really sore. I stopped stretching and it "magically" got better.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
Hmmm... do I know you? Resistance Cardio Flexibility Rest Nutrition
I don't know if you know me. The main 5 components of fitness are: Muscular Strength Muscular Endurance Cardiovascular Strength Flexibility Body Composition I believe nutrition and rest should be added. Good job, Drew.