Silly title aside what do you do to warm up and if you do any stretching for mobility after a run what are they?
I confess to being extremely lazy. My idea of a warm up is just running a bit easier than normal and the only stretch I do is foam roll my calves and stretch out the old hams on a wall.
Every time I look up articles you get insane fitness blogs regurgitating the same 3 page “easy” routine that you absolutely must do all of or you will definitely die.
So what do actual other human beings do? Come, share your wisdom or commiserate in haphazardness.
I don’t do any stretching at all, my warmup is just the first 5min of the run at an easy pace.
I don’t do a lot to warm up, but for recovery I can’t stress enough how helpful foam rolling and downward dog (the single best calf stretch) have been for me. Early on in my running I was getting shin splints and leg pain, and these two things made a world of difference.
A couple things that have really helped me lately are prone ups/Cobra (like a push up but you stay in contact with the floor from the waist down) and another stretch where you lay flat on your back and throw one leg over. Both were recommended by the PT to help stretch my lower back and they, along with some strengthening exercises, have made a big difference for me in keeping my lower back from aching toward the end of runs.
I active walk the first hundreds of meters (letting the GPS time to warm up) and run easy the first km. At the end, easy last km. That’s it.
Science shows that static stretching before is counter productive. Static stretching at the end depends on you: it can be productive or counter productive. If you feel the need, you can do it, bit if not, nothing wrong to not do it.
Interesting. I thought static stretching was bad for explosive movements but good for endurance beforehand. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t do much warm-up anymore, neither for running out weightlifting. For weights, I will do that movement without weights for two sets.
Not a lot really, I’ll roll my shoulders and arms for like a minute as I’m leaving the house to loosen up my shoulders but as another commenter said I have played around with more intense warm ups and post run stretches and for me I find it does nothing but waste my time really.
If I run a marathon then I will stretch my legs out a bit after whilst do a bit of a post run cool down walk which I do find helps me be a bit less sore the next day.
It is worth noting though that I do also kickbox and when training for that I will do plenty of stretches to loosen up as well as aid my flexibility. I will also foam roll when particular muscles are feeling tight but I don’t have a regular routine for that. All of that must play into it but specifically before / after running I do practically nothing.
