I've planned to go to Tuscania on Sunday, where a 10 kilometers race started at 10:00 a.m. Although this morning was sunny and beautiful I didn't run that race because I didn't feel very good. This morning while I was waking up I felt weak, so I decided to do a relaxing long run. After I had run 18 kilometers at an average pace of 05:50 I did stretching near my house. I did one of these stretching drills with one leg up on a fence trying to reach for my toes. I think that this is a classic hamstring stretch but someone says it may do more harm than good. I don't understand why.
Other runners advise to stand on one leg with knee slightly bent and hold our other leg under or knee. Our hamstring is parallel with the floor. Of consequence, we would have to hold for two second and then we would bring our heel back under our knee. I'm curious to know what do you Think about this. I hope that all you are getting an effective stretching :)
A special good luck to Anne and Amy for their first half marathon :) Have a good running everyone!
10 comments:
I hope you are ready for saturday. I am sure that you will solve this problem very soon.
I do my hamstring stretch on the ground. One leg out in front and the other bent. Then bend my body from the hips towards the straight leg and hold for a count of 10. The other stretch you described (standing with knee bent behind) is for the quadriceps muscles.
Hi Giorgio,
I am sorry to hear that you were not feeling the greatest on Saturday. Hopefully you will be back to your healthy self in no time:) I do my stretches the same way that Char does. I think that there are different approaches to many stretches.
Have a wonderful week Giorgio!
You hear both sides...one that you should stretch to keep the muscle flexible. The other is when your muscles are warm you will over stretch and not realize it and cause damage. I used to do a hamstring stretch but don't unless its feeling tight. A couple things that is consistent that I've heard is stretch warm muscles only (don't stretch before you've warmed up) and hold the stretch for 30 seconds and don't bounce.
Hope you are feeling better. I don't stretch often. It's like you say, some say yes, others say no. Most people say stretch after the run is more important.
get well quickly. Hamstrings can be such a pain.
Thanks for the well-wishes Giorgio!! Hope you're feeling better...take care.
I'm not sure why this stretch wouldn't be okay but I know our physical therapist says not to do that stretch standing. We actually use a table to stretch on!
I hope you have FUN race on Saturday!
Thanks for the support, Giorgio! Hope you're feeling back up to par soon.
i see a sports doctor here in France, who was with teh French Olympic athletics team in Sydney - he said most stretching should be BEFORE you actually run, and certainly not right after.
Spend at least 20 mins doing light stretching before you run, and begin the run very slowly.. gradually warming up. After the run, take a shower and then begin very light stretching again... the idea he explained was that stretching a muscle which "may have trauma" will not be good!
I now follow this advice, and have avoided the recurring calf muscle problems i had, which is one reason i began triathlon - now my problems are all achilles tendon related, and that is unexplainable!!
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