The Most Important Five Minutes That Every Run Should End With
The primary goal at That Made Sense is to help you make the connection between science and application. To write things in a way that doesn’t leave you guessing as to what it was you need to do. Of course you should always consult a physician before starting a new workout regiment.
When we go out for a run we break down are muscles. You could even say we dislocate our muscles cells. Stretching is a way to put them back into place so everything flows right. That’s the simple answer to why you don’t fell as sore if you stretch.
So there’s a few key things to stretching… You want to make sure you stretch within 15 minutes of finishing your run.
It gives you enough time to go get some refueling calories but that’s a different blog post.
All stretches should only be held for 20 to 30 seconds.
When we do stretch we make sure that the moment we feel anything, that we’re actually doing a stretch that’s far enough.
This whole feeling like you’re going to tear your muscle that’s not a good thing. I mean if you think about it. You’ve gone out there and you’ve broken down your muscle and now you’re going to tear it? I think not!
The following is a simple 5-minute stretch that pretty much covers all the major running muscles.
Stretch #1 stand up tall one leg slightly in front of the other making sure that the leg is straight. Bend the foot up towards you as you bend down towards it. This should stretch your calf at least that’s where you should be feeling it.Since we’re out there bouncing around on the balls of our feet obviously are calves been broken down and need to be stretched out because tight calves can create all kinds of other challenges including and not limited to plantar fascistic.
Once you finished that stretch of 20-30 seconds reset yourself by standing up straight and take your foot and put it flat on the ground for stretch #2.Move back down towards that foot and this time you should feel the stretch more around the back of your knee. 
Notice how we’re moving up the back of the leg once you’ve held a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds.
Reset by standing up straight again and for stretch #3 this time bend the knee slightly and then right back over again now the stretch should have moved from the back of the knee up towards the hamstring area. Repeat all the stretches on the opposite leg. Notice how we’re using a minimum movement.
Now we go into the quad stretch #4 standing up tall lift your foot behind you to your hand and hold with nice straight lines. Not with your knee bent up behind you and some kind of crazy contortionist pose. But nice straight up and down lines.After 20-30 seconds do the opposite side.
Now we will move to stretching #5 those pesky hip flexors! After Standing Tall take one foot and move it straight in front of you to about a 45 degree angle. Then take the other foot and move it back to a 45 degree angle.
Now bending at the knees lower yourself slowly making sure that your knee on the front knee does not go in front of your actual foot as in the diagram.Once in that lowered position shift your hips underneath and forward, you should feel it in your front of your hip.
If you still need a little bit extra raise your arm up over your head and that should instigate even a little bit more of a stretch but be careful as we do not want to overstretch. Repeat this on the opposite leg.
Now for the final stretch #6 which is for the piriformis back in the sciatic area. Sit down on the ground and place of one of your ankles on top of the opposite knee creating a nice perpendicular to your body angle.Lift your back end off the ground and slowly move it forward towards your feet until you feel the stretch in that back area by the sciatic.
If this is not enough check out the yoga pigeon pose. But for ninety-nine out of a hundred of us we will now be switching to the opposite lane and doing this again.
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