Today's discussion is a dive into stretching's role in running. We tackle the stretching dilemma, armed with research and my own coaching insights. I talk about the shift from static to dynamic stretches, the surprising truths about injury prevention, and the potential drawbacks of overstretching.
While I do recognize the place for static stretches, particularly for addressing post-run issues, the emphasis is firmly on dynamic movements as part of your pre-run ritual.
Resources from the Episode: The Wrinkled Runner Podcast: The Warm Up
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
Today's discussion is a dive into stretching's role in running. We tackle the stretching dilemma, armed with research and my own coaching insights. I talk about the shift from static to dynamic stretches, the surprising truths about injury prevention, and the potential drawbacks of overstretching.
While I do recognize the place for static stretches, particularly for addressing post-run issues, the emphasis is firmly on dynamic movements as part of your pre-run ritual.
Resources from the Episode: The Wrinkled Runner Podcast: The Warm Up
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
If you have any running-related questions, please send an email to sherry@wrinkledrunner.com…I answer every one.
Speaker 1:
In today's episode I'm going to dive into a topic that can be controversial for not just runners but fitness people in general, and that is stretching. The debate I see in personal trainer circles is just as hard it runs just as hard as the ones that I see in the running circles. There is science behind it and studies have shown various outcomes and ways that are theoretically better than others. So I'm going to go over what is generally recommended. This is by no means a science lecture or I'm not going to go super deep into it, but I'm just going to kind of give you an overview of what the thinking is now, generally speaking, because there are people who disagree with the stance that I take but, as a coach, the ways that I approach stretching and the things that I would tell you to do if you are one of my athletes. So, first of all, it's very beneficial for us to do a warm up before we run, and that's a whole other thing in and of itself whether people do a warm up or not. Some people just go out and run, other people will do a warm up. It's kind of like strength training. It's something that we should be doing, but a lot of runners don't do it. So my first thing to tell you is I absolutely think that you should be doing a warm up before you go out to run and I've covered this topic before and if you're running longer distances, I consider the first part of a run a warm up and I will always include that, either like a five minute run or several miles or half a mile. It just depends on the amount of nitty gritty mileage that I'm wanting you to do. So. When I talk about stretching, that can be part of a warm up, but a warm up and stretching can be two different things. So back in the day I'm in my well, I hate to say it now, but like in my later fifties or second half of fifties anyway, back when I was in gym class, we did what we now call static stretching. That's when you're reaching and touching your toes with straight legs, holding that pose for a while, grabbing your ankle and lifting it up and, like you know, stretching out your quad for a long length of time, things like that. But the studies on this now show that that can be actually detrimental to your run.
Speaker 1:
When we run, what we want is like spring back of our muscles. What we get in. A static stretch is a muscle that can be not as productive because we're fatiguing it early and we're stretching it too much so that it can get a little loose for spring back into place, you know, after our foot crashes against the ground. So if you're thinking, say, of a slinky or a spring if you don't know what a slinky is, but think of a spring, when you compress it, squish it together and then you let it go, it springs back into its quote, unquote normal state. Now if you stretch it, you're weakening the spring back. If you then compress it and by stretch it I mean if you stretch it beyond the normal framework of what it is. So if you've ever seen a slinky and you've seen kids playing with it, invariably what they will do is they will pull and pull and pull and pull and pull it out of its normal state and then it's not a spring anymore. There's no way of getting it back together again. So you're weakening that spring back. So static stretching can kind of do the same thing, where it can cause us to over stretch and that can make us lose power and weaken the muscle. And this is according to a study done for the European Journal of Applied Physiology, when you over stretch and not allowing it to then get back to its normal state, or you're stretching it too far and so it can't get back to its normal state, that means our running efficiency is not as good, and so we have to work harder in our run in order to get into the groove, so to speak.
Speaker 1:
And other studies have shown that, while coaches and personal trainers have advocated static stretching in the past to reduce injuries, there's actually little evidence that that is the case, and I think back in the day when I was talking however many years ago I was in high school that was what they were kind of advocating. Is that if you stretch out before you do your work, your exercise or you play whatever you were gonna play or do whatever you're gonna do that that was going to reduce injury, and that has not proven to be the case, which people are kind of surprised about Now, after a run, if you're feeling like something is particularly tight or you know that your calves are needing stretching after a run just because everyday life tells you that that's the case, then okay, I go ahead and do a calf stretch. No more than 30 seconds is what I'd advocate for as far as static stretching, but also, if you feel the need to have to do some any kind of stretching after a run, I love foam rolling. This foam rolling to me gives you the same I don't know what the word is not pain, but the hurt so good kind of thing that a lot of times we feel when we're static stretching and there's less of a chance of damaging your muscles or overstretching or even pulling something when we do a foam roll as opposed to just normal stretching. And I would also say that, unless you are with a physical therapist, don't let anyone else push you into a stretch or push down and hold you or anything else in time into a stretch where they're not feeling what you're feeling, and they can way overstretch you, and I've talked before about how I did yoga and as a runner I'm not very flexible, and so being pushed and held into some of these positions did a little bit of damage, I think, in overstretching me and so for myself. That's why I say don't let anyone else, like you know, shove you into a hold or a static stretch that you may not be ready for and that can do some real damage when they're not able to feel what you're feeling. So some of the evidence has shown that the static stretching before a run does lessen our potential I guess is a good way to put it for that run or that race or whatever it is you're going to do.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to link you to some of the stretches and foam rolling that I would recommend after a run and that will be in the show notes, of course and then we're going to turn to dynamic stretching, which is what most of the running community will advocate for before a run, and that can be part of your warmup. So this is an active stretch. You're not holding anything in a range of motion that over pulls your muscles. Also, though, what's very important is, this is not a bounce. This is not where you know you're getting down into a stretch and then bouncing your body and trying to get deeper into it. This is a totally different thing, and I'll link you to resources for dynamic stretches also in the show notes that you can see what I mean by dynamic stretching. You're going to see things like leg swings, front lunges, arm swings, things that you are. You're warming up the muscles by doing that, and you're also mimicking a lot of what you're going to tell your body to do when it gets into the actual run, but you're not pulling muscles into configurations that make them longer than what they are in their normal state. You want that give back and you want that power that you're going to get when your muscle snaps back after you compress it when you run. So when you see these dynamic stretches, you might actually not think of stretching, and if you've seen some of these warmups before, maybe you've been doing them not realizing that they're actually considered stretches.
Speaker 1:
As a coach and personal trainer, I'm pretty confident in my recommendations about stretching. You know, like I said, some people have a lot to say about the subject and there probably are people who would disagree with some of the stuff that I think. So if you do have anything to add or disagree with or questions about it, you can send me an email at sherryatrinkledrunnercom. I'm not going to get into a nasty debate with you, but if you have other sources or science that causes you to think differently, I would love to look at it myself. You know I've I try to keep up with the most recent scientific things that are coming out the journals and I will read like less scientific explanations about it in other running publications, just to find out the most current science. So if there's something that you have run across that is more up to date as far as that goes, then I would like to hear it. Now.
Speaker 1:
I am a personal trainer as well as a coach, and some of the things that, as a personal trainer, that I'm exposed to I guess does go a little bit against what I know as a running coach, and I tend to lean more towards the running side of things, just because that's that's what I do, that's my love, that's I'm really passionate about, and so, for my runners especially, I would not have them do any static stretching before a run.
Speaker 1:
I would be careful about static stretching after a run, except, like I said, some of the assessments that I use as a personal trainer I fold over into my running coaching, and so I can see what might be things that need to be stretched or strengthened based on that, and so if any of you have had any personal training education, then you know me saying that if you've done the NASM personal training certification, then that is familiar to you.
Speaker 1:
They're their assessment tools and things that might need strengthening, might need stretching.
Speaker 1:
So even if I do see something that might need stretching in one of my runners. That is something that I will have them do after the fact, and even my personal training clients as well will do more dynamic things before the workout and warm up muscles that need to be warmed up, that are going to be in more of a mimicking fashion of what I'm going to ask them to do and then work on some things that might need to be stretched after the fact. All that to say, if you don't do any stretching at all, I'm going to tell you that that is okay, unless you do have other issues of things that might need stretching. But I would tell you that I would love to see you check out the dynamic stretches in the show notes as part of a warm-up. So, even if you don't do any stretching, doing a warm-up is something that I will always advocate for, and there's a podcast episode that I did, probably a few years ago now that was on warming up, and I will link to that as well.