Jodi Kinney here, Intrinsic Chiropractic, your chiropractor for athletes in Jackson Township, NJ. Today, what I wanna show you is some good runner’s stretches, chiropractic stretches that you could do after a long run, specifically all the muscles of the lower extremities.
Runners’ Stretches | Chiropractic Jackson Township, NJ
So, we’re gonna start with standing. What I’d like for you to do is just be reaching first straight leg for your toe. Big stretch in the back of the hamstrings, a little bit in the calf, holding each stretch, a good 10 to 15 deep breaths as you go.
Same, we’re gonna bend down the other way. Nice, big stretch that you should feel all the way into the hamstrings. You hopefully can reach your foot, you should be able to, you should feel that in the backs of the legs and then you’re gonna reach into the middle.
Same, you wanna be able to be touching the floor hopefully you can get down there, and get this much flexibility. You should feel that all in the backs of the legs.
Next, we’re gonna do your hip flexor stretch. So you can do this two ways. You’re gonna kinda bend and kneel almost like your knee touching the ground. And if you lean back, you should feel that in the front of your leg, the hip flexor right here.
Chiropractic Stretching for Athletes in Jackson Township, NJ
So that’s a nice hip flexor stretch. You can also do this all the way down to the floor. If you wanna get a deeper stretch you’re gonna kinda lean, put the knee like down on the ground and just lean into the other leg.
You should feel a nice stretch in the front of the leg. Nice hip flexor stretch, and then going the other way, you always wanna do both sides. Nice, lean into that, should feel in the front of the leg, same going all the way down, and lean into it if you wanna get a little bit deeper.
Moving down to the ground, we’re gonna do a nice inner thigh stretch, just your regular butterfly pulling your heels as close as you can to your body, and pushing the knees down as much as you can and lean into that.
Again, that’s a nice inner thigh, you should feel a nice stretch in there. Same thing, 10 to 15 deep breaths.
Yoga for Athletes | Chiropractic Jackson Township, NJ
This next one is called Pigeon. So it’s a good yoga pose, but it’s a hip opener so what you wanna do is you’re kinda sitting on the ground, you’re gonna pull your knee to your foot as close to your inner thigh as possible but you wanna kinda lean forward into that stretch. You’re gonna feel that all in the back of your leg here, the glute, back of the hams.
Same thing going the other way. So you’re gonna bring your knee, leg is straight behind you. You’re gonna kinda sit up on the leg a little bit and then lean into it, and you should feel a big stretch in the back of the leg.
We always wanna do the opposite side, so we did a lot of the backs of the legs now you wanna do the front of the legs. So holding onto support, bringing the calf to the back of the hamstring, this is your quad stretch. So again, you should pull it so that you feel a nice pull all the way in the front of your quads.
And then switching sides, same thing. You wanna pull the leg back a little further to enhance the stretch. Again, you should be feeling that all the way in the front of the leg.
Chiropractic Stretch Techniques for Athletes in Jackson Township, NJ
And then of course, you don’t wanna forget about your calves. So, heel up, and you wanna just be stretching down into the back of the leg. If you pull your toe up, you should feel that in the back of the calf, you can also do this this way. So if you try to bring your leg behind you, bend the knee, or no, straight leg and then you feel a nice stretch in the back of the calf.
So same thing, you can do it two ways. Pull your toe up, feel a nice stretch in the back of the calf there, and then if you switch it around, and you lean forward you should feel it in the back of the calf that way.
So these are easy, basic, relatively quick but don’t go too quick, you wanna take a little extra time. You can re-watch this video, it’s pretty easy, quick, take your time with it. Don’t forget to be deep breathing into the stretches but definitely be loosening up your legs before and after a run.
Okay, hope that helps, see you soon.
