Dynamic stretches

[NickW]

I was just reading an article about stretching and it said for runners, static stretching is not good prior to a run but is good after a run when the body is all warmed up. It said that dynamic stretches are best prior to a run, but then didn't give any examples for what to do. What's your all's collective experience with dynamic stretching, and what dynamic stretches do you do?

 

[Abide]

Just swing your arms and legs around. High knees, butt kickers, skipping stuff like that.

Or believe this.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22266545

And don't forget to read this.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18978605

 

[Hobbit]

I do dynamic stretches (as proposed by Abide) before running only if I really need to do an extra warm up; say like in the morning with freezing cold outside.
On other occasions my first couple of (very slow) kilometers are my warm up.
But what I regularly do before running is a systematic slow "opening" of all articulations - the same kind of what you do before martial arts training or before a Qi Gong session.
After the run it depends on how I feel - most time a massage of tight muscles has a better effect on my recovering than stretches - but it depends also on the quality of the run.
I should add, I'm not yet into Ultras and all these extreme kinds of trail running : If however this is what you're doing, well, I suppose your body will probably have other needs than mine...

 

[Abide]

A lot of people also recommend foam rolling prior to excercise.

 

[NickW]

A lot of people also recommend foam rolling prior to excercise.

Ya I roll before and after runs, thanks to PF I have had to make this a must do. I also do mild static stretching before and after. The static stretching I do I NEVER go past the first hint of uncomfortableness to where it hurts. If it hurts, you've gone too far and may end up hurting your muscles. For my PF, this has been extremely helpful. It seemed the harder I stretched the more persistent the PF was, but this mild form of stretching really seems to work well for me. In any case, I was just curious about dynamic stretches after reading that article and wondered what may be some good ones to do and what everyone's experience was with dynamic stretches.

 

[Bare Lee]

I've recently become more vigilante about rolling and stretching before my runs. Like you I do static stretching but not past the point of being comfortable. I just touch the floor with my palms or grab something waist high, bend over, and shift my hips side to side to stretch out the glutes & hammies.

When I get back, and sometimes in the middle of a run after I've warmed up, I'll do a more strenuous stretch by putting my foot up on something chest-high and really stretching out the hammies and calf muscles. I know recently studies have indicated that this doesn't do any good, either performance-wise or in terms of injury-prevention, but it seems to help me, and I've been stretching for so long it just feels natural to get back to it more intensively. When I get back home, more of the same: some semi-painful stretching, foam rolling for my upper leg, and the 'sprinter' stick and self-massage for my lower leg, front and back, and my foot. I've also started working on doing the splits again. I would like to be more limber again, studies be damned.

For dynamic stretching, I like high knee kicks, like Abide suggested. Try them coming up from the side a bit, for greater torque and hip mobility. Once in a while on a run, if I feel my legs and particularly my knee start to fatigue/stiffen, I've found prancing a bit to be helpful. For a pre-run routine, you could try something like this.

I've worked these sorts of exercises into my strength-training routine, but haven't done them on my run days, perhaps I should.

 

[NickW]

Holy crap Lee, I might be tired after just doing those exercises! Maybe I will just incorporate a few of those for now, and add in a few as I get into better shape. Thanks for the video.

 

[Bare Lee]

Holy crap Lee, I might be tired after just doing those exercises! Maybe I will just incorporate a few of those for now, and add in a few as I get into better shape. Thanks for the video.

Yah, in my revamped weekly exercise routine, I've taken a bit from here and there (including that 20 plank exercise video you posted a while back) and tried to fit it in to the logic of the day's exercises and their place in the week's progression. There's a million different things we could do, so the trick was to experiment and find what works for me, given my fitness goals and time/energy constraints. I daydreamed a lot over this last summer about different stuff, but I came back to weights one day, running the next, just as I had always done, but with refinements to my approach in each. I'll continue tweaking, but I'm really enjoying the newly honed regimen so far, even though it hasn't been fully realized yet, due to October's setback.

P.S., some of those Myrtl exercises are even better with ankle weights.

 

[NickW]

Yah, in my revamped weekly exercise routine, I've taken a bit from here and there (including that 20 plank exercise video you posted a while back) and tried to fit it in to the logic of the day's exercises and their place in the week's progression. There's a million different things we could do, so the trick was to experiment and find what works for me, given my fitness goals and time/energy constraints. I daydreamed a lot over this last summer about different stuff, but I came back to weights one day, running the next, just as I had always done, but with refinements to my approach in each. I'll continue tweaking, but I'm really enjoying the newly honed regimen so far, even though it hasn't been fully realized yet, due to October's setback.

P.S., some of those Myrtl exercises are even better with ankle weights.

Ya my workouts have been evolving to what works best for me too, which you know. Thanks for the written copy of the Myrtl exercises. Saved a copy to my desktop for quick reference.

 

[Bare Lee]

Ya my workouts have been evolving to what works best for me too, which you know. Thanks for the written copy of the Myrtl exercises. Saved a copy to my desktop for quick reference.

Yah, individualization, I think is the word Magness uses.

BTW, on that Biomechanics link that Abide posted, the guy makes the point that a lot of these exercises are kind of pointless, since they attack the same muscles as your standard deadlifts, squats, lunges, and other ST exercises attack, without the benefit of gains in strength. Could be, but I like some of them, with or without ankle weights, because they seem to work on greater mobility of the hip joint.

 

[NickW]

Yah, individualization, I think is the word Magness uses.

BTW, on that Biomechanics link that Abide posted, the guy makes the point that a lot of these exercises are kind of pointless, since they attack the same muscles as your standard deadlifts, squats, lunges, and other ST exercises attack, without the benefit of gains in strength. Could be, but I like some of them, with or without ankle weights, because they seem to work on greater mobility of the hip joint.

I think mobility is a good thing Lee. Not everything should be about strength. I think we often get too caught up in strength or endurance and forget about the other things that are important in overall health like mobility. I think yoga is really good for this and the mental side of health.

 

[Bare Lee]

I think mobility is a good thing Lee. Not everything should be about strength. I think we often get too caught up in strength or endurance and forget about the other things that are important in overall health like mobility. I think yoga is really good for this and the mental side of health.

Yah, I guess that guy's point was that deep lunges and squats promote mobility too, while also building strength, but I'm a bit skeptical. In any case, right now I'm avoiding that stuff because of my knee, so Myrtl-type exercises are a good alternative.