Is Stretching Before A Run Necessary?

Stretching, believe it or not, is a highly contentious issue in the running world.

Some runners advocate at least a 10 minutes stretching ritual before every training run, others view stretching as a colossal waste of time which offers no benefit whatsoever to race preparation or performance.
The truth is, like nearly everything in fitness and life, it is down to individuality.
We are all different in so many ways and our levels of flexibility vary from one person to another, so when it comes to preparing out muscles for training or race day, the answer to whether you need to stretch or not is easy.

If you are one of those people whose muscles seem to be made of rubber and are able to contort your body into a range of positions without feeling any tightness in your muscles, then i wouldn’t worry about spending too much time stretching. You muscles are stretchy enough and prolonged stretching making them longer could even do you damage.

For the rest us who have tight muscles from our hamstrings to calf muscles to quads, then it’s a good idea to stretch and to stretch lots. By elongating the muscles by stretching before training, you help to make them contract far more efficiently and you reduce your chances of injuring yourself. Post training/racing stretching is also vital as it helps to keep the fibres straight and in far better condition for your next training run.

In the coming weeks, we will be posting up a few videos of how to perform certain stretches to help you get the most out of training.

So, if you are confused about stretching, or not sure how you should be stretching certain muscles, bookmark this page and come back once in a while to check out the videos.