Stretching after a run

[snack_shack]

Common sense to most of you, I'm sure, but IannodaTruffe posted this link for me in another thread and I thought it would be a good idea to highlight it to those starting out.

I have just completed week 3 today so I'm already 9 sessions in but I wasn't really stretching after the runs. I was doing the warm down walks after the runs as instructed in the app and because of the route I do this was always towards my house. As soon as I walked in the front door I'd collapse in the first available armchair after each session, have a drink and get on with my day.

After today's run I did the stretches in the link for the first time and I really do feel I've done a proper warm down now. It actually felt good to stretch out and now I'll be making sure I do it each time. Here's the link.... (and thank you IannodaTruffe!)

nhs.uk/LiveWell/c25k/Pages/...

[J9_54 Graduate]

Thanks for sharing this it was exactly what I needed. I too have not been stretching after the runs so will start tomorrow.

[Theziggy Graduate]

I find that stretching after runs definitely help me avoid aches and pains etc after runs. In fact I count them as an essential part of my run.

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I'm not a post run stretcher. The thought of doing any poncy stretching was really off putting (running relatives do it... a certain running relatives does squats in front of all the other cancer patients in the hospital waiting room...) So the 'walk for 5 minutes at the beginning and the end' was a real attraction for me.

Now, the interesting thing is that very occasionally I've had a real urge to stretch when I have finished (and I'm not daft, I go with it)... and it has almost invariably turned out that it has been when I've skimped on that final 5 minute walk (the other times have been running on hard surfaces) So don't underestimate the programme as is ... the business of just going kerflop after a run is perhaps as much to do with stiffening up as anything else.

I should say that I do stretches now, just as part of a regular yoga practice.