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Magazine
FITNESS MATTERS
A stretch goal
RAHUL S. VERGHESE
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How to avoid aches and pains once you start running.
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Photos: Courtesy Rahul Verghese
All for flexibility: Stretching does wonders for your body.
For those of you who have been reading a few of my previous columns, I hope you haven’t either signed up for a marathon for the coming month in your enthusiasm, or thought of committing suicide, with the pain. It’s great to be in between.
If you have started running, you may experience a few aches and pains. It is common to be aching in the thighs where you have your hamstring muscles at the back and your quadriceps in the front. After a run, you should definitely get into a bit of stretching.
Muscle fibres tend to get stronger and taut and therefore seem shorter as they are exercised. Post that, they should ideally be stretched to get them elastic and elongated back again. Else your range of motion in the three relevant limbs gets a bit narrower and less efficient.
Simple stretches
For the quadriceps (front of the thighs): Stand tall and hold onto a chair, wall or tree for balance with your right hand (if required) as you bend your left leg back and hold it with your left hand. Get your left heel to touch your butt and hold for 15 seconds.
Repeat with the other foot. As a variation, try to then move your folded leg back with your hand, and feel the stretch even more. For another variation hold your left foot with your right hand and so on.
For the hamstrings (behind the thighs): Lie flat on a mat, mattress or grass. Bend your knees as you bring both your feet a foot closer to your buttocks. Hold the back of your left thigh with your two palms as you gradually get your left leg (still bent) to a 60-75 degree angle to the ground.
Gradually straighten the leg now. Hold for 10-15 seconds. See if you can further move the leg so that it is now at a 90 degree angle to the body. No problems if you cannot. Repeat with the other leg.
For the calves: Stand with your hands against a wall or tree and place one leg behind the other. Keep the back leg straight, pointed ahead, and your heel flat on the ground. Lean slowly forward, bending the other leg. You should feel the stretch in the middle of your calf. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds. Switch the feet position. Repeat six to eight times.
For the back and more: Kneel on a mat, and then slowly proceed to lower your butt to touch the soles of your feet as you now sit with your back upright. Then slowly, with your arms out-stretched, lower your arms and upper body gradually until your head touches your knees. Hold this position for 30 seconds and repeat.
It does not matter if you cannot go down completely for the first few times. You will, in due course. Try and go down a bit further every time you exhale, and then finally – also try and stretch your fingers out a few inches more, every time you exhale.
Why it’s important
Stretching is important to reduce long term chances of muscular injury. Stretching gets the good pain down soon, and keeps the bad pain from hitting you.
A story may help highlight the importance of a good stretching habit. I was in Chicago in January 2006 and planned a ski break in Lake Tahoe, California. I had to be back in Delhi on February 4 to run in the Marathon on February 12. I was in good shape physically, and was tapering off my running, and excited about challenging myself on the ski slopes.
Two days before we were to leave Chicago, I got a major catch in my back, putting on my socks in the morning. It was so bad that I lay on the carpet in my room for 20 minutes before I could get myself to lie down in bed. My chiropractor was amazed. “You’re running a marathon in a couple of weeks, planning to go down expert ski slopes in three days, and you got felled by your socks?”
It sounds really silly but that’s when I swore that I would be much more regular about my stretching. My muscles were obviously taut, jet lag and work pressure prior to some major presentations had added their mite and my system collapsed once my presentations were over. I went on to ski two days later, cut short the trip, and then ran the marathon in Delhi two weeks later. I could have had much more fun if I had been following a good stretching regime.
Several runners focus mainly on running, and tend to ignore the strength training and stretching.
I would, however, urge you to take up stretching as a routine because stretching gently can do you no harm, but not stretching at all, could lead to some issues in the long term, as I am finding out.
For more info, check www.runningandliving.com/ stretching.html
The writer left a 25-year corporate career to found a company to enable individuals and organisations unleash their potential - via running.
Run right
For a shorter run do some warm up exercises for a few minutes at least.
For a long run, run slower to start with and treat that as a warm up.
Critical stretching facts
Do it slowly and after exercise.
Hold for some time. This is not a race.
Your objective should be to improve flexibility over time.
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