Fitness: A Pro Ultrarunner’s 5 Best Running Stretches

September 23rd, 2014 • BY Morgan Tilton

Today, fitting in a run is a time crunch: you have 30 minutes to pull on your running shoes and hit the pavement or the trail. But what about offsetting the sprint?

After committing to a run, devoting extra minutes to running stretches or doing yoga can seem like a tall order—but incorporating that cross-training is worth the investment.

“The biggest benefit of stretching is that I’m still running after 14 years—it increases my longevity and reduces the amount of injuries. I don’t think it necessarily makes me run faster, but it makes my running sustainable over a long period of time, and hopefully for many more years to come,” says professional ultrarunner and Ultraspire ambassador Krissy Moehl, who held the 2009 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc course record for four years, and in 2005, became the youngest female to finish the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning—four 100-mile races in 11 weeks—at the ripe age of 27.

Here, Moehl shares her insight on which running stretches and yoga poses offer the sweetest relief—plus the benefits of stretching and yoga for runners.

Krissy Moehl’s 5 Best Running Stretches

1. Quad: Pull your leg up behind you.

2. Hip Flexor: Take a step forward with one foot. Keep the front knee at 90 degrees and bend the back foot so that you’re in lunge position. Tuck your pelvis under so that it will stretch the hip flexor of the back leg—which will also stretch your quads.

3. Hamstrings: Sit on the floor and touch your toes, or stand and reach down.

4. Calves: Drop your heels off of the back of a step so they can elongate.

5. Any upper body stretch that feels good: the upper body has a lot to do with what we’re doing running wise, too, even though most of time we’re focusing on lower body. Reach straight above your head with both arms or have one hand pull the other wrist, arching the arm over the head.

Krissy Moehl’s 5 Best Yoga Poses For Runners

1. I love Downward Facing Dog for hamstrings and opening up my back. I feel like running a lot causes stress to my back and down dog is an elongating stretch.

2. Warrior III is a good pose for balancing and hip strengthening, especially if you keep your hips level to the ground—then you’re really strengthening the standing leg.

3. Half Moon works balance and proprioception while it strengthens and opens your body: You’re pulling all of your limbs in opposite directions and it’s very counter to running.

4. Horse: It’s another strengthening pose where you lower down and hold, and I feel like that one gets all of the little muscles around the upper hamstrings, quads, and glutes—all of the attachments—and you hold that for a minute or so.

5. Pigeon: Is great for opening up the hips, the IT bands and glutes.

 

WomensMovement.com: Do you think that yoga or stretching is optimal for maintaining your running?

Krissy Moehl: Yes, I would stress practicing yoga and massage therapy for staying healthy. I definitely notice when I’ve been traveling too much and haven’t been as regular with my yoga practice, so I think that it’s crucial. I can get away without having a regular practice for a little bit, but I always need to get back to it. For massages, I go to a therapist at least monthly. If I’m in a heavy training mode then it might be more like two to three times a month.

WM: How much do you yoga or stretch?

Krissy: When I’m home I go to yoga class about three times a week. When I’m traveling and on the road I use a foam roller. The roller is a great aid for breaking up fascia tissue and really helps to keep the body healthy.

 

WM: Are there any potential dangers of not stretching?

Krissy: If you’re only running (versus cross training), that means that you’re using the same muscles over and over again and overuse injuries can be the biggest risk for a runner. Movement in lateral motion and working to strengthen muscles that don’t necessarily work when you’re running will keep everything more balanced, rather than getting to the point where they could be overused. Running is a very repetitive—even trail running is different than running because of the obstacles and having terrain that’s going up and down: It’s almost its own form of cross training because you engage the body differently than you do on the treadmill or on flat ground. Additional cross training, such as yoga and stretching, all helps.

WM: When’s the best time to stretch?

Krissy: I think that the best time for stretching is when you’re already warmed up. I don’t see much benefit in stretching right before a run. The best thing is to run at an easy, warm-up pace for 10 or 15 minutes and then stretch. So, you’re getting the body warm and ready to receive the stretching.

After long runs, I might do some general stretching and touch my toes or stretch my quads a bit, but I feel like my muscles are pretty worked because I’ve gone 20 miles and have been out 5 hours. I don’t want to do any damage, so I’d rather do the stretching separately when I’ve had time to recover—and that’s just my perception.

It’s my goal to use a stretch band every night before I go to bed, or do active isolated stretching. I’ll lay on my back, flex my legs straight up and use the strap to pull my foot just a bit further. I can actually see the muscle receive that stretch, because I’m able to pull my leg closer to my torso.

 

 

 

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