The Importance of Stretching

The Stanchart Marathon is on 3 Dec 06 (Sun) and is about 8 weeks away. I met a few runners who have come to me for post training recovery massage and to release tight muscles such as hamstrings and ITB (Iliotibial Band).

I realised that some of them are not aware that proper stretching is a necessary part of the training. One of the benefits of stretching, as many are aware, is to increase flexibility as muscles may be tight after a whole day of sedentary work or after some exercise.

Stretching can also help recovery as to reducing muscle soreness (DOMS or delay onset of muscle soreness), which occurs one or 2 days after a heavy bout of exercise. To verify this, I skipped stretching after my 30 minute run a couple of months ago. For the next few days, I experienced muscle tightness in my legs that I have not had before. I kept stretching and stretching to relieve the tightness. After this verification, stretching reaffirmed as a compulsory part of my routine after exercise.

It is also claimed that stretching may help to prevent injuries. This is not true, stretching cannot prevent injuries, but it may help to reduce the risk of injury. How does stretching do so?

As I have mentioned above, stretching helps to relieve muscle tightness. One less known fact for laypeople is that muscles usually work in pairs. For example, the biceps and the triceps; the quadriceps and hamstrings. In technical terms, we call this the agonist (prime mover, eg, biceps in a biceps curl) and the antagonist (triceps in a biceps curl). This is a wonder of the human body creation that made sure our body movements are controlled. However, I am not talking about movement kinetics in this article. So, back to stretching.

One of the common causes of sports injuries is muscle imbalance. If the quadriceps are heavily worked on but the hamstring are weak(as in the case of many runners), there is an increased risk of hamstring pull or strain. Thus, stretching and strengthening exercises must be done on both the quadriceps and hamstring muscles to prevent muscle imbalances.

Another common injury is the ankle injury which I have talked about in an earlier article. The key pair of muscles for the ankle movements (such as tip toe or plantar flexion) are the calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) and anterior tibialis (located on the shin). Many people do not work on the calf muscles, not to say the anterior tib which is less known. This unawareness may also lead to another injury called the shin splint, which is pain along any part of the shin.

So if you are running for leisure or for marathon training, what are the muscles in the lower limb you should stretch? These are the more important muscle groups I think you should stretch:

(1) Quadriceps
(2) Hamstring
(3) Outer calf (gastrocnemius)
(4) Inner calf (soleus)
(5) Anterior Tibialis (major muscle on the shin)
(6) Outer Thigh (Iliotibial Band and abductors)
(7) Inner Thigh (adductors)
(8) Hip Flexors (Iliopsoas)
(9) Hip Extensors (Gluteus group or butt)
(10) Piriformis (deeper glute muscles)

Don't know how to stretch? Call me, email me or drop me a comment here...

If you need a rub down (massage) after your training or strength and conditioning advice for your training, contact me too.