Stretching after a long run helps to improve flexibility, reduces injury, and maintains mobility. After a long run, your muscles are more pliable and at risk for micro-tears or strains. Stretching correctly is a way to cool down the body to maintain the flexibility you’ve obtained after a long run. It reduces the risk of injury to your joints and muscles. You will also maintain mobility in your legs, hips, and other body parts, so you are ready for your next long run or training.
This post will list and describe the 7 best yoga stretches for runners after a long run. These particular yoga postures will provide positive intentions for every long-distance runner. They include:
Why Yoga?
Yoga is the ancient art of fully connecting to your mind, body, and spirit. Most yogis attend yoga classes that focus on improving their bodies by stretching tight muscles, enhancing their strength, balancing, losing weight, and more. Yoga postures, often called asanas, are ideal for stretching muscles for greater flexibility, mobility, and healing. Many styles of yoga, including Iyengar Yoga or Anusara Yoga, focus on yoga postures that improve alignment, stability, recovery, strength, and healing. The yoga postures described in this article are borrowed from these and other classical yoga techniques to enhance your running skills and improve your recovery after a long run.
The Body Parts to Focus on For Stretching
You need to target specific body parts for stretching after a long-distance race or exercise for the runner. They include the hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, glutes, low back, calves, and IT Band. Each of the mentioned yoga poses will focus on these critical areas of the runner’s body.
Seated Forward Fold for Hamstrings
• Start in a seated position with your legs extended out in front of you.
• Use a yoga strap to assist you in this pose. If you don’t have a yoga strap, you can use a flexible belt or jump rope.
• Wrap the strap around the bottom of your feet. Hold onto the strap while keeping your arms at 90 degrees with elbows near your torso.
• Tug the strap gently to sit up as tall as possible.
• Slowly fold over your extended legs. Only fold to the place where you begin to feel the natural stretch in your hamstrings.
• Hold the posture for 30 seconds to 1 minute without straining or stressing your body. It is helpful to remain relaxed and comfortable in this and other yoga positions to effectively stretch your muscles.
Stretching your hamstrings is critical for strong and flexible legs. It will improve your flexibility and mobility throughout your running career. If not routinely stretched, these muscle fibers bind up and become tight. Constricted hamstrings lessen your running stride, thereby reducing your time if you are racing or running regimen.
Standing Knee Bend for Quadriceps
• Stand with your back to a wall.
• Bend your right knee, either holding onto the foot in your right hand or placing the top of your foot gently pressed against the wall.
• As you draw your heel closer to your buttocks or press your glutes back toward your foot that is pressed into the wall, this will target the stretch in the front of your leg.
• Hold the posture for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Allow your quadriceps muscles to lengthen in this static hold.
• Practice this posture on the other leg.
If you do not stretch your quadriceps regularly, it can significantly impact your running. Tight quads can lead to a misalignment in your hips and lower back. Your quads also support your knees, so if they are tense, you may experience knee pain. Be sure to take the time to stretch your quads after your long run effectively.
Deep Lunge for Hip Flexors
• Start in a kneeling position and step your right foot forward.
• Shift your foot far enough forward as you begin to lunge deeply. (You want the stretch to focus on stretching your hip flexors. If you do not shift your foot forward, this may cause strain to your knee.)
• Slowly lunge deeper into the posture to emphasize the hip release.
• Hold the pose for at least 60 seconds.
This is a complex set of muscles, so holding longer can be helpful if you are able. In many of these stretches, the idea is to safely release connective tissue that tends to bind up in exercises like running. The held pose also stretches the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your limbs if you have the flexibility in your hips and can take the pose deeper.
• While working the right side, shift your foot forward and slightly to the right side of your yoga mat.
• Slowly bend your left elbow to lower your torso toward the ground. This will deepen the inner thigh stretch.
• Keep the spine long. This will maintain the stretch in your hips flexors that you’re intending.
• If possible, you can lower your left elbow to the ground (or prop it on a block or stack of books if that is too deep.)
• Hold this deeper version of this pose for 20-30 seconds on each leg.
Eye of the Needle Pose for Glutes
• Lie down comfortably on the floor with your knees bent and feet on the ground.
• Cross your right leg over your left knee. (The crossed leg will resemble the number four.)
• Lift your left foot, guiding both legs toward your chest to engage the gluteus maximus muscle stretch.
• “Thread” your left arm through the “eye of the needle” and hold onto your right shin or hamstrings.
• Gauge to intensity of the stretch by how close you bring your legs toward your body.
• Hold the pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Perform the stretch on the other side.
Eye of the Needle Pose in a Chair
• Sit tall on a dining room or kitchen chair.
• Cross one leg over the other.
• Slowly fold your torso over the crossed leg.
• This will simulate the Eye of the Needle Pose to target the stretch in your buttocks.
Downward Facing Dog for Calves
Although smaller in size than your quads and hamstrings, your calf muscles also need a good stretch. Like other over-worked muscles, they shorten and negatively affect other body parts like your knee joints and hips. It is suggested that you regularly stretch your calf muscles to avoid potential harm or injury to your body.
• Come to your hands and knees.
• Step your hands forward, so they are out from underneath your shoulders.
• Tuck, your toes under, then lift your knees and hips respectively into the air.
• While keeping a slight bend in your knees create a pedaling motion with your feet. As you press one heel down toward the floor, you may feel a stretch in your calves.
• Hold the stretch until you have completed a full exhale.
• Alternate the pedaling action between your feet.
• Come to your knees to rest your wrists, then perform the posture again.
• Repeat the sequence 3-5 times.
Spinal Twist for Lower Back
It is not uncommon to experience lower back pain or soreness after a long run. Providing relief to this area of the body will help your full recovery after exercising. Not only will this twist release tension in your lower back, but it will begin to provide a healthy lengthening in the hips, the outer portion of your glutes, and down the outside of your leg.
• Lie on the floor or yoga mat.
• Hug your knees toward your chest.
• Slowly guide both knees toward the left side of the room. If possible, allow them the rest on the ground. Use a prop (like a yoga block or rolled-up towel) between your knees to support the rotation if they cannot reach you.
• Extend your right arm to the right side of the room. This will create a twist in the spine, effectively stretching your lower back.
• Hold the posture for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Perform the twist on the other side.
Lateral Leg Extension of IT Band
An area of particular focus for the avid runner is the iliotibial band (IT Band). This is a long elastic band of connective tissue that runs along the outside of your thigh down to below your knee. Its function is to stabilize the hip while you walk or run. However, the IT Band can become extremely tight with overuse, causing potential hip and/or knee pain. It is essential to pay attention to this band of fascial tissue and stretch it after your long endurance runs.
• Use a yoga strap, a long flexible belt, or a jump rope to practice this stretch.
• Lie down on the floor.
• Draw your right knee toward your chest and wrap the strap around the bottom of your foot.
• Extend this leg straight into the air. (It is OK to keep a slight bend in your knee if you cannot fully extend your leg.)
• Place your left hand on your hip to stabilize your pelvis.
• Align your hips with the floor.
• Hold this initial stretch for 30 seconds.
• Switch hands with the strap; hold the strap in your left hand and place your right hand on your right hip.
• Slowly guide your right leg laterally across your body; be sure to keep your right hip connected to the ground.
• In this lateral leg extension, you will generate a stretch along the outside of your thigh, targeting the IT Band.
• Hold the pose for 20 to 50 seconds.
• Perform the same stretch on the other leg.
Try all of these yoga stretches after your long endurance run. When you dedicate time and effort to these stretches just as you do with your running exercise, you will promote continued healing and recovery in your low back, hips, legs, and feet. You want to be able to improve and sustain your running habit, so stretching is critical. It is entirely related to your strength, flexibility, and overall mobility.
Bonus Tip
Another important tip after a long run is to stay hydrated and replenish your electrolytes. Be sure to drink plenty of water between running engagements. Also, try coconut water, watermelon water, or other healthy sports drinks to replenish expended electrolytes. Happy running!
