psyche truth life wisdom hey everyone it’s Jen hilman here and I wanted to make this video to address some of the needs of my Runner friends out there so leave me a comment below if you’re a runner and I’d like to know how much time do you usually spend stretching and warming up before your run so the first place I like to start is with a seated forward fold now not everyone has the flexibility in their hamstrings to reach all the way down and touch your toes it’s no big deal you can reach forward and grab your shins or your ankles but just make sure that you make contact with your body somewhere if you’re just reaching out here in no-man’s land then you don’t have very much leverage to help you pull forward and really get that stretch in your hamstrings so whatever your level of flexibility extend your feet forward in front of you if it’s difficult for you to sit up straight with your legs extended you can sit on a pillow and that will help give you a little bit of lift and with your legs extended you’re going to reach forward for your toes lengthen your heart forward so you really stretch through your spine and here you’re already going to start to feel some sensation in your hamstrings so we’re off to a good start now if you’re someone who likes to run first thing in the morning you might want to spend a little extra time stretching because your body is stiff and tight from sleeping so it’s important that you really give yourself plenty of time to loosen up your muscles before you get out there on the road and start running so give yourself this time it’s really important and it’s a nice way to kind of get in the right headspace for your workout and with your nice long spine you’ll start to loosen up the backs of your legs and once you feel a little bit more stretch you can start to fold your body forward rounding through your spine and then let the weight of your head relax down towards your legs so this is going to give you a stretch across the back of your neck and all the way down your spine so we’ll just take a few deep breaths here absolutely come up another muscle group you’re going to want to stretch and warm up properly is your quadriceps so we’re going to do kind of a fusion stretch here a little combo so I’m going to bend my right knee so that the top of my right foot comes down to the floor and my heel is just tucked to the outside of my hip so for some people this is going to be enough sensation right here you can just place your hands on the floor lift up through your spine and just stretch your quad right here but if you’d like to get a little double stretch you can keep working this quad stretch here then again fold forward over your extended leg it’s going to take you a little bit deeper into that hamstring stretch take one more cycle of breath here and work your way back up and to enjoy a little bit more quad stretch you can walk your hands back behind you and come down on to your forearms so as you extend this angle in your hip you can get a little more sensation in the front of your thigh here with my forearms down as I lift my heart up it’s also giving me a little gentle stretch through the front of my shoulders and when you’re running you know as you’re swinging your arms it’s good to have that stretch and openness through your shoulder joints as well so we’re getting a lot of sensation here in various different parts of your body and just press into your hands and slowly come back up we’ll change legs so extend your bent knee and bend your extended leg so again in turning the top of my foot down my heel is just to the outside of my hip and I’m pressing my knee down towards the earth so if you’re staying right here just press your hands into the floor lift your heart up and just enjoy the sensation work with your breath to take it another step further you can start to fold your body forward you and we’ll come all the way up and just start to walk your hands back behind you coming down onto your forearms lift your heart up here so you access that stretch of the front of your chest and shoulders and keep pressing your knee down towards the earth to continue that stretch through your quadricep you then press into your hands to calm up extend your leg forward so another muscle group we want to target is your hips your outer hips so a way I like to get into this of course there are lots of ways to stretch your hips but for this video we can work here just bend your knees so the soles of your feet come down onto the floor and your knees reach up to the ceiling I’ve got my hands back behind me as I’m leaning back a little bit then I’m going to cross my right ankle over my left knee and then press my right knee out towards the side so even right here I’m starting to get a stretch across my outer hip so if this is enough sensation for you just stay right here again lift through your chest to lengthen your spine keep pressing your knee out towards the side to get a little more sensation and take this stretch deeper you can scoot your hips closer to your foot or bring your foot closer in either way continue to press your knee out towards this side then again you can walk your fingertips in to lift your chest up even more and this is going to be a nice deep stretch into your outer hips to come out just walk your hands back walk your foot forwards you come into a more neutral position now continuing with your ankle crossed over your knee just start to circle your ankle rolling your foot around this is going to help to lubricate the joints in your feet and ankles so there’s lots of tiny little bones in your feet and so it’s good to just move them around and allow some movement to come in to your foot and we’ll reverse the direction of the circles you want to be sure you go both ways and then you can just let your foot relax and lower it down to the floor then you’ll cross your left ankle over your right knee and we’ll move into the stretch on the other side so again you can stay right here if this is enough sensation for you enjoy it there’s no pressure to go farther but if you are looking for a little bit deeper stretch you can bring your heel in closer maybe scoot your hips in closer then you’ll walk your fingertips in continue to lift your heart up now if at any time you have to start rounding your back then just come out of the stretch a little bit more because as soon as you round your back you’re going to lose that stretch in your outer hip so to really get that sensation you want to lift up through your heart you long gate your spine and the more you can do this the more sensation you’re going to get in this stretch so it’s really good stuff we’ll just come out of it to a more neutral place leaning back onto my hands and just start to roll your ankle in one direction so if you notice any kind of crunchy sensations any popping in your ankle joints just know that the more you practice this rolling your ankles around the better it’s going to be in there it’s going to loosen up and lubricate those joints and help relieve any tightness or tension that’s causing that kind of clicking sensation and we’ll reverse in the other direction and release your foot down to the floor so from here we’re going to stand up on to our feet and do some standing stretches so from this standing position we’ve got a couple more stretches let’s work into your calves so just take a stance with one foot in front of the other so here I’ve got my left leg in front my right foot back and you know my stance is not too too wide maybe about two feet apart two and a half depending on how tall you are obviously then to stretch your calves just bend your front leg so that you lean your weight forward then keep your heel your back heel on the floor as long as you can so here I’m just going to really shift my weight forward stretching my calves now here’s a subtle shift keeping my back heel on the floor keeping my weight shifting forward towards my front leg just going to gently start to bend my back knee which takes this stretch a little deeper down my calf and stretching into my Achilles tendon a little bit more so that’s an area that can get a lot of strain and pressure from running so stretching that Achilles tendon is going to be really really great you can straighten through your back knee one more time really pressing your weight forward to get a deep juicy stretch in your calf and then here I’ll just step my right foot forward to meet my left and then I’ll step my left leg back so here I’m going to separate you know I have a fair amount of flexibility so here I’m going to go three feet wide but again you’re going to find your own natural stance what feels best for your body then gently bending in to my front leg I’m just shifting my weight forward to start to stretch into my calf behind me and keeping this stance exactly out as it is just going to make one simple shift and that is to slightly bend my back knee so just slightly bending my knee allows me to get a little more sensation down into my Achilles tendon into the lower part of my calf muscle and straightening one more time through my back knee just getting the last of that juicy stretch in my calves and I’ll go ahead and come back to standing so we’ll just finish here with one more good solid quad stretch so if you’re not so good with balancing on one foot you might want to find yourself a wall or tabletop or something maybe a back of a chair that you can rest a hand on give you a little bit of support if you want to give yourself its challenge you can use your hands on your hips which kind of helps you stabilize in towards your Center so I’ll face you here I’m going to stretch my quads by bending in this case my right leg I’m going to grab my ankle with my right hand then with a good grip on my ankle I’m going to start to press my right knee forward which allows me to get a really deep juicy sensation through my quadricep so just standing up nice and tall pressing my knee forward at the same time that I pull my heel in towards my hip we’ll take one more full breath here full inhale full exhale and gently release your foot down bring your hands on your hips shift your weight over to switch to the other side so here I’m grabbing my left ankle with my left hand get a good grip on my ankle and press my left knee forward to get that juicy sensation in the front of your cat quads it’s really good stuff so just remember runners it’s very important that you give yourself how to quit time to stretch and warm up before your run it’s going to improve the quality of your run and it’s going to improve the way that you feel after your run is over so don’t neglect this time to really give yourself the best warm-up possible you deserve it you got to take good care of this body gently release your left leg down and here you can just kind of shake it out one leg at a time just releasing any remaining bits of tension just shake it out let your foot relax and how you should be about ready to get going I would recommend just give yourself a brisk walk maybe 100 200 feet before you start setting off into your run but here you should be plenty warmed up and ready for an awesome jog thank you so much for watching don’t forget to leave me some comments below you guys it’s really awesome to hear your feedback it’s really nice to know that this work is touching your lives if you’d like to learn more about me and my practice please visit my website Jen Hillman calm lots of good stuff for you to find out there and don’t forget to subscribe to the psyche truth Channel this is one of the best channels on YouTube full of health and wellness information to improve the quality of your life so go ahead and click that subscribe button so that you can stay up to date on all the latest videos we got coming your way lots more Jen hilman coming at you have an awesome day have an awesome run thanks for watching you Oh Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CMu5hyTcg0
