Before any race, you will no doubt see most runners engaged in stretching. They will either be sitting on the ground trying to touch their toes, or pulling their foot back to stretch the quads. These runners want to ensure that their muscles are ready to race. But what if pre-race stretching actually hurts performance?In […]
Isometric Exercises for Runners
When many people think of muscle strengthening exercises, the first thing that comes to mind is weight lifting. However, squats, bench press, and dumbbell curls are not the only one way to build muscle. Perhaps the most important muscle exercises for runners do not involve lifting weights, but rather only require contracting and releasing muscles, […]
Don’t Overstretch Your Muscles
Diligent stretching is an important way to prevent injuries, but it can also be the cause of injuries if done improperly. The goal of stretching is to lengthen muscle tissue to increase flexibility and lessen the risk of pulls and tears. However, there is a difference between gentle stretches that are beneficial, and hard, painful […]
Plyometric Drills for Runners
If you go to any local road race, you will no doubt see most of the runners performing static stretching before the start. While static stretching does a good job of loosening the muscles, athletes can obtain more benefits from plyometric drills, which is essentially “active stretching.” Different from static stretching, the goal of ploymetric […]
