LIMBER UP EXERCISES

If you don’t already have one, see about creating a stretching routine for your legs, including stretches for your quads, hamstrings, calves, Achilles tendons, inner thighs, and hip flexors.

• • • Whatever stretches you do, see about incorporating your widest range of motion. For instance, while the hamstring and the hip flexor stretches are complementary, the “trunk-twister” exercise incorporates those stretches in a circular movement of the entire upper body.
    • Make sure you stretch slowly and gently. Find the point where each stretch becomes uncomfortable and stay on the comfortable side with your movement. Do nothing that causes you to wince with pain, or even the anticipation of pain.
    • Take at least ten minutes to stretch (while you pause your workout clock). When you leave your stretching place, you should feel reduced pain at the full range of motion. The goal is not to increase the full range, but to increase the pain-free range.

During your next few workouts, see about finding a quiet, easily accessible place to limber up.  It should be sheltered from the wind, and It should include an object you can use for balance and support, such as a pipe railing, about hip height.

• • • Each of your regular workout routes should have such a quiet place to limber up. On a new route, you should be on the lookout for a good place to stop, especially as you approach the ten-minute mark of the warm-up.
    • We believe in stretching after ten minutes of gentle walking, jogging, or running. The operative word is “gentle.” It’s the lowest level of muscle strength you can apply to a run, including gentle, held-back, relaxed, pressed, forced, and strained. Gentleness is marked by very short steps and a very slow pace. A walker would call it strolling.
    • Your only concern should be how your body feels in response to your stretching regimen. Nothing else matters, such as how you look to other people. So, find a private place where the thought of people watching won’t be a distraction.

A gentle movement stretching regimen includes various exercises, such as the hamstring stretch, which is bending over to touch your toes. Let your initial routine evolve into six-to-ten exercises you enjoy, and your body appreciates.

• • • Where movement is part of an exercise, begin with one set of three-to-six repetitions. Depending on your strength and susceptibility to injury, you may add one repetition per workout, until you reach 7-to-10 repetitions, but not more. Limbering up is about warming up, not training, per se. So, let’s limit the warm-up and get on with the workout.
    • Continue working on the regimen until each gentle movement exercise becomes habitual and enjoyable. The goal is to feel good about your regimen because it makes your body feel good. That way, you’ll look forward to it, instead of wishing you didn’t have to do it because it’s so disagreeable.
    • Sustainability is paramount! So, rather than striving to touch your toes, strive instead to increase your range of pain-free motion. Pain usually causes more pain and, ultimately, the termination of exercise. Being limber in old age is the goal.

Discomfort is usually associated with “forcing” a movement exercise (see the power scale below). So, whenever you feel discomfort, back off on muscle power until it goes away. Then use subtle movements to play with the onset of discomfort and, thereby, reduce it.

• • • Most people experience discomfort when they move their body or a limb into positions they seldom assume. A limber-up regimen could require some movements that approach an uncomfortable range near full extension. This is where focused discipline and constant awareness are crucial to success.
    • Your movements should feel comfortable; otherwise, you’ll contrive ways to end discomfort. Long-term sustainability (from week to week, month to month) requires that you be able to sustain movement exercises in the short term of ten seconds to several minutes, without discomfort.
    • This is what we call gentle movement stretching. It’s the technique of pushing “gently” against discomfort, then backing off, before repeating the process. A gentle stretch uses as little muscle strength as possible; it feels easier than holding yourself back. It registers no pain, only tenderness.

Effective posture is held together by a strong, tight core. With every movement exercise, see about holding military posture: butt back, chest up, shoulders back and down. To help your balance, direct your gaze below the horizon, preferably on a stationary object, like the ground.

• • • Most of the movement exercises in a BC Endurance regimen begin with a starting position. The starting position gives you access to several possible movements. And each movement has a “comfort” boundary beyond which you shouldn’t go with effort (see the intensity scale above).
    • From the starting position, you can focus on several stress points, i.e., specific muscles or tendons you aim to stretch. Before you begin a prescribed movement, take stock of each stress point and see about easing tension so your body has room to move with comfort.
    • With most leg stretches, you can increase or decrease tension near the full range of motion by shifting the position of your pelvis: forward-and-back, side-to-side, and by rotating it. The best runners tilt their pelvis, so their butt sticks out.

As you stretch, be aware of the possibility of injury. The pain of injury is a different sort of discomfort (see the injury scale above). It’s okay to experience tenderness as an upper boundary to pain. But never train above that limit because that’s the way to chronic injury.

• • • Instead of training through pain, train under it. Go slow enough to experience pain only at the tender level. This is the way to get rid of pain, whether in the moment or over several weeks. You must believe in the termination of pain, however long it takes.
    • If you stretch too hard or too long, you greatly increase your risk of debilitating injury. You can rationalize the extra effort in many ways. But you’ll be singing the blues if you become unable to train, or if an injury caps the quality of your competitive performances.
    • Nonetheless, you will probably want to stretch beyond the point of comfort because it looks better in your mind’s eye. But your body will be unable to sustain a stretching routine that includes pressing into a range of even tolerable discomfort. Better beware!
    • The Injury Scale: Tender, Twinge, Ache, Sore, Severe

Physical tension is one of the bugaboos of running exercise. Tension can arise from unacknowledged pain, thoughts that anticipate disaster, and emotions such as fear and anger. Tension puts a break on the flow of running exercise. So, it makes sense to avoid it or get rid of it.

• • • At the start of a workout, notice the areas of your body where pain, stiffness, or tension has recently arisen, or is left over from earlier in the day. Strive to release tension, either by stretching or relaxing the affected muscles during the run.
    • Where tension is concerned, what is your body telling you? Why is the tension arising in relation to this run? Is it related to your pace? Your posture? The hills you are doing, or some other disagreeable aspects of the workout? Awareness is everything.
    • You must enjoy all your workout activities, which includes stretching. Once your mind surrenders to right effort, then your mind and body can relax, which will enable you to enjoy your stretching routine, as well as your walking, jogging, and running activity.

Your body should be in charge of your stretching routine, not your mind. Your thinking should never predetermine your flexibility standards, either for yourself or others. The only relevant issue is whether stretching makes your body feel better.

• • • You realize, of course, that your body is a separate entity from your thinking-ego mind. Your mind can’t think for itself. It spins thoughts, often conditioned by past experiences which are no longer relevant or even real. They’re only memories that distract you from being in the moment.
    • The part of yourself that makes momentary decisions is the real you. It’s that part of you that remembers your commitment to gentle movement stretching. It’s the part of you that realizes you are uncomfortable and uses willpower to back off on effort.
    • Suppose you want a new self-image, as being able, say, to touch your toes, instead of merely your knees. Are you concerned about your image in the eyes of those you think are judging the quality of your stretching? Or can you accept your body as you find it?

Do you enjoy your stretching routine? To be sustainable, it should be enjoyable. Otherwise, your mind gets in the act by creating psychological resistance to continuing. The following thoughts and attitudes could be the tip of the resistance iceberg.

• • • It hurts. Well, stretching is not supposed to hurt, so if it hurts, back off on the duration of the stretch or the force you are using to reach full extension. Play with the point where discomfort arises, without inducing more discomfort.
    • Or how about this attitude: stretching is an imposition on my time, which is better spent on running. Ten minutes of stretching may take time from running, but it isn’t necessarily an imposition unless you frame it that way. Sunny-side-up is a better way to value stretching.
    • Or these thoughts: I’m so inflexible. I look terrible when I stretch. I don’t know how to stretch. I hate stretching. Brian’s instructions are confusing… Well, in each case, see about thanking your mind for sharing its thoughts, and carry on with your gentle stretching routine.