so I know we can all be guilty from time
to time of not cooling down properly
after a run today I want to take you
through a very quick cooldown routine
that you can use to help reduce the risk
of injury and ease those sore tired
muscles so we're going to begin with a
quad stretch so in standing you can
either do this freestanding or holding
on to a wall I want to focus on one
thing with this and that is making sure
that as we stand nice and tall we keep
this stretching leg back behind the
standing leg okay a lot of people will
just stand here with this stretching me
ahead of the standing knee and it really
doesn't put much for stretch on their
quads at all you won't feel a good
stretch up here in comparison to if you
keep the Speck the stretching leg back
ever so slightly pulling back on the
foot keeping the standing knee slightly
bent
this will suddenly feel a good stretch
up the front of the thigh we're gonna
hold this for 30 seconds stretching your
quads this particularly focuses on a
muscle called rectus femoris to run
straight down the front of your thigh
and once it's done 37 to 1 we can then
change and do 30 seconds on the other so
again little knee bend in the standing
leg bring this back into hip extension
so this knee is behind this knee and
from here we're just going to stay nice
and tall nice and upright don't want to
see you
flare the leg out to the side at all
looking to keep the legs pretty much in
parallel here and again just holding
nice and relaxed stretches down the
front of those quads from here we're
going to use a box that this could
easily be a chair or something like that
just need an elevated surface we're
going to get into our hip flexors a
little bit more so from foot elevated
from here we're going to kick the back
leg back behind you keep this leg
straight draw your belly button in
squeeze your back tilt the pelvis back
you'll feel your tailbone tuck
underneath you and from there it's gonna
feel a stretch up a little bit higher
than the stretch you felt earlier to up
into those hip flexors keeping this
squeeze your butt on keeping that talked
back
of the tailbone so you feel the pelvis
posteriorly rotate that we're gonna hold
for 30 seconds and that in itself if we
keep the feet straight will be quite a
focused hip flexor stretch now you can
change that to become more of an
adductor stretch simply by changing the
position of the rear foot we change the
position from feet both facing forwards
to the rear foot facing out at 45
degrees all of a sudden we're gonna get
more of a deep add up to stretch so if
you want you can hang out in this
position for 30 seconds as well when you
get it on to the other side stay nice
and evenly balanced so again here we're
moving from this position into posterior
tilt of the pelvis on squeezing my butt
or my belly button in gently shift
forwards feeling that hip flexor stretch
30 seconds here in this position again
as I said play with that foot position
if you like I'm just gonna hang out here
for a short while longer now if you
anything like me quite often you find
that the end of a run you'll get
straight back to your front door and
then all of a sudden life begins as
emails to answer there's food to think
about all those sorts of things I
actually these days try and focus on
finishing my stretches sorry finishing
my run a good couple of minutes away
from home so that I can take an easy
gentle walk back home begin the cooldown
process and then get into these
stretches want some hope so this next
stretch again we're going to use the
elevated surface but from here instead
of being a hip flexor stretch or
actually focus on those hamstrings in
this position we're not going a
hamstring stretch but what I want to do
is pivot off the heel on the back foot
or the front foot rather and as we then
pivot off that heel we're gently
straightening at the knee extending this
knee you'll get to a point where you
start to feel a hamstring stretch here
will be nice and upright nice and tall
through your torso but this will feel
very different in terms of be more of a
kind of a mid by mid belly hamstring
stretch than it would do if you just
snap straight back in
- and extended me and pull the toes up
towards the ceiling which for most
people will feel a bit more of a burn
behind the knee some people even down
into the calves that's more of a sciatic
nerve tension that we're feeling rather
than a hamstring stretch and it's the
hamstring stretch that we're after here
so it's also nice and upright that's
less important you can do this as well
with your torso down on your thigh
but I generally focus on coming from
annexed knee back gently into knee
extension but find myself reaching a
point where I can feel the hamstring
stretch
whilst the knee is still slightly bent
hold this position 30 seconds and then
we'll change to the other side okay so
from here again gently gently gently
extending the knee pivoting off the heel
on the front foot and again feeling a
hamstring stretch there hold this on 30
seconds just feeling that nice mid and a
muscle belly stretch don't worry too
much about position of the foot let's
keep the foot fairly relaxed you don't
want you pointing the toes particularly
or dorsi flexing hard again if you have
a degree of neural tension you'll feel
that as you add ankle dorsiflexion in
that starts to bring that burning
sensation that a lot of people
mistakenly think is a hamstring stretch
we're after the feeling here not the
feeling here okay from there we're going
to move into a stretch a little bit more
for the hip region we're going deep into
a gluteal region so glutes and
particularly piriformis with this one so
what I want to do is sit nice and tall
nice and upright I'm gonna bring one
foot over the other thigh into this
position to begin with from here it's
importantly stay upright you're gonna
hook opposite knee with opposite elbow
and I want you to hug your knee into
your chest keep your torso facing
forwards keep your hips facing boards
and in this position you should feel in
those glutes on the the stretching side
and deep into a kind of deep gluteal
region that piriformis region a good
stretch
as we're combining hip flexion adduction
and external rotation you can make it
more intense yourself you want to push
the heel round to opposite side hip the
whole list of 30 seconds and then after
30 seconds we can switch and do the
other side
so again from here heel comes round over
the top of the thigh opposite arm the
elbow hooks around the knee and you're
lifting knee to chest rather than
Chester knee so you stay as tall as up
and as upright as we can okay in this
position just gonna hold this again 30
seconds now this should feel fairly deep
in the hips we're going to quickly
change this in the moment into an
exercise in the same position which
actually starts to target our low back a
little bit more just work on a little
bit of rotation through the torso so
without having to move we're going to
simply take the tension off we're going
to instead of hooking the arm we're
going to reach the arm across other arm
comes behind you and from there just
going to rotate around okay and as you
rotate around just breathe
nice and relaxed you can hold this just
for about 30 seconds again we're not
looking for any kind of feeling of
discomfort or pain with this it really
is just a nice stretch everything
through lower back and into the outside
of the hip here okay after 30 seconds
there simply change and do the same on
the other side okay now after 30 seconds
of this that's where we're gonna get you
down onto the ground in a nice relaxed
position I'm still a little bit more
work on lower back mobility so from
there gonna hop up take position down on
the ground on your front so to start
with in this prone position all I want
is you up on your elbows okay keeping
your hips down gently squeeze your bum
and relax from there you're gonna bring
your hands underneath your shoulders and
then push up as high as you comfortably
can into the top of this Cobra stretch
nice stretch through your abdominals
again hip flexors a little bit working
into a little bit of lumbar extension
now from there we can work into the
opposite direction so just walk your
knees in to you in this tabletop
position go a little bit wider with your
knees if it's comfortable for you it's
been as you reach your hands forwards
sit your heels back onto your butt and
we're going to come into this child's
pose position here relax your head down
between your shoulders I'm just gonna
hold we hold that position for 30
seconds we can change between the two so
we come up again into our Cobra stretch
and then we can hold and then from there
and come back again in Jars place again
in this position here we're really
looking to feel a good stretch through
your lower back
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I hope you enjoyed that nice chilled
poster on cooldown routine of course
feel free to bookmark this link so that
you can come back and use this as your
go to post run stretch after every
workout now if you want to see another
video to help you run strong and run
injury free check out the video right
over here and I'll see you in the next
one