Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you the top seven ways
to relieve pain and soreness for runners. so let's get started.
If you haven't subscribed already, make sure you click
on the subscribe button down here. so just to start off, do you like my caplf
sleeves? I'm going to talk about those a little bit later. so I'm not going to
call this number one, but you should always warm up before you go running or
do any kind of exercises. if you don't have an injury, you can do like me
usually what I do is just a two to three-minute really fast paced walk just
to get those muscles warmed up, but if you do have a specific injury, you
probably want to do that walking fast to warm up and then stretch out whatever
injury you have, but for me I could just kind of go right into my run and I do my
stretches after I run because everything's nice and warmed up. so just
to let you all know, I would never consider myself a runner. I do run but
I'm not a fanatic. I do it for exercise. my style is probably pretty terrible, but
I do run, so I make sure it's stretch afterwards. so the first stretch is going
to be just a calf stretch. that you really want to stretch out those calves
because they get worked a lot while you're running. you can stretch your
calves a whole lot of different ways. a lot of times if I have a curb somewhere
after I've been running, I'll stretch off the step but if you don't, the easiest
way to stretch your calf if you don't have anything to use is just put that
one foot back, put the other one in the front. if you need to hold on to
something you can, but make sure your toes are pointed forward and then just
lean forward keeping that back heel down and keeping the leg fairly straight. so
I'm getting a stretch through that calf area right there. you want to hold those
stretches normally you want to hold them for about 30 seconds, especially if you
have an injury, if you're doing a cool-down you can hold the stretches for
15 to 20 seconds because you're gonna do probably two on each side, so I do that
10, 15, 20 seconds. yeah it just doesn't have to be a long hold, you're just
trying to get everything stretched back out after you do your run or your
workout and making sure you do both sides. but again make sure you keep those
feet fairly forward. you don't want to turn your foot out to the side,
you're not stretching your calf any more, and then keep that back heel down and
lean forward and get a nice good stretch there. so then you would repeat those
again on each side. then the next one is your anterior tibialis. we're going to
stretch those out that's when people get shin splints if you hear about shin
splints that's usually the irritated area there.
so a really easy way to stretch that again, you can stretch it a whole bunch
of different ways, but what I like to do because I don't want to get down on the
ground right after I've run because I'm warm and I'm hot, and I want to keep
moving a little bit. it's just put your toes down on the
floor the ground outside. so you don't have to drag it or anything but you're
just putting it down. so you're getting that stretch in the front area and what
I like to do is just roll my foot a little bit. so I get the out side portion
and then come back and get the inside portion. now sometimes after you've run
for a little bit, this might make your foot cramp a little, so don't feel like
you have to push hard. again you're just trying to stretch those muscles back out
after you've run to prevent the tightening up, prevent any kind of
scarring, or anything like that. so you're just kind of getting that stretch back
out. so again you know 15 seconds is a good amount, and then just twice on each
side kind of rolling it back and forth. so the third thing is using calf sleeves.
the folks at MD sent me some awesome calf sleeves that they have. these are really
cool because especially if you're running their a little logo on the
back is reflective, so if you run early in the morning or later in the evening,
that's just a nice safe way where people can see you would the reflective on there,
but what's cool about these is they're not socks they're actually just calf
sleeves. so you can see and what it does is it gives that compression on the calf
area and that helps work as a natural pump to kind of get that circulation
going, move that soreness, irritation out of the
legs because a lot of that just follows gravity, and that helps prevent things
like shin splints, calf soreness,
tightness, all those kind of things in this area. so it's really great. I like it.
some people say well why would you just want the calf sleeve versus maybe a whole
compression sock? well a lot of reasons. maybe you have a favorite pair of socks
that you like and you want to use those. this allows you to kind of use the socks
that you want. I know some people don't like this material on their feet, they
want cotton socks or something like that, and this is great to have because you
can do that. also if you're doing another sport, something like maybe martial arts
where you want to be barefoot because you want to have that grip of your feet,
then you can use these, still get that great compression, but have your feet
bare to do what you need to do, to grip on the ground. so there's a lot of
reasons why you might just want the sleeve. but I like it because you know me,
I like socks and then I can still wear my favorite socks, but get some good
compression with it. so if you're interested in purchasing these, make sure
to click on the link up here. so the fourth stretch will be a quad stretch. so
again when you're running, you're pumping those muscles. the quads are used a lot
as well, so it's really great to stretch those. I like to stretch again just
standing. you can do them lying down and in other positions, but this one's a good
one, too. hold on to something if you need to, or if you don't have great balance
because you're just gonna grab your foot, see you have to have good balance, but
the key to this is make sure that your thigh is pretty much straight down. if
you're stretching like this you're not really stretching that quad, so you
really want it to be back down or slightly back a little bit because then
that's going to get your hip flexors as well. so it can be kind of a combination
stretch, but usually you can stretch a little bit more if you have something to
hold on to, if you've got a little bit of balance issues, but again it doesn't have
to be the full 30 second stretch for these, you can just do fifteen, two on
each side. but the closer you get your foot to your bottom the more of a
stretch you'll get, but keep your body upright because again if you're bending
forward like this, you're not going to get a really good stretch. you want that
upper body to be nice and straight and then just grab and pull as far as you
comfortably can, and get that nice quad stretch in there. so then the next one is
going to be for your adductors on the inside, and a lot of times that groin
area will get a little irritated because
that's connected to those hips and those get really tight as well, and I think
people sometimes forget these. so an easy one to do for this is just spread your
feet out a little bit, and then you're gonna lean to the side. so bending one
side and then you're gonna stretch this area. same kind of thing, if you keep your
body upright, you're gonna get much more of a stretch, but try not to bend your
knee way in front of your toes because then you're gonna put a lot of pressure
there. so trying to keep everything upright,
and then just kind of lean over again keeping your feet forward because if you
turn your foot out, you're not getting those adductor stretch. so again just
about 15 maybe 20 seconds stretch, for me, my adductor gets a little bit tighter
because I do have some hip issues sometimes, so I like to do this one a
little bit longer and stretch it a little bit more, but again 15 seconds 20
seconds should do, twice on each side. so the sixth one is going to be your
hamstrings, so again hamstrings are always important. a lot of times people
get hamstring strains, and so the easiest one for me is just feet about shoulder
width apart. they don't have to be together and you're just going to go
down, but the key is keep your back straight. you don't want to curl down and
try and touch your toes like this. you want to keep your back straight and just
bend at your hips. so even here if I'm keeping my back fairly straight, I'm
getting more of a stretch than curling my back down so you can go further. but
really try and keep that back straight while you're doing it, and so you can
hold on to your shins here. if you can keep your back pretty straight you can
go all the way down to your toes, and again just yeah 15 to 20 seconds two
times should be a pretty good stretch. and then the last one is going to be for
your IT band, but I like this one because it kind of gets your QL your arms and a
little bit of everything. so I like this one to be last because it's a nice good
kind of whole body stretch. so for this one, the side you're going to stretch,
take that foot and put it behind the other one. then take the hand of that
side and reach it across your body so you should feel the stretch all the way
through here. and the key is the more you push your
hip away, the more stretch you'll feel. now sometimes people don't feel this a
whole lot with their IT band, but the way you can change that because it's
different for everybody, is kind of change the foot placement. so if I move
it maybe out a little bit more and then put my foot down, I might feel that a
little bit better getting that stretch pushing over. sometimes people feel a
little bit better if their foots a little further back, and stretch it as well, so
it might just be something where you want to just try a couple different
positions of your foot, but when I stretch like this I feel it going all
the way down. so it's a nice way to kind of end and get a whole body stretch when
you're doing it. so again 15 to 20 seconds, two on each side. so there you
have it, those were your top seven ways to help prevent pain and soreness for
runners. if you're interested in purchasing the calf sleeves by MD, make
sure you click on the link up here. and don't forget to subscribe by clicking
down here. and remember be safe (keep those calves happy), have fun, and I hope you
feel better soon.