Reference: Stretching & Strengthening

(Last updated:  June 2010)

A collection of stretching and strengthening activities.

	Stretching	Strengthening
Foot	Cross the foot to be stretched over the opposite knee.  Pull the toes back to stretch the Plantar Fascia. Stand on a tennis ball.  Place the ball right behind the ball of the foot, in the middle of the arch, and right in front of the heel.  I do this for 1 minute minimum for each location; 6 minutes to do both feet. Sit on floor.  Wrap towel around the foot at the ball of the foot.  Pull back on the towel to stretch the calf and the Plantar Fascia.	Towel Curls Marble Pickups Check out this article.  It gets a bit technical, but the section titled “IFM Retraining” on pg. 6 is interesting. Try walking on different portions of the feet for small amounts of time:  heel, ball, outside, inside. Run barefoot in grass.
Ankle	While sitting in a chair slide your ankle as far forward as possible while keeping the entire sole of the foot on the floor. Stand with your feet reasonably close together, with one foot slightly ahead of the other.  Bend at both knees and bring the knee of the back leg as far forward as possible, while keeping the rear ankle stationary.  I find it helpful to hold onto a wall or chair while doing this.	Stand on one leg and work on balance.  To make more challenging Cross your arms in front of your chest Close your eyes Use a balance board, Bosu Ball, balance disk, etc. Sit in a chair and cross your legs (using the style where one knee is close to the other – not the style where an ankle is placed on the opposite knee).  Moving only your ankle, trace out the alphabet in the air.  Imagine you have a pencil taped to the sole of your foot and the tip has extended just past the toes.
Calf/ Shin	Foam roller Standard calf stretch against a wall.  Sit on the floor.  Wrap towel around the foot at the ball of the foot.  Pull back on the towel to stretch the calf and the Plantar Fascia. Tennis ball to massage the calf while seated on the floor. Posterior Tibialis:  Sit in a chair and cross your legs such that the left ankle is resting on the right knee.  You’ll be looking down on the inside of your left shin.  Place your right thumb right behind the shin bone (where the bone transitions to soft tissue) down close to your ankle.  Your fingers will wrap around the front of the shin.  Place your left thumb on top of your right thumb, wrapping those fingers around the shin, too.  Make small circles with your left foot.  With each rotation you’ll notice/feel Posterior Tibialis contracting and relaxing.  While continuing to make circles with your foot, slowly slide your thumbs up the shin, while pressing firmly into the muscle.  You’ll massage the muscle and loosen up the fascia that can constrict the muscle. Anterior Tibialis:  Kneel on the floor close to a step, such that the foot hangs over the edge of the step.  Your shin should be entirely on the floor.  Place a tennis ball under your shin.  Move the shin so the ball moves along the length of the shin.	Heel raises. Posterior Tibialis:  Do heel raises, however at the top of the range of motion supinate your feet.  (Move your heels outward.)  It will kind of feel like your weight is on your outside toes.  Slowly return the heels back down to the floor.
Thigh	Quadriceps:  Standard heel-raised-to-butt works well.  Concentrate on keeping the knee as close to vertical as possible.  It’s easy to abduct the thigh, which I believe reduces the effectiveness of the stretch. Hamstrings:  Sit on the floor with your leg extended straight in front of you.  Wrap a towel or rope around the sole of your foot.  Hold on to the towel/rope and pull your straight torso forward.
Hip	Hip Flexor:  Kneel down on the floor like you’re going to propose to someone.  Tighten the glute of the leg with the knee on the floor.  While keeping the glute contracted, slowly move your torso forward.  You’ll feel a stretch in the front of the hip. Gluteus Maximus:  Sit on the floor with your legs straight in front of you.  Loop a rope or long towel around the sole of one foot.  Lean back and lie down completely, while maintaining hold of the towel.  Raise your straight leg and use the towel to hold it momentarily in the vertical position.  Now lower the leg perpendicular to your torso; e.g. when stretching your right glute bring your right leg to the left and across your body. Piriformis:  Here is a great Piriformis stretch.	Gluteus Maximus:  Lunges.  One-legged squat.  Be sure you bend in the hip when you do these and be sure your knee stays roughly over the shoelaces.  Do not let your knee go in front of your foot. The pistol squat is a great goal, but in my opinion one does not need to go all the way to the floor to bring significant benefit to running. Check out these hip exercises (video) on the Pose website. Stand on one leg with the knee of the support leg slightly bent.  Stand erect – hands can be on hips or out for balance.  Rotating only at the hip bend forward.  Be careful not to curl the back or slouch the shoulders.  Rotate “fairly far” – approaching 90 degrees.  You’ll feel your hamstring kick in.  Now rotate back to standing up straight.  I do a couple of sets of 15.  This is great for the hamstring, gluteus Maximus and Gluteus Medius.  It’s also great for balance in general.
Core		The Pedestal routine, which can be found here on YouTube. Balance ball exercises.