ISOLATE-ACTIVATE AND MAKE THE MUSCLES HAPPY

As runners we enjoy running. We love the singular/linear movement that propels us forward and makes us see the world in a different light. However, this singular rather repetitious movement of the limbs/joints and muscles tends to lend itself to tightening and shortening and overall weakening of the muscles.

With this said, there is an arsenal of items or tactics we can take up in order to keep our running up and do it without risk of injury.

For this particular post I will focus my attention on Active Isolated Stretching(AIS). AIS was developed by Aaron Mattes as an alternative to the more traditional passive stretching techniques which promote holding a stretch between 15-30 seconds.

Below are the three key components of AIS.

Active: You actively contract the muscles that perform the opposite movement to the muscle(s) you want to stretch. This creates a neurological response called reciprocal inhibition where the nervous system will inhibit contraction of the target muscle. The result of this will be further relaxation of the target muscle and improved response to stretching.

Isolated: You position your body in a very specific way to isolate a single muscle or even part of a muscle to make the stretch most effective. Stretching: You provide a 2 second stretch to the muscle and repeat this stretch 10-12 times.

Rather than go through each and every stretch via this Blog post I will refer you to a helpful link which outlines the key stretches for runners, provides an explanation of their benefit and has nice photos demonstrating the stretch.

http://www.arborwellness.com/Stretching_for_Runners.pdf

So please go and pick out some AIS techniques to help activate and bring to life important running muscles such as the Glutes, the Hamstrings, Soleus, Quads, Hips and more.

Run well but run smart