Discover the essential stretches before running to prime your muscles, enhance performance, and prevent painful cramps or injuries. Get ready to make every run epic and injury-free.
Running isamazing, ain’t it? It gets the body pumped in a way few other workouts can match. Plus, the rightplaylistcan make any run epic.
Thing is, if your muscles aren’t prepped for running, you’re riskinga bad time. Acramp-laden, stitch-filled,torn-musclebad time. Ouch.
Getting your muscles primed and ready before you run is essential. And it’s super easy — especially with these 12 essential pre-run stretches. Let’s get to it!
12 of the best pre-run stretches
These static and dynamic warmup stretches target every muscle you’ll be putting through the wringer.
1. Standing quad stretch
This stretch will lengthen those quads (which, in turn, lets your hammies fully activate). Opening up your front leg muscles allows for lovely long strides as you sprint around the track/park/block/booby-trap-filled dungeon.
How to do it:
2. Standing dynamic hamstring/calf stretch
This one’s going to loosen up the backs of your legs, getting yourhamstringsand calves revved and ready for your run. A key benefit of this stretch is that by targeting the calves, you reduce strain on the gastrocnemius muscle. This is a big plus, because astrained gastrocnemiuscan cause a lot of knee problems.
3. Standing hip flexion
It’s no secret that yourhipsare up against it when you’re running.Stretches like thisget your hip joints nice and loose. Improved mobility in the short term, reduced risk of later-life hip problems in the long term — very nice.
4. Standing IT band stretch
Do you know what youriliotibial bandis? The TL;DR is the IT band is a thick band of tendon tissue that runs down your outer thighs, from your hip bones all the way to your shins. A bonus of this stretch is that it also lengthens your tensor fascia latae, an important hip muscle.
5. Standing calf raise
Anyone who has run before knows how harsh it can be on your calves. This simple pre-run stretch ensures your calves are primed and ready for an injury-free good time.
This stretch hits both legs, so there’s no need to alternate. If you want to give your calves an extra kick, you can try holding dumbbells while doing this. One-legged calf raises are also totally a thing.
6. Lunge with spinal twist
Lungesare an essential pre- and post-run stretch. The side bend lunge is an entry-level lunge that works each leg individually. Why is this important? Because when you’re running, your legs work as individuals. Giving each leg some dedicated warmup time is essential.
7. Side lunge
The side lunge hits your hip abductors/adductors (aka yourinner thighs) and further engages those core stabilizing muscles. The key difference between this and the lunge in #6 is that this is a lateral (sideways) lunge instead of a forward one.
You can add dumbbells to this one for some extra juice.
8. Arm swing
Your legs might be the stars of the running show, but they aren’t the only cast members. Any experienced runner will tell you you’re not running properly ifthose armsaren’t a little pumped afterward.
That’s exactly what arm swings do: get your arms loose and limber so you don’t get surprised bythoracic outlet syndromeor some other unexpected arm/shoulder/upper-body injury.
Important note:The goal here isn’t to go wild like a dancer at Burning Man. Keep your swings controlled and mindful. These arestretches, remember. The cardio bit will come afterward, when you’re doing the actual running.
9. Straight-leg lateral swing
More swinging, but this time we’re going back to your legs. You may need to hold on to something while doing this move, but you might be able to do it freestanding if yourbalance is A+. Just like the side lunge, this is a lateral stretch that gets your hip abductors/adductors primed.
10. Bent-knee forward swing
The last swing on the list remains in the leg region, but this time we’re going for some bent-knee forward/backward motion. This stretch is another great one for your hip flexors, which is important since they’re ground zero for a lot of running-related injuries.
11. High knees
This classic running drill gets thoseknees high upto your chest, flexing out the last of that stiffness from your hip flexors, ankles, and, of course, knees. It gets that ticker ticking too.
12. Butt kicks
This warmup move works your knees in the opposite direction of high knees, ensuring you’ve got maximum flexibility. It also keeps up that light cardio heart-pumping you’re going to need when you get into your run.
Why you should stretch before a run
Just in case the need for pre-run stretching is news to you, here’s a breakdown of the reasons it’s important:
Why you should stretch after a run too
Cooldown stretchesafter a run are just as essential for injury prevention. Muscle tightness commonly comes on during or after a run. This stiffness can become a sprain, a tear, or another muscular injury if not attended to.
It might not happen right away, but minor stiff knees in your twenties can lead to more problems later in life. Stretching after exercise is an easy way so significantly reduce this risk.
Remember, pre- and post-workout stretches have different purposes. It’s not as simple as doing your pre-workout stretch routine in reverse. Post-workout stretches should focus on stretching out and relaxing the muscles, bringing your heart rate down, and shifting cramp-making lactic acid.
Case in point: You’ll usually hold post-workout stretches 10–15 seconds longer, and cardio-stimulating exercises like high knees and butt kicks are reserved for pre-run only.
There are conflicting schools of thought on which is more important — pre- or post-running stretches. The answer is simple: They’re both important, and they’re both more effective when done together. Do both.
The bottom line on stretching before running
Stretching before you go for a run is important. If you skip this step, you’re risking both short- and long-term injury. You also won’t run at your full capability, since your body will spend most of the run waking TF up instead of operating efficiently.
Doing both static and dynamic stretches before you run gets your muscles nice and loose, helping to prevent stiffness, soreness, and longer-term injuries. It improves coordination and generally means you’re going to get greater body benefits from your running.
If you run competitively, you’ll be pleased to know that yes, this does mean you’ll run faster (and/or longer, if marathons are more your thing).
Post-run cooldown stretches are just as important. Stretching before AND after a run is the best way to perform at your best, get the most fitness benefits out of your running, and keep your injury risk as low as possible.
