Pre & Post Exercise Stretches

One of the questions which comes up time and time again is, what stretches should I do before exercise?

There is a bit of a routine which can be performed before your chosen exercise. You can start off with activation exercise, followed by some dynamic stretches and some static stretches at the end of your exercise.

Lets take my routine which I perform as a runner as an example. This isn’t restricted just for running as it tackles pretty much the entire body.

Pre-Exercise Stretches

Activation Exercises

Activation exercises are geared towards lubricating your synovial joints. Synovial joints are basically your main joints. Activation exercises start lubricating your joints, even though this happens naturally during exercise, it means you don’t start off with dry joints. These exercises shouldn’t take no more than 2 or 3 minutes. I do 5 each way normally.

Examples of Activation Exercises

• Head Rotation – Watch how to
• Shoulder circles – Watch how to
• Elbow circles – Watch how to
• Wrist circles – Watch how to
• Arm circles – Watch how to
• Hip circles – Watch how to
• Knee circles – Watch how to
• Ankle circles – Watch how to

As you can see, circles is the name of the game. Nice smooth and gentle circles to get that synovial fluid flowing.

Pre Exercise Dynamic Stretches.

Dynamic stretches, as the name suggests are moving stretches, making sure that there is no bouncing but rather smooth movements. Here are some examples of dynamic stretches.

Pulse Raisers

Now that your joints and muscles are nice and ready for some exercise, it’s worth throwing in some pulse raisers. This basically means that your heart rate will go up and start raising your temperature gradually as it pumps extra blood into the muscles.

So this concludes the pre-exercise routine. It looks long winded, however, in reality, it shouldn’t take more than 6 to 8 minutes. Once you adopt a routine, you can systematically go through the sequence.

Post Exercise

Stretching after a workout, is a bit like tidying up the office after you finish work for the day. Stretching is an essential part of training which gets overlooked quite regularly.

Why should you stretch after exercising?

• Stretching helps eliminate lactic acid
• It helps to release endorphins
• Stretching helps to relax
• Improves flexibility
• Reduces the heart rate post exercise
• Helps muscles return to normal

The NHS have put a list of static stretches together for post exercise, it is well worth checking out this link.

And Finally!

My favourite stretch and the highlight of my exercise routine is relaxing with my legs up against the wall. This HAS to be THE MOST RELAXING STRETCH EVER! Give it a go.

Do not attempt these stretches unless you are used to exercising or under the guidance of an instructor. If you feel any discomfort or pain stop immediately.