Trail Stretching

When you're hitting the trails, you might need to pay more attention to stretching because the uneven terrain can result in significant wear and tear on your muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Pay special attention to your quadriceps, hip flexors, calves, and gluteus medius.

• Quadriceps: they power you up hills and help you fall in a controlled manner on the downhills. To stretch this muscle group, stand on one leg and bend the other knee and grab that ankle. Bring the heel up, and pull your foot close to your butt until you feel a stretch. Keep the bent knee aligned with/behind the straight leg, and avoid bending forward.
• Hip Flexors: they pull the leg forward when climbing up hills. To stretch this muscle group, stand straight and step back with one leg. Keep the back knee straight, bend the forward knee slightly, and slowly lunge forward. Or, do the "swinging leg stretch".
• Calves: hill climbing forces you on to the balls of your feet, which keeps your calves engaged. To stretch this muscle complex, stand about 3ft from a stationary object, placing your hands on it just below shoulder level. Step back with one foot, knee straight, heel on the ground. Bend your forward knee and push against the wall. Try to contract your the quads on your back leg to give a stronger stretch. To stretch some of the deeper muscles of the calf, bend the back leg, keeping your heel on the ground.
• Gluteus Medius: they help with side-to-side movement/stabilization. To stretch this muscle, sit with both legs straight in front of you (try to sit as straight as possible). Bend one knee (bring your thigh as close to your chest as possible), cross this foot over the thigh of your straight leg, and then place it on the ground. With the arm that's opposite the bent leg, reach around and hug your knee to your chest. Then twist your mid section and chest in the direction of the bent knee.

Hold each of these stretches for 60sec on each leg.