Some thoughts and discussions from me.

…or deadlift sesh, or spinning class, or anything that includes the hips!

When I first started running back in 2008, I did it all wrong.

Actually, I take that back. I started with couch 2 5k, which was one thing I did do right. I started slowly, and built my way up to running a continuous 3.1 miles over the course of 8-9 weeks. Like many, this 9 week journey ended with my very first 5k race.

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It was 29 minutes of adrenaline, determination, and pride with a finale of one hell of a runners’ high. After that, you could say I was hooked. Naturally, I thought, if running 3 miles feels like that, I need to run MOAR! So I ran, and ran, and ran – all on the pavement. Some runners can naturally handle higher mileage pounding on pavement. I, however,  am not one of those people. As I began training for half marathons, I also felt a little twinge in my hip.

During training for my third (and final) half marathon, the twinge became a pain, and resulted in an injury. Although training was a bit agonizing, I ran and finished that half – the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll.

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There was so much stimulation during the race, that I just loved running it. But after it, I bowed out of running. I sort of started to hate it, and If it hurt me so much, I wasn’t going to do it anymore.

I’m still somewhat anti-long distance running, but now I’ve picked running back up – on trails. I still can’t take the boredom that comes along with road running for me. The varying terrain plus soft surface of the trails is much kinder to my knees and hips. Plus, the most I run is about 1-1.5 hours.

Regardless, I’m still being careful. Every day I do several hip strengthening exercises, along with several different stretches that a Physical Therapist showed me a while back. I wanted to share those stretches with you today in video-form! Each one stretches a different area in the hip, hitting all three areas in different rotations. Enjoy!

3 Hip Stretches to Do After Your Next Run

Regardless of your sport of choice for the day, a solid mobility and flexibility routine is imperative. In my clients’ and my own workouts, we spend the first 10 minutes on mobility, activation, and foam rolling, and take some time – 5-10 minutes at the end to stretch. Although stretching has gotten a bad rep lately, research studies are still proving how important it is to performance, recovery, and injury prevention. Just make sure to do it in a safe and effective manner Smile

How do you incorporate stretching into your workout routine?

What’s your favorite stretch?