12 Minute Pre-Run Stretch Good Stretch Well+Good

Hi, I'm Clara, founder of Good Day Pilates, and this is Good Stretch with Well and Good. Today, I'm gonna take you through a pre-run dynamic stretch series. So important to activate and warm up before you go for a run. We wanna get all those muscles firing and all those joints moving so that you'll run injury-free and a little faster. We're gonna get started laying on our back. So you'll make your way down onto your mat, laying all the way down on your back. We're gonna have our legs extended out in front of us, and then just hug your left knee in towards your chest. So you're gonna give that leg a nice big squeeze, almost like you're compressing the front of that left hip. Just take a breath here. And then using your right hand, you're gonna guide the left leg across the body. Left arm can reach out to the side and maybe you look back over that left shoulder, coming into a supine twist. Feeling that stretch through the low back, maybe a little through the side of the hip as well. And just bringing it back to center, we're gonna switch sides. So left leg will go long, right knee will hug in towards your chest. And give it a nice big squeeze, compressing the front of that right hip. And then use your left hand to guide the leg across into a twist. Maybe looking back over that right shoulder and feeling that stretch in the low back and the side of the right hip. And then take another breath. And then just bringing it back to center. We're gonna hug the knees in towards the chest, give yourself a squeeze and start to rock yourself up and down the spine. So we're gonna rock a couple of times here, finding that lovely spinal articulation, but also using your core. And then on your next one, as you come up, we're gonna cross at the ankles, roll over to hands and knees. Just make your way into the middle of your mat and we'll take a few cat cows here. So we're gonna drop the belly, lift the chest, lift the gaze. And then press down, scoop the belly around the spine. And then we'll keep moving through these at your own pace with your own breath. Again, feeling that real scoop of the belly as we start to get the core firing a little in your cat and cow. Finding that lovely spinal mobility. Let's take one more each way. And then coming back to a neutral spine position. We're gonna reach our right arm forward and our left leg back. Finding this balance here, really reaching from fingertips to toes. See if you can drop your left hip a little bit in space and notice how that makes your deep core muscles work a little harder. Take another breath here and then lower the hand and the knee will swap sides. Left arm reaches forward and then right leg reaches back. Take a little pause, maybe you dial that right hip down and then slowly lower back down. We're gonna keep alternating. Right arm, left leg, little reach and then lower and then swap. Left arm, right leg, little reach and then lower. Now, as you continue to alternate here, notice how the weight will shift from side to side but those deep core muscles are starting to work to stabilize your spine here. That's exactly what our deep core muscles do when we run. So we really wanna warm them up to support the pelvis, the hips, all of the joints we need to use. Okay, the next time we've got right arm and left leg long, we're gonna hold it there. We're gonna open the arm and the leg just a couple of inches out to the sides and then close them back to center. Keep going like that. We're just challenging our obliques a little bit here as we move the arm and the leg away from midline. How can those oblique muscles and those deep core muscles work a little more to stabilize your spine? We're gonna take one more on this side and then lower the hand and the knee will switch. Left arm, right leg reaches and then we'll start to open and close. So that doesn't need to be a big range of motion, just opening like a couple of inches and then pulling it back to center. More about how still can you keep your spine and using those core muscles as we move the arm and the leg. Two more, last one and then lower the hand and the knee. Okay, we're gonna take this core activation up a notch here. So walk the hands forward one step. We're gonna tuck the toes and lift up into a high plank position. Now, if at any stage the high plank feels too much, just drop your knees and find the kneeling plank instead. Coming up to that high plank, really think about lengthening back through the heels, lifting the back of the knees to the sky so your legs are really strong and activated. Now, the aim here as we start to move is to keep the pelvis nice and still. We're gonna take it to shoulder taps. Left hand or tap right shoulder, plant it down and then swap. Right hand or tap left shoulder, plant it down, swap. We're gonna keep alternating. So for more of a challenge, walk your feet a little closer together. For less of a challenge, walk your feet a little wider. The wider your base of support, the more stable you'll feel. All right, keep going nice and slow. We're gonna take six, five, four, three, two, and then holding that plank on one, lengthen the spine, take a breath in. Let's go to downward dog as we breathe out. So hips will lift up and back. You can hang there, pedal out the legs, bending one knee, bending the other. Make it nice and big and exaggerated, opening into the backs of the legs. And then finding some stillness. Maybe you shake your head a little bit, yes and no. And then from here, we're gonna walk our hands to our feet, our feet to our hands. So meeting in the middle of the mat in a forward fold. Let the head hang heavy. Just a soft bend in the knees is really helpful and think about flaring your sit bones. So lifting the tail up towards the sky. We'll take one breath here. And then we're gonna slowly roll ourselves all the way up to standing bone by bone. Once you get to the top, just give your shoulders a little roll up, back and down. We're gonna come into a hamstring stretch. So let's step the right heel forward. We're gonna press the arms forward and send the hips back, finding that stretch through the back of the right leg and then bringing it up, we'll swap sides. Left heel forward, hips back, arms reach forward and then bring it back up. And we're gonna keep alternating one leg and then the other. So really think about pressing back through the hips, reaching those arms forward to lengthen out through the backs of the legs. Again, making this nice and dynamic so we're continuously moving as we swap side to side. Nice, we're gonna take about three more. If you can get those hips to go back a little further each time and then last one. All right, standing up. From here, we're gonna grab the left foot and pull it towards our left butt cheek. Good, you can reach your right arm up towards the sky and find a little more length here, feeling that stretch through the front of the left hip. Take a breath, lower that left leg down and then we'll swap. Right foot to right butt cheek. You can pause, maybe you wanna reach that right arm up, find a little extra length and then lower down. We're gonna keep alternating side to side. So finding that quad stretch, slowly lower and then swap, finding that quad stretch, slowly lower. We'll take about four more. And as well as of course, stretching out the front of the leg. We're also finding a little balance challenge here as we swap side to side. Good, we'll take our last one here and then we're gonna land with our feet hip width distance apart. We're gonna start to come into a few squats. Sending the hips back, leaning the chest forward and then pressing into the feet and standing up. Hips go back, chest goes forward. Press into the feet, stand all the way up. Now, if it feels good for you, you can reach your arms forward as you squat and then bring them down as you stand. I always find that having my arms reaching forward helps me to get back into my hips a little bit more. So we wanna think here about activating through the backs of the legs. So we got our glutes and our hamstrings firing. That's gonna help to propel us forward as we run. Good. All right, keep this going. We're gonna start to add a little calf raise. So after your squat, you're gonna stand and then lift your heels at the top. Lower your heels, come down into your squat. Stand up, lift your heels. Lower your heels, sit back into your squat. Now thinking as your heels lift, really pressing down through your big toe ball mounds. That's gonna give us a lot of power when we push off as we're running. Now, if this feels good, you can start to speed it up a little bit. So as we get a little bit faster, we're thinking about all of that same stability using our core, using our glutes, using our hamstrings, but then the power that's coming from that speed and a little bit of explosiveness here. We'll just take five more, really getting us ready for our run. Last three, last two, and then last one. You can plant your feet down. We're gonna reach our arms up towards the sky, grow nice and tall. And then arms go wide as you fold down over your legs, finding that forward fold again here. This time you can start to pedal out the legs. So bending one knee, bending the other knee. And then we're gonna pause with our left knee bent. I want you to reach the right arm to the sky as you look up towards that right hand, getting a little bit of rotation. When we run, we do need the freedom of our rib cage to twist with the stability of our pelvis. Lower that right hand down, we're gonna swap. So bend the right knee, straighten the left leg, and then reach the left arm to the sky as you look up towards the left fingertips. Take a breath in, and then slowly lower down. A little extra bend in the knees. Last time, we're gonna roll ourselves all the way up to standing, restacking that spine, bone by bone. Your head can be the last thing to lift. Just give your shoulders a little roll up, back, and down. And then you are all done. Again, this was Good Stretch with Well and Good. I'm Clara, founder of Good Day Pilates. For more videos like this, subscribe below. See you next time.