Home Coach's Corner Tip
Questions? Call us! 1-800-645-3226

Coach's Corner

Tip

Dynamic Stretching from Five Star Cross Country Camp Director – Rich Furst

Fivestar Tipphoto

1) Walk outs/"Inch worm".  While standing, reach down into a prone pushup position, then slowly walk your feet towards your hands while keeping your legs straight.  You should feel hamstring stretching.  When you have walked in as far as you can without bending your knees, begin to stretch out into the prone pushup position again by walking the forward across the ground.  Do not stand up.  Complete the "inch worm" movement 10 times.
2) Walking lunges.  Begin this movement by raising your knee up and then reaching out with your leg as if you were striding, then lunge until your opposite knee is just above the ground.  You should feel the quad muscles stretch on your lunging leg.  Do this 10 times (5 for each leg)
3) Ins and Outs hip flexors.  I'm not quite sure how to make the ins and outs clearer, they are sort of hard to explain.  I would say maybe something like: "Standing with hips and shoulders pointing forward, lift leg up and to the side of the body as if preparing to step over a hurdle.  Keeping leg raised, knee bent at 90 degrees, and toes flexed towards the shin, rotate leg towards the front of the body so that the knee is in line with belly button.  Lower leg.  Repeat with opposite leg.  Perform this 10 times on each leg. 

A proper and consistent warmup is essential in order to run workouts that will prepare you for racing.  We suggest taking these same steps before every workout.  Begin with a slow jog of 8-15 minutes.  The time will vary with the climate conditions.  Basically, once you feel that full body warmth from inside, then continue to jog for another 5 to six minutes.  In climes where practice is run in temperatures well below freezing, this may take up to fifteen minutes.  It is important to note that just because the outside temp is 90 degrees doesn't mean that your muscles are sufficiently warmed.  It just means that you will warm up in a little less time.  Once you feel warm then progress into dynamic stretching. 

To learn more about Five Star Running Camp, click here!

Share This
Filter Coach's Corner by Sport

Find a camp near you:

Select your sport and get into camp!
If you need more assistance, just give us a call
at 1-800-645-3226 we would be happy to help!

close