Stretching For Lower Leg health...

I may take an extra day off from running this week. Actually, adjusting the schedule a bit to move my last day to Friday. My shins were killing me yesterday during the walk. Not as much as the previous session, but they're still very tight. If I don't fix this now it could develop into a more serious problem, like shin splints or a fracture of the Tibia.

The Anterolateral muscles tend to be much less developed than the calves & other attachments. Since the calve pulls the foot down & this opposing muscle group pulls the foot up, running & walking tend to overwork one area & continually strengthen the other.

I had this issue when I was doing the 10k step routine & was able to fix things by adjusting my stride & adding the ankle rotation exercises and extra calf & Achilles tendon stretching. I should have been doing these the entire time because my calves are notoriously tight and overdeveloped compared to the other musculature in my lower leg. I'll add the rotation movements & the Achilles stretches into the pre-run routine as well.

The ankle rotations are very easy. Simply complete counter-clockwise & clockwise rotations of the foot. This will stretch and flex the arches as well. A good warm up and cool down is 10 to 20 reps per direction and per foot.

The Achilles stretches are a bit different. If you're familiar with traditional "wall" stretches these are similar except the foot placement is a bit shorter. With the wall stretch, that back leg is FAR OUT THERE. The further the better to stretch the calve & hamstrings. With the Achilles stretch however, the rear foot is in closer. You want to be bending forward at your ankle. There are differet variations & you can get more aggressive as you get the tendons more flexible...






Imagine squatting down... but NOT rising up on the balls of the feet. You just allow the Achilles to stretch. The front foot stabilizes & controls the amount of weight (pressure of stretch) you're placing on that back, stretching leg. If you've spent anywhere near the time that I have working your legs (especially you calves) YOU ARE GOING TO FEEL THESE! These will not only help in your running and walking regimen... but if you actually do barbell squats, they are a godsend! They'll really improve you flexibility which means better form, more control & ultimately... working with more weight.

You are of course going to include the other basic calve, hamstring & quadricep stretches as well. I'm talking about the Achilles and the anterior shin (Anterolateral) because in my own case, this is the weakest link. My calves have always outpaced every other bodypart as far as muscular development goes. They're probably my single genetically gifted bodypart.


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