Stretching schedule and excercises

by Michael S.
(Sandnes, Norway)

Stretching and running :

"Hi Marius,

Just recently got your 100 day marathon plan for myself (43) and my daughter (17). We have done 4 half-marathons together last year and have high expectations that your programme will help us go all the way in a years time.

Now, the question I have is about stretching and/or flexibility excercises. From what I have been able to understand from my reading good old-fashioned stretching with fairly static "holds" over a minute or so, seems to be slightly abandoned these days - except perhaps for the sports were extreme flexibility is needed (gymnastics, etc.).

What do you recommend for running? Would you do some sort of stretching even after hard interval sessions or only after the easy-going zone 1 sessions? And if you do, what sort of excercises specific for running would you recommend?

Kind regards,

Michael S."

Answer: Hi Michael and thanks for your question.

I'm not a big fan of stretching in general - there is little support for it scientifically and if you talk to most world class runners - most stretch very little ; for good reason. Personally I stopped doing this as well in my own career, at around 20 years old and as a doctor now, this opinion still stands.

However, you can add some eccentric work in there - which is slightly different vs. "normal" stretching. This is recommended on the quadriceps, hamstring and calves. See this article I wrote about how to approach stretching for runners : Stretching Good or Bad

Hope that helped a bit.

I wish the best of you all the best with your training,

kind regards,
Marius