The Best Exercises To Do Days After You Ran A Marathon

You have just completed 26 miles and 385 yards. Congratulations, less than 1 percent of the population of the United States can claim such an accomplishment. Take a few days to rest and revel in your success. Once the soreness in your feet and muscles subsides, it is time to lace your shoes back up -- but be cautious. The weeks following the marathon are almost as important as the week leading up to it.

Walking

You've just put your body through tremendous stress. A general rule-of-thumb is to rest one day for every mile you raced, so that means no hard running for 26 days. Author Hal Higdon agrees, saying in his "Post-Marathon Training Guide" that it takes at least two to three weeks to fully recover. So for now, Higdon says walking is one of the best things you can do. It uses a similar motion, but works your muscles differently and does not cause hard impact on your muscles and joints. Limit your distance to just two or three miles while you recover.

Swimming

When you jump into a pool, you enter a zero-impact environment. Swimming works completely different muscles than running, and the cool water provides a gentle massage. While swimming won't improve your running fitness, it will allow you to exercise, burn calories and help maintain your overall fitness level. Start by swimming a few laps at an easy pace. If you want to increase the intensity, try working up to 5 x 400 m, a popular workout for triathletes.

Deep-Water Running

If you don't enjoy swimming laps, the pool still provides a top recovery workout in deep-water running. With the help of a buoyancy belt, you can use the same running motion as you do on land without the stress on your body. Studies, including one published in the journal "Sports Medicine" in 2001, state that deep-water running and terrestrial running have equal training results for fit individuals. In the post-marathon weeks, you must rest your muscles, but deep-water running enables you to run and recover at the same time.

Cycling

Running stationary in a pool can be boring, especially for distance runners used to covering many miles in the great outdoors. If you enjoy the scenery almost as much as you enjoy running, then cycling may be the best post-marathon exercise for you. Cycling allows you to work the muscles in the front of your legs, while running works the muscles in the back of your legs. This helps even out an imbalance that could have developed during all those weeks of training. It may even help you improve your running performance. A 2002 study published in the "International Journal of Sports Medicine" found that cross-training with cycling improves running performance.

Considerations

You just ran a marathon. Your body needs rest. Jumping back into exercise too soon can cause injury or illness. Listen to your body and allow your muscles and your mind to recover, even when using these exercises. Returning slowly to your training over a course of a few weeks can prevent setbacks that may keep you off the road even longer.