TIM BORLAND: Hi, my name's Tim Borland. Today, we're going to talk about how to stretch during running. And I know stretching is a topic that's hard to get our minds around sometimes and understand what it's really for and when it's good to do. But, really, some things to remember, stretching when you're cold, first thing in the day, first thing in the morning is really--it's not advisable. Stretching when you're cold, actually you can injure yourself more than if you didn't stretch at all. If you just got your body warmed up first. So when you think about stretching, the first thing you really want to think about is to get warmed up. So that can be a walk, it can be a jog. 10 minutes is usually a good duration to get warmed up, but once you've done that, then you can go into a stretch session. And again, when you're stretching, always be careful when you first start stretching. Take it easy in the beginning. It's really good to actually hold your stretch for a length of period of time because in the beginning, your body doesn't let go. Your muscles are tightening up because your body's reacting to that stretch. But as you hold it, your body will eventually relax a little bit more and you'll be able to get a deeper stretch. So 45 seconds to a minute is usually a good hold for a stretch. Now, if you don't want to stretch before you run, that's okay, you don't have to. You can just start off easy, get into your run, get in a good workout, and then you can definitely stretch when you're done. That's always a good way to finish up. It's a good way to cool down. It's a good way to just go through a stretch and get your muscles loose again, help your muscles recover. Think about some things, I mean, when you're stretching, you're really elongating your muscle, so if you were doing it at the wrong time, you can really tear some things. You do want to think about--depending on the workout--or you're doing it too. If you are doing a workout, a track workout, a speed workout, something where your movements are more ballistic, then I would definitely encourage a stretch session beforehand because you're going to find yourself in positions where you're going to really be elongating your muscles more than if you're just out for a jog. So, it's--never stretch when you're cold, always warm up first, and depending on what kind of activity you're doing depends on maybe when you should stretch, but it's always good to incorporate at the right time.
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