Running does lots of fabulous things for me including keeping me in shape and keeping me strong but it does tend to stiffen my legs & buttocks if I don’t stretch daily.  Before I started Pilates I used to suffer from a little sciatica – nothing serious but it could have developed into something much worse.  There is one stretch in particular that stopped it in it’s tracks..

You’ll need somewhere comfy to lie down and a belt or scarf.  Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor.  Hook the belt or scarf around the back of your right thigh and hold with both hands.  Cross your left ankle over your right knee and gently raise your right leg as far as comfortable steadying it with the scarf.  You should feel a stretch in your left buttock.  Hold the stretch for a count of 15 and lower your right leg down for a count of 5 and repeat 5 times on each leg.

This is a lovely stretch for people without sciatica too as it loosens the hard to get to buttock muscles.  Enjoy daily!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve now moved into the ‘recovery from injury’ phase!  I pulled my adductor muscles just over two weeks ago and I’ve progressed from barely walking to running again…

I thought I might be out for ages with pulled adductor muscles which was very frustrating because I need to be as fit as possible before we go to France.  I’d started to ramp up the training which caused my adductor muscles in the inner thigh to pull.  Read my blog of the episode here.

Since being laid up I’ve added some excellent stretches into my morning Pilates routine.  I now add an inner thigh stretch, hip stretches and pelvic circles to the existing routine. I didn’t realise my hips/inner thighs and pelvis were so tight until I’ve started to release them – it’s a lovely satisfying feeling.

I started to walk every lunchtime for at least 45 mins – slowly at first because it hurt my adductors but have just about got up to full speed again.  Then last Sunday I tried running.  It was a test run – one of my twitter buddies recommended walking/running for 20 – 30 mins.  He told me to treat it as a test run and even if I felt fine to limit it to 30 mins and rest/ice up afterwards.  Check his Twitter feed here.  I took his advice and to my relief after a few tentative steps realised that it wasn’t hurting.  I had 2 days rest and went running today.  This time I walked for 10 mins, stretched out and then ran slowly for 20 mins.  I intend to rest again until Sunday and then go for another 30 min run.  Provided I get no pain I will run Tuesday and Thursday next week too.

I’m so relieved but it just goes to show that if you listen to good advice and listen to your body that you can recover sensibly and get back to running quickly.