Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

By Ted Spiker

Here are good leg exercises to prevent injuries for runners:

WALL STRETCH: Stand with your hands against a wall with your left foot approximately two to three feet from the wall. Keep your left leg straight, your right leg bent, your feet pointed straight ahead, and heels on the ground. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds, switch legs, repeat two or three times, and switch sides. Exercise physiologist Janet Hamilton suggests doing the stretch several times a day; stretching only postrun may not be enough to loosen really tight calves.

FOAM ROLL: Rolling your calf over a foam roller after running can help break up microadhesions–where muscle tissue sticks to the outer fascia–that cause pain, says Matt Schneider, certified athletic trainer and certified physician assistant at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Sit on the floor with your right calf on the roller. Cross your left leg over your right, resting that ankle on your right shin. With your elbows supporting you, lift your glutes off the floor and shift your body to slowly roll your right calf along the roller. Repeat on your left leg.

SHIN LIFTER: Lie faceup on a hamstring curl machine, and place your toes under the footholds. Flex your feet toward you to work the muscles in the front of your lower legs. An at-home alternative: Sit on a chair or the edge of a bed with your feet hanging down, not touching the floor. Put coins in a sock and rest it on the top of your foot. Raise and lower your foot, flexing at the ankle.

HEEL/TOE WALK: Walk across a room with your forefoot off the ground. Then walk back on your tiptoes. These exercises will strengthen your compartment muscles. “When these muscles are stronger, they can withstand more stress,” Schneider says. “You want to build up these muscles so that they–and not the bone–take the brunt of the impact of running.”

SEATED CALF RAISE: The gastrocnemius is easy to target with standing calf raises. But you won’t reach the soleus, unless you work the calf with a bent knee. You can do that with seated calf raises using a machine at the gym (or by sitting in a chair, and putting some resistance like a dumbbell on your lap). Raise the weight up to a count of three, but then lower it slowly to a count of five to really work the muscle.

COMPARTMENT STRETCH: Standing up straight, bend one knee and bring your heel toward your glutes (like a classic quad stretch). But instead of grabbing your ankle, hold the top of your foot. “Holding your foot is the key to stretching the compartment,” Dr. Rouzier says.

Today we’re going to focus on one of the most popular Legs exercise - lying leg curls.

Lying Leg Curl exercises primarily the hamstrings. The hamstrings, located behind the thigh, are a group of 3 muscles that originate from the ischium bone of the pelvis. (See illustration below). The hamstring muscles are biceps femoris (outer aspect of the thigh), semimembranosus (behind the inner aspect) and semitendinosus (behind the inner aspect of the thigh adjacent to semimembranosus).

Proper Execution:

1. Lie facedown on a leg curl machine with your ankles hooked behind the lifting pads and your knees just over the bench’s edge. Hold on to the machine’s handlebars for support.

2. Keeping your pelvis flush against the bench, slowly raise your heels toward your butt so that your legs bend to about a 90-degree angel.

3. Hold for a second, then slowly lower your heels to the starting position.

Note: Some leg curl machines are bent slightly at the end to relieve pressure from your pelvis. If yours is not, put a small pillow under your pelvis.

Bodybuilder Frank Sepe demonstrates in workout video how to properly do Lying Leg Curls.