Runners often focus a lot on their lower legs and hip area in terms of flexibility and making sure those areas are loose and feel good. However there needs to be some attention paid to the upper body as well.
If you find yourself hunched over while running or if you feel like your arms ache more than your legs at the end of the run then you really need to focus on fixing these issues by using some of these upper body flexibility exercises.
Swiss ball back stretch
If you find that you are hunched over and are feeling your back is quite tight there are a couple of exercises you can do. The first is lying on a Swiss ball and rolling the ball up and down your back while arching your back to fit with the shape of the ball. As you are doing this you should hold your hands and elbows together, with your hands on your forehead. You might not feel your back stretching very much but this will really help open your thoracic spine. In turn this will open your lungs up and generally feel better while running.
Work your abs and back
If you do not have a Swiss ball available then there is a slightly different exercise you can do that will have similar results. Laying on your front, flat on your stomach, hands behind your head, slowly bring your chest up off the floor and back down again. This will work your abs as well as opening up your spine to stop you hunching over so much when you are running.
Work those arms
If you feel you need to work on your arm strength but don't want to start lifting big heavy weights then small weights, and lots of reps is the answer. Sometimes you might do a fast session and find that your arms are the things that hurt the most. If this is the case doing some 'running arms' with small weights will help with this. Running arms is simply moving your arms as you would as if you were running while holding weights in both hands. You could incorporate this into a circuit maybe doing 30-45 seconds of running arms.
Back, chest and arms combined
It is vitally important to stretch to make sure your back, chest, and arms are loose and therefore flexible. A good stretch is reaching up with one arm and lowering it over your head and down your back. Once your elbow is above your head slowly push it down with the other hand until you can feel the stretch. Hold it there for about 20-40 seconds and then repeat 2-3 times with each arm.
Injury prevention
Runners do not really need to be overly flexible in the upper body, it is not as important as being flexible in the hips, lower back and obviously the legs. It is more about injury prevention to make sure being stiff in your upper body does not then cause problems further down the chain. If your back is tight and you're hunched then your lungs won't be able to expand to their full capacity and you will find running is harder than it needs to be.
