As anyone whose hobby involves physical activity knows, you can't expect your body to operate in tip-top shape without a little coaxing. Only running or cycling, for example, makes you more prone to painful injuries that can leave you nursing your condition on the couch instead of out there doing what you love. We've rounded up the best stretches and exercises to help you prehab before catastrophe happens. Pick a few from each common injury group to help stay out of the doctor's office and happily in the gym or on the road.
[Weak Ankles][Knee Pain] [IT Band Syndrome] [Tight Hamstrings] [Lower-Back Pain] [Shin Splints] [Plantar Fasciitis]
— Additional reporting by Lizzie Fuhr and Jenny SugarSource: Shutterstock / Warren Goldswain
Adding the resistance band helps to strengthen the muscles of the arch. And a strong arch helps prevent over pronation (excessive rolling inward of the ankle).
Dorsi flexion, pulling the toes toward your body, works the muscles that support the front of the ankle.
This is an essential move for runners to strengthen the lower body. Hopping side to side helps condition the muscles around the ankle for stability when making quick lateral direction changes found in tennis, basketball, and soccer.
"Your core isn't just your abs!" says Sports Club/LA trainer Eric Chen. "Deadlifts are great exercises to strengthen that posterior chain. If you're an endurance runner, you need a strong core to support yourself."
Source: POPSUGAR Studios
Strengthen those glute muscles and become a more powerful runner.
This exercise really targets your gluteus medius, a key stabilizing muscle that is often neglected.
During this exercise, keep your back straight and in neutral alignment, and pay special attention that you don't arch your back. Use your muscles to create a slow, controlled movement — do not swing your legs.
You can also add fire hydrants to the mix as well for more hip flexor rotation. Instead of lifting your leg back, lift it to the side, so your thighs are parallel to the floor and the soles of your feet are facing the wall behind you. Source: POPSUGAR Studios
This move opens up the chest while stretching posterior muscles and hip flexors.
Source: POPSUGAR Studios
Balance out overworked hamstrings with this quad-strengthening move, which helps realign and balance your body to prevent knee issues.
This deceptively simple exercise is a must for runners, since it helps build quad strength to prevent injuries like runner's knee.
Source: Corbis Images and Megan Wolfe Photography
Keep quads loose and strains at bay with this foam-rolling technique.
Tight glutes can pull on the IT band and adversely affect the alignment of the hips and knees.
The IT band is thick band of tissue that connects your hip flexors to your knee joint. When tight, it can pull on your joints, leading to a painful knee injury. This IT band-loosening stretch is great to do after a run.
You'll feel this stretch in your upper thighs as well as your calves.
This exercise really works the deep glutes while challenging your core and sense of balance. Weak glutes can lead to imbalances that cause IT band flare-ups.
Here's another IT band-loosening stretch that is great to do after a run.
The clam targets the glute meds and helps build hip control. See the clam in action here.
Squat walks are an excellent way to strengthen your glute meds.
This is a great move for your glutes, while also working your quads, hamstrings, and calves.
Modifying the classic bridge into a single-leg move helps strengthen hips as well as glute muscles.
This lunge variation is another exercise that targets the glute meds.
The IT band is a thick strand of fascia that runs the length of the thigh; when it gets tight, it can pull the knee out of alignment, causing pain and inflammation in the joint.
Tight hamstrings can lead to strains and pulls, so stay flexible with these post-workout stretches. This stretch is good for your hamstrings and also loosens tight shoulders.
Easy to do anywhere and safe for injured backs, this hamstring stretch is great if you're really tight.
If the previous stretch isn't deep enough for you then try this variation. It's perfect for doing on a bench after a run in the park.
This basic stretch is perfect for targeting one leg at a time and is great for those with really tight hamstrings.
This stretch targets both hamstrings as well as the lower back.
Here's a relaxing way to stretch one hamstring at a time.
These stretches help ease lower-back pain, a common ailment in runners and cyclists. Bonus: they also help open up your hip flexors, which will help keep your body balanced (and prevent common injuries like IT Band Syndrome) while you exercise.
The pigeon is a great postrun pose for opening up hips and stretching your lower back.
Source: Jenny Sugar
Further your back stretch with the Double Pigeon Pose.
Source: Jenny Sugar
Hips and lower back get a rest with this restorative pose.
Source: Jenny Sugar
Open up tight hips with this stretch.
Source: Jenny Sugar
Keeping your lower back loose and limber directly affects the flexibility of your glutes and the efficiency of your training.
Raising the heels destabilizes your ankle joints. Not only are you strengthening your calves with this exercise, but you're also challenging the muscles that support the ankle joint.
Changing the angle of the feet by rotating the legs outward challenges different muscles of the lower leg than working in parallel. This position will work your arch of your foot more, too, and a strong arch helps prevent the ankle from rolling inward.
Once again, the different foot position will challenge different parts of the lower leg and feet.
Shin splints are painful — and preventable. Here's one way to keep shin pain at bay.
Pay special attention to tight spots, allowing the tension to sink into the roller.
This move is a key to preventing shin splints.
This weight-bearing exercise works the muscles that support the front of the ankle and strengthens the feet, too. You can do heel walks with or without shoes.
Plantar fasciitis is a painful condition caused by tiny tears in the band of tissue on the soles of your feet. Prevent it from happening with this easy stretch you can do at your desk.