Running loads the front of the legs more than most people expect, and the usual cooldown stops at a hamstring stretch and a calf against a wall.
Here is a fuller version, and the reason static stretching belongs after the run rather than before it.
Why after, not before
Long static holds immediately before explosive work can temporarily reduce power output. For a warm-up you want movement: ankle circles, leg swings, walking before running.
After the run is where holds make sense. You are warm, nothing is about to demand power from you, and the muscles have just finished doing repetitive work through a limited range.
This is one of the few places where the general stretching advice genuinely splits by context. We went into the four different activities people call "stretching" in how long should you hold a stretch.
The seven, in order
Front of the leg first, because that is the part running quietly shortens, then the back, then the hip.
- Standing Quad Stretch. Hold a foot behind you, knees close together, hips square. Forty seconds each side. Hold a wall rather than wobbling.
- Low Lunge. Kneel on one knee, tuck the tailbone under, shift forward an inch. Sixty seconds each side. The hip flexors do more running work than they get credit for, and the tuck is what puts the stretch in the hip rather than the back.
- Standing Calf Stretch. Hands on a wall, one leg back, heel down. Forty seconds each side. Repeat with the back knee softly bent to reach lower into the ankle.
- Seated Hamstring Stretch. One leg out, one folded in, hinge forward with a long spine. Fifty seconds each side.
- Figure-Four Stretch. On your back, ankle over the opposite knee, draw towards the chest. Forty seconds each side. The outside of the hip, which running loads and nobody stretches.
- Couch Stretch. Back foot up against a wall or a sofa, kneeling on the other, tailbone tucked. Forty seconds each side. The strongest version of the hip flexor and quad stretch, and the one to approach carefully.
- Ankle Circles. Slow, both directions. Forty seconds each side.
About six minutes in total. If you have two, keep the low lunge and the calf stretch.
How long to hold
Forty seconds is comfortable here, and there is no need to go beyond that. The 2025 Sports Medicine meta-analysis of 189 studies and 6,654 adults found thirty-second holds working as well as sixty-second ones, with weekly gains flattening at roughly ten minutes per muscle group however the sessions were arranged.
For a runner that is reassuring. You do not need a long post-run ritual, and accumulating the minutes across your running days is as good as anything else.
What stretching after a run will not do
Three things it is worth being straight about. Stretching is not injury prevention, whatever the running magazines imply, and Lucy makes no such claim. It does not clear lactate, which leaves on its own within the hour regardless. And it is no substitute for building mileage sensibly.
What it is: a few minutes spent taking joints through ranges that running does not visit, at the one point in the day when you are already warm and already stopped. That is a reasonable thing to do and does not need to be oversold.
When to stop, and when to ask someone
Stretching is general fitness, not treatment. Stop anything that produces sharp pain rather than a stretch.
A few signals belong with a professional rather than a stretch: a sharp pain that appeared during the run, anything in the Achilles or the side of the knee that persists, pain travelling down the leg, numbness, or anything that makes you change how you walk. Stretching a muscle that is guarding for a reason tends to make it guard harder. Our fitness and safety note covers the rest.
Where Lucy fits
Lucy is an iPhone app of short guided stretching routines for people who sit all day. Post-Run Cooldown is six minutes and seven stretches, and it is the seven above in that order.
Post-Strength Cooldown is the companion for after the weights, five minutes and seven stretches, built around the chest, hips and hamstrings instead.
Both are timed, with a cue for every side change, so you can put the phone down. One routine is free in full. The rest is a subscription with a 7-day free trial, priced in your own currency on the App Store.
FAQ
Should you stretch before or after running?
Movement before, holds after. Long static stretching immediately before explosive work can temporarily reduce power, while afterwards you are warm and nothing is about to demand speed from you.
How long should a post-run stretch take?
Five or six minutes covers the main areas. The Sports Medicine review found single-session gains levelling off at about four minutes per muscle group, so a short sequence across several areas matches the evidence better than a long session on one.
Is a post-run stretch worth it for injury risk?
Not something we are willing to claim either way. What stretching does is take a joint through range. Injury risk is affected by a great many other things, mileage and recovery among them, and a physiotherapist is the right person to ask about your own.
Which muscles should runners stretch most?
The front of the hip and the quads are the ones most often skipped, and running loads both. Most people already stretch hamstrings and calves, which is why those sit in the middle of the list above rather than at the top.
Is stretching or foam rolling better after a run?
They do different things and Lucy does not use equipment, so we are not a neutral party on rollers. What a stretch does is take a joint through range. Whichever of the two you will actually do at the end of a run is the one worth having.
Lucy has a post-run routine with the holds already timed.