If you are not one of the 5 friends who regularly visit this blog, then I will hazard a guess that you have a problem with your peroneus longus.
Your peroneus longus is the muscle that runs down the side of your lower leg. Sports Injury Clinic describes it as, “…one of the peroneals muscle group which pass down the outside of the lower leg and evert (turn out) the foot.”
I run and I’m a supinator. When I log more miles than what my legs and feet want to do, they lodge their complaint by making my PLs so tight. Regular stretching and massage helps me manage the pain and the tightness.
Below is my new favorite PL stretch. I discovered this last Sunday after I ran a slow and painful half marathon.
1. Set up. Sit with your feet flat on the floor. Scoot over to the edge of your bed or chair. Your feet should be under your knees. Inhale and exhale then tighten your abs. Sit tall with your back straight and relax your shoulders. A simple trick to keep your back straight and lifted is to imagine a thread pulling you up from the center of your head. Inhale, exhale.
2. Prepare to stretch. Maintain the alignment of your back and pull your knees away from each other. Let your feet slide in and turn until your soles touch. If your PLs are really tight, you would already feel a stretch when you pull your knees apart.
3. Stretch. Put your hands on the side of your knees. Inhale, make sure your back is still straight, chest is lifted and your abs are tight; exhale, bend from your hips and gently push your knees in. Inhale and release the tension on your knees, exhale and push again. Reset to set up position and do 2 or 3 more sets.
4. Release. Do a few ankle rotations after this stretch.
Tips:
1. Keeping your back straight, chest wide and abs tight will help to really isolate the peroneous longus. If you round your back or if you dont bend far enough, it will be hard to isolate and stretch the muscle.
2. Breathing is key to stretching. Inhale to prepare and exhale as your stretch.
3. Adjust the way your soles are touching to further isolate the peroneous longus. My adjustment is to open up my soles a bit so that only ball of my feet under the big toes and my heels are touching. I sometimes flex my toes also.
4. There shouldn’t be pain in your knees or ankles when you do this stretch. Adjust till you find the best alignment for your body.
5. I recommend consulting a physio or a rehab doc when you encounter any injury or experience pain.
This simple stretch helped me a lot, if you decide to try it, I hope it can help you manage your pain also. Please click here if you want to read up on the other stretches I do to manage my pesky PLs.
Happy stretching!
Thanks R for helping me with this post.
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