Running is great! It is a total body movement, it can be of
varying intensity at any moment, it gets your heart pumping and makes you
sweat. There’s an emotional satisfaction
and “pat on the back” feeling every time you finish a quality run. It doesn’t matter if it’s a training day or
race day, if you made it to your finish line, that’s an accomplishment!
My intent is not to make
you stop running, but rather enhance your technique, improve your endurance,
and reduce pain. I like to help people
learn why they are in pain and how fixing faulty movement patterns can change
your training world for the better!
The motion of running only happens
in the sagittal plane, or in simple terms, straight front to back motions. In the world we live in, there are also
frontal plane movements and transverse movements. These motions take you side to side, twisting, and rotating. Running is not the only workout that lives in
one plane of motion. Cycling, CrossFit,
and basic weightlifting are others. Many
times, active adults are doing a combination of these things for their
workouts, which means they are only compounding any movement problems. They may be in great shape and loving their
workouts, but they may be wondering why they have a constant nagging pain. As long as you catch the pain soon enough, the
answer is usually very simple.
Let’s focus on running. Let’s pick apart the problems, so that we may
find a solution. The biggest problem is
usually lack of core strength. Yes,
runners typically have weak core muscles.
This doesn’t just mean your six pack abs, I’m talking every muscle from
your ribs to your hips, both front and back; that is your core. A casual endurance runner doesn’t have to use
many core muscles to get from start to finish, so the body says we don’t need
that, we’re not going to strengthen it.
A weak core causes a whole mess of problems. We can touch on that on during another post.
Almost everyone I train has a lack
of rotation. Many clients call this, “having
no coordination,” when really their body has no mobility to rotate, which
can make you feel uncoordinated. Running
does in fact require small amounts of rotation, but the majority of runners I
see and train, don’t have correct technique.
They actually have no clue how to rotate their body. When they run, they resist the natural
technique to rotate. This will cause
shoulder problems, back problems, knee problems, and ankle problems. Your body is looking to rotate, that’s how we
move. Walking requires rotation with
opposite arm and leg swinging together to take a step. It’s small, but it’s rotation. Running is no different, so when you don’t
rotate, that energy is absorbed into joints and it starts grinding away your
joint stability, or in the case of your spine, it causes disc herniations. When you do rotate and move with correct
form, that energy goes into the muscles, which are made to move and accept
forces. Joints are there to keep those
muscles moving, they are not made to accept rotation forces.
Running is a repetitive motion in
the sagittal plane. If you don’t allow
your body to move in other ways, that repetition will quickly wear down your
body. To prevent injury, you need to
allow days off running where you move differently. Your warm ups need to be about moving in all
directions, not just a quad and hamstring stretch. When you do this, those joints will become
more stable and your muscles will become stronger. When the body knows it is stable and strong,
it works harder. When you can run pain
free, you don’t hold back, you push to beat your goals. I encourage you strongly to step out of the
sagittal plane every once in a while, there is a much bigger training world out
there and your body will love you for it! Check out the TNT YouTube channel for new training ideas!