• Pelvic stability
• Running and the Spine
• Stretches for runners
• Yoga

Running is a popular activity for many. It is an ideal activity for keeping aerobically fit, and for keeping fit for other activities. The lower limb tends to be the main problem area for runners. When we run we put 7 to 9 times our own body weight through each leg, and we do this many times throughout the run. With this in mind, it becomes very clear why any problem can be magnified by this form of activity.

One of the more effective and less thought about ways to develop your running is to develop the ability to move efficiently. A number of interdependent qualities underlie efficient movement. In the performance of a purposeful movement, a muscle never acts alone but in groups, to form patterns of movement. The muscles within each set of contractions which make up a movement contribute in an orderly sequence at specific times and speeds to form smooth, rhythmical cooordinated movement patterns.

For a movement to be efficient, adequate strength, endurance and flexibility are ceded. The body adapts its posture and overall balance to suit a movement it is required to perform. Understanding of the body's position in space is important. Initially, performance of a movement depends on the concept the person has of the covenant. Unnecessary muscles may come into action which hinder the accuracy of the movement. This excess activity needs to be eliminated. Visualisation assists in this process, as does practice.

The ability to move and the quality of the movement is governed by the efficiency of the control of the nervous system. Anxiety and fear cause unnecessary tension.

Patterns of movement vary from person to person depending on such things as age, build, sex, occupation, recreation, flexibility, strength, balance and co-ordination

So...
how can this information help your performance?

• Cross-training is of value (in the past its value has been questioned)
• Speed training is of value, partly because it fine tunes movement and improves co-ordination
• Conscious efforts to co-ordinate movement and eliminate unnecessary muscle activity are of value
• Activities which develop balance and co-ordination are also important
• Strengthening exercises, which are performed in unstable positions are of value
• Running alone is not sufficient to develop all these facets of efficient movement in most people

May I recommend that you start the new running season off with good habits, don't just make time to run, make time to keep your whole body in shape and to keep your muscles in good working order. Some hardened runners have been doing yoga as a form of stretching and have been astonished at the positive effect on both their running as well as on their general well being. It is a very effective way to spend an hour once a week, and is a wonderful form of stress management as well (which running sometimes is not!). We run classes on a Thursday evening (5pm-6pm, and 6pm-7pm), feel free to come for a free session to try, just call to book yourself in so we don't have too many in the class, as we like to keep it small and well supervised. If you can't make this class call for information on other classes that are available in and around your area.

I recently read an article that was extremely interesting to me, and wish to share the salient points with you. The article is written by Bob Prichard and concerned Pat Petersen who ran 24.2 miles in under 2 hours, yet lost to the winner Ibrahim Hussein by 60.02 seconds in the New York City Marathon ( he won in 2 hours and 11 minutes). He asks the obvious question… how and why?

The answer is that for every runner, the marathon is actually longer than 26.2 miles, in fact for Pat Petersen, it is, according to this author's calculation, 30 miles long. This is because runners do not run in a straight line, but move both vertically and laterally as they run. If you measure those extraneous movements and multiply them by the number of strides in a race, it is clear that most runners are running further than is required! Since runners take approximately 1000 strides per mile, every error is multiplied 1000 times and 26200 times during a marathon. The cumulative effect is enormous. The runner therefore who sways furthest beyond the midline can be considered to be the one who makes the most errors.

Crossing over the midline is very hard on the leg muscles and joints of the legs. Excessive crossover is associated with shin splints, knee injuries, hamstring pulls, hip pain and back problems. Prichard believes that crossover is caused by stiffness in the shoulders. This shoulder stiffness leads to overuse injuries in the legs with associated scar tissue from the healing required to mend these injuries. Progressive stiffness sets in, and the situation degenerates with time.

Every time a runner takes a stride, his arm extends 60 degrees behind his body, most runners do not have this degree of flexibility available to them. This causes their bodies to rotate in order to allow this movement to be increased, this has been called upper body torque. This compensatory rotation is responsible for the lateral and vertical movement seen to a greater or lesser extent in most runners.

Be careful, there are no short cuts. It is the same as taking antibiotics…. You do not get better faster because you take the whole course in one day, and neither do you get fit faster because you run too fast or too far, too soon. All you will do if you do this is to injure yourself, taking longer to get fit, and damaging your body.

Start the season off with good habits and spend a little time each day stretching. Try to do five stretches before and five stretches after your run, in this way preparing your body for exercise as well as cooling it down, while also maintaining your essential flexibility. Remember the 10% rule of thumb…. Increase your distance by no more than this per week, i.e. if you ran 3 runs of 5km last week that is a total of 15Km for the week, and so next week you should only run a total of 16,5Km's so don't get carried away! Also, you need a base of slow, running, before you attempt to do any quality training. This goes for your time-trial as well, remember the RAC time trial is a difficult one and is demanding on your muscles and your skeleton as well as your cardiovascular system. Runners are always keen to race the clock and stretch themselves, and are aware of the benefit of stressing their hearts, but they forget that their musculoskeletal structures take longer to get fit than their hearts. So proceed with relative caution.

Start something new… and follow every run by some abdominal strengthening. This will protect your back, as well as enhancing your down hill running ability.
This is a useful tummy exercise:
Lie on your stomach, and stretch your arms above your head, keep your forehead down, and raise your belly off the ground a few cm's, hold it there a few seconds breathing as you do this. Be sure to keep your ribs down and the angle between the left and right ribs as small as you can. Keep your pubic symphysis off the floor and do not lose your lumbar curve. This sounds very complicated but it's very easy and effective for strengthening the stomach and toning the loose flab. Try it.

Very few runners go through their entire running careers without feeling their knees have been overused and abused from time to time. This overuse may present as one of two exceptionally common conditions…

1. "Runner's knee," which is the name given to dysfunction in the tissues around the kneecap, specifically in the lower border of the patellar. This condition is so commonly caused by running that it has been called runner's knee, when it can in fact be caused by any number of factors, of which running is only one. This is a very painful condition, which leads to swelling and inflammation, pain often with bending and squatting, as well as with walking and running, and adds to loss of mobility and function. This painful, puffy knee will respond quickly to physiotherapy, which will relieve the swelling, and the inflammation, with its associated pain, and therefore allow the healing of the body to occur effectively. So if you have developed sharp pain when you bend and run or aching knees after a run and feel your knees are swollen, use ice and slow down your training for a few days. If this fails to alleviate the symptom, try some physio… it will hurt if it is directed ( which it has to be ) right into the painful area, but it works. Give us a call.

2. Iliotibial band friction syndrome, or ITB, as it is so commonly called, which describes a friction blister which develops on the underside of the fibrous tissue band that runs from the pelvis to the outer part of the shin bone. This blister causes severe pain and an inability to run as each time the knee is bent to 30 degrees the blister is rubbed against the rounded protuberance of the thigh bone. Rest and an effective anti-inflammatory ,as well as ice treatment is the most effective way to treat this disabling condition. Physio works very well if started early enough, and if it is comprehensive and addresses the whole body and not just the injury site. If it is ignored and becomes too severe then surgery may be required to release the area of friction. However, the blister can be allowed to heal, with early treatment, and providing the causative factor, be it poor training techniques (e.g. overtraining), or incorrect footwear, is eliminated. Sometimes the problem recurs… in this instance the causative factors are probably not being correctly addressed. If they have been, surgery may be the answer, it is a relatively minor operation, and is effective. However if the causative factors remain, the problem will recur in the form of another injury.

No runners, who are training hard, go through a training season without developing tired and aching muscles at some stage. Sometimes this is relieved by a few days of easy training or rest, but sometimes it continues despite rest, or is so bad that it interferes with even basic mobility. This may present as muscle stiffness, or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), or may present as "the plods" These muscles are aching, because there is micro-damage to the muscle fibres, which has led to bleeding, and the build up of dead muscle cells which are the result of the damage hard training may cause to a muscle. This leads to swelling and build up of fluid as well as blood within the tight sleeve, which encloses the muscle. The pressure, as well as the damaged tissues leads to inflammation and much pain. This causes more swelling, and a cycle is set up which may self perpetuate. Of course the best solution is to prevent overtraining, so that the damage done is minimal and only the appropriate amount. Your body can heal this within a 24 hour period. Avoiding overtraining requires a very fine balance and most runners lose the balance from time to time and injure the muscles they are trying to build. Effective and fast treatment is essential at this point, if training is to continue and true injury is to be avoided. Try an anti inflammatory, and if this fails take a day or two's rest, if this fails go for some treatment. Some deep physio' into the damaged structures will promote healing. Go sooner rather than later for best results.