Running For Life: Workshop Recap Part 2
This is part two of a recap of a workshop I attended last weekend called "Running for Life: Strategies to Help you Stay Healthy, Avoid Injury and Run Strong" put on by Dr. Peter Larson, author of RunBlogger and professor at St. Anslems College in NH and Dr. Brett Coapland of Performance Health Spine and Sport Therapy. To read the first half click HERE. Like I said in part one of this recap, I went to the workshop expecting to learn preventative methods to avoiding running injuries (specifically plantar fasciitis and low back pain due to tight hip flexors) but feel like I learned so much more. In the first half I realized that my stride length and foot strike may be contributing to some of my injuries and be hampering my performance. In the past I had blamed these nagging issues on old shoes or not enough stretching. As it turns out these things are really not the cause of my injuries at all; there's a bigger picture that I haven't been paying attention to.
As I listened to chiropractor, Dr. Coapland in the second half I learned how lack of mobility in my body could be the major contributing factor to my running injuries and most every common running injury. This is consistent with some of the physical therapy I've had for both back pain and plantar fasciitis.
Most running injuries are caused by muscle imbalances that cause a lack of stability or mobility. Different areas of the body should be stable (the foot, knee, core, lower back) and other areas should be mobile (the ankle and hip). Muscle weakness or imbalances can result in problems in each of these areas. Coapland talked about the connection between some of these areas as well. For example, lack of mobility in the hip can result in lower back pain and lack of mobility in the ankle can cause foot issues.
My initial thought when I heard this was that my injuries are most likely resulting from imbalances in the hip and foot (and exacerbated by bad form). In high school I sprained my right ankle badly playing basketball. I never did any physical therapy for the sprained ankle I simply wore a brace until it was healed. My ankle has "clicked" when I walk up stairs ever since. That was thirteen years ago. It doesn't hurt now, but my right foot is the foot that has a pesky little plantar fasciitis issue. It seems that the lack of mobility in my ankle (along with some tightness in hamstrings and calf muscles) is causing some imbalances that are moving down the line into the foot creating weakness and causing plantar fasciitis. As for the hip immobility, I think weak glutes and my over-striding has something to do with that. Or perhaps I over stride because my hips are immobile and glutes are weak?
Dr. Coapland went on to elaborate on the most common muscle imbalances and what to do about them:
1) Respiration (people breath with their shoulder vs. breathing with their diaphragm)
What to do: practice belly breathing, inhaling into the belly (so it expands)
2) Core (lack of stability in the abdominal wall, pelvic floor and inner core)
What to do: plank pose, bird dog pose
3) Hip (lack of mobility in the hips)
What to do: hip extension stretches, deadlifts
4) Knee (lack of stability in the knee leading to IT band issues)
What to do: look for knee moving inward on single leg squat, work to correct the collapsing knee so it does not move inward during squats, practice squats, split stance squats with corrected form to build strength
5) Ankle and Big Toe (lack of mobility caused by tight calf muscles or hamstrings, bad ankle mobility can cause pronation issues)
What to do: practice split squats, lunges or squats to increase mobility in the ankle, stretch hamstring and calf muscles
6) Foot (lack of stability can lead to injuries such as plantar fasciitis)
What to do: foot strengthening drills such as towel grab with toes, isolating and lifting big toe, squeeze foam wedges between toes.
As for prevention, Dr. Coapland talked about strength training as the primary method to correcting muscle imbalances. Many runners, myself included, don't make strength training a priority. I have phases where I strength train religiously and other times where I don't do it for months. Often it becomes a "filler" for a cross training day, or something to do on a day when we're supposed to be resting. If you're serious about your running, you should be serious about strength training. If you're running on "imbalanced muscles" you're at a greater risk of injury than if you're muscles are strong, joints are stable or have proper mobility. Dr. Coapland spoke of several key strength training moves for runners: squats, deadliest, split stance squats or lunges, single leg squats and plyometrics.
Armed with this information I'll be incorporating more strengthening exercises into my cross training, focusing on correcting some of the imbalances that are causing the issues I've faced in the past. My hope is to go into this next training cycle strong, balance, stable, mobile: my body ready to run.
What valuable information has changed the way you run and train?
-Sarah