Cross Training for Runners

We are deep in marathon-training season here in Texas thanks to temperatures that make outdoor activity easier. It's also a season when logging high mileage can lead to poor movement patterns and then injury. Using a combination of massage, trigger point therapy, stretching and strength training can not only keep you inury-free, it can also improve time and performance on the road.

This is a collection of some of my favorite stretches and exercises for runners, particularly for folks who stare at a screen for a living and love running for cardiovascular and mental health. As someone who is a bit 'Type A' I love my exercise and stretching routines to have twofers or threefers meaning you're getting multiple benefits from each. We're all busy so we might as well feel like we're accomplishing a few things at once from our stretching routines.

Massage & Trigger Point Release

We could all use to take better care of our feet, especially if you're out pounding the pavement for miles every week. Consider this massage like foam rolling for your feet. It only takes a couple of minutes and is easy to do while watching tv or before you pop on those shoes for a jog. Check and see if your foot changes color after you do it!

Trigger Point

The gist of trigger point work, if you have not heard of it before, is that you find a tender spot and apply consistent pressure until the muscle starts to relax. This can take minutes and can be confusing at first if you can't feel the muscles releasing. The more you practice the easier it is to know when the muscle is letting go. You can use a ball, foam roller or other trigger point therapy tool--my only reminder is to breathe! Below are two different releases you can do with a ball and a foam roller.

Piriformis (hip rotation) Trigger Point Release 

Gluteal (butt) Muscle Trigger Point

Calf Trigger Point Release

Stretching

If you want to up your stretching routine and do something beyond the basic quad and calf stretch you learned in grade school, these are my favorites for stretching multiple places at one time. They incorporate stretching muscles as well as facial or connective tissue lines. Many runners may be aware that their calves and hamstrings could use a stretch (find my favorite version here), but knowing how to stretch the front of the shins is a bit more complicated. Click here for my suggestion for a good shin stretch.

Strengthening Exercises

When you're spending so much time on the road just trying to get your mileage in, stretching may be the only thing you may take time to do. Cross training exercises are soooo important for runners as you're doing a highly repetitive action. This plus long hours potentially looking at a screen usually means the hip muscles become weak because they're being supported by a chair most of the day. Hip weakness combined with high mileage is a recipe for chronic pain or an injury. Most runners I've worked with need more lateral (abductor) strength, inner thigh (adductor) strength as well as core stability via the obliques.

Strengthen You Rear

Inner Thigh Stretch and Strengthening

When looking at a screen most hours of the day and then participating in exercise that is also very forward-oriented, the obliques and the cross body stability muscles become weak. Improving these means improving balance so your energy can carry you forward. An added bonus is that you may even see your waistline shrink if you work on these muscles. Here's a simple, yet super challenging one using a foam roller.

Core Strengthening and Stability

How I can help

Ki Hara active stretching (see example here) is super effective in creating flexibility and strength at the same time. Having this muscular dexterity not only allows you to run longer, but also faster. Many professional athletes and sports teams across the country use this technique as their secret weapon.

I also use a piece of equipment called the CoreAlign that is phenomenal for gait training and orienting the body to the core in a running motion (see more about it here). I've helped many marathoners streamline their gait patterns so they can lower their per mile time. If you've ever, even as a teen, had an injury to the lower half of your body, you may have established some compensation patterns in your walk. Running with these compensation patterns can be an underlying component to chronic pain and injury. Peeling back those patterns will give you more agility and speed as you run. You have more power than you realize!!

Stretches to Relieve Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain can have many different causes. Muscle weakness, poor posture, disc/spinal issues, leg length differential or an old injury can all factor into back pain. That said, this chronic pain can be helped by stretching certain areas and building hip strength.

From a fascial (connective tissue) line perspective, the tension you feel in the lower back could be coming from anywhere along that posterior side of your body. So a tight foot or calf on that side could also be a tight sacrum. Below is a simple foot fascia stretch you could do while watching tv or before a walk/run. If you know you have tight calves, this is my favorite stretch to release the muscles as well as the fascial line.

For a more active approach, anyone with a tight lower back has tight quad muscles (front of thighs). This version integrates a yoga pose with some turbo options for stretching. Your front leg doesn't need to be crossed in front of the opposite thigh, you can just tuck that knee underneath you. You can also place a pillow underneath the glute that is stretching. Just being here may be intense enough. If so, breathe and visualize new space in your hips. You may also feel this more in your butt than in your quad. Try to bend the elongated leg for the thigh stretch. If your hamstring cramps, scroll up and do the calf stretch first. If you can bend the knee, this stretch is a great twofer for the thigh and rear.

Another area that can pull on the lower back is the groin. Most of us never think to stretch here yet it can really compound tension in the lumbar spine. This is a pretty intense stretch, so here is a more gentle stretch.

When you're out of the pain or as a preventative measure, you want to build hip strength. If you've recently had pain, doing this may not feel good, so listen to your body. If you feel a sharp pain, this is not for you right now. You may need more individualized help, so gimme a call! Or, reach out to your trusted chiropractor, massage therapist or physical therapist.

I find that lower back pain perhaps more than any other chronic pain area always has an emotional or stress-holding connection. I already wrote about how lower back pain connects with breath holding here. Some things to explore for the emotional connection would be: When did this pain start? What else was going on in your life around that time? Does the pain tend to get worse during certain times of the day? If it's in the morning, are you happy in your work/relationship? In the evening, are you feeling burdened by your responsibilities? Does it hurt more when you speak to a certain person? Are you holding or internalizing anger, frustration or another emotion with regard to that person?

Noticing your personal patterns can help you start to process some of these underlying aspects that are keeping this pain chronic. I believe this is a big reason why a massage or even a stretching routine doesn't keep the pain from coming back. If some of this resonates for you, visualize these emotions/memories leaving your body via your breath. Let it go!

Why is my body tight?

This is a question I'm often asked and believe that we have to look at more than just range-of-motion or trigger points for a good explanation. Some clients immediately tell me that their body is tight because it runs in their family, like they have an inflexiblity gene and traditional stretching just doesn't work for them. I see body tightness that runs in families as a cultural way that the family deals with stress and how we then handle stress as adults. Are things shoved under the rug or not acknowledged? Or, are things discussed and worked through together? Do you feel overwhelmed and overburdened by responsibility? Or, are you able to shift your perspective and carve out some self-care time?

The nervous system automatically charges up to help when we're stressed (sympathetic nervous system). One result when it kicks in is that the muscles tighten to prepare for action--we can see this in animals. When they perceive a threat, the breath cycle shortens, their whole body tightens and is ready to pounce. When we, as humans, hold in this way everyday, it leads to chronic body tightness and fatigue.

To offset this stress from a movement perspective, we most often think exercise. Yet, how many of us hold our breath when we try to burn off some steam? Muscles can't relax if they're being starved of oxygen. As someone who is also prone to this, I've started doing some diaphragm releases to connect with my breath before I intentionally move. This is my favorite diaphragm release to do pre-workout.

Ki Hara active stretching unwinds tension from the body, creating space for more breath. Clients always stand up at the end of a session saying they feel more alive, relaxed and have more blood flowing through their body. We target the areas you personally hold tension and dynamically release muscle tension there. Full body stretching like in the photo above, allows for the body to have a feeling of flow over bracing. To learn more, click here.  

Stretch Out Your Sciatica!

For non-severe cases of sciatica (i.e. not having foot drop or incontinence) a holistic approach of regular stretching and shifting your body's biomechanics can not only lessen your pain levels, but help it from coming back. The sciatic nerve runs from the lower back all the way down to the foot on either side of the body. Sciatica can be a result of several spinal issues, so it is important to consult with your doctor to ensure that this is not the underlying cause of your lower back pain. Deep stretching of the back and hips with follow up care to strengthen the pelvic floor and shift your gait (walking) can all help your sciatica no matter if you choose a doctor-recommended approach such as a cortizone shot/epidural or a holistic approach of chiropractic/acupuncture.

Deep stretching of the hips can take pressure off of the sciatic nerve, particularly by stretching the piriformis muscle. The piriformis connects the lower back to the hip and acts as a rotational muscle for the thigh. The sciatic nerve passes through this muscle for some of us, so when the muscle gets tight, it cuts off the nerve. Ki Hara active stretching is particularly effective for loosening these muscles, because we take the muscle from its shortened length and then actively pull it long. This means that flexbility isn't coming from a ligament or the joint, we're actually creating longer muscles--kind of like stretching taffy. You can see an example of this and its effectiveness here:

I find that another contributor in back pain is that we hold our breath from stress and become 'tightasses'. Read more about this here.

After getting more space in the pelvis, we can reengage the pelvic floor muscles and strengthen the glutes that should have been doing more work before sciatica came along. After sitting for so many years--even think back to being in school, the chair ends up supporting our weight most of the day instead of our pelvic musculature, including our bums. We end up with flat behinds while the muscles in the pelvis tighten and weaken. They then tug on the sacrum or lower back, forcing it to move in ways that it shouldn't, so it rightfully gets angry. By consciously reconnecting with the pelvic floor, which is the base of our core, and pumping the butt back up, we reactivate the parts of our body that should be holding our torso upright instead of a piece of furniture.

When working with sciatica and lower back pain clients, we not only stretch and strenghten, we also shift how you walk. If you've had that seizing pain or constant aching for a while, I guarantee you've walked weird to protect yourself from feeling it. So, another way to prevent you from having a future episide is to make sure you don't keep walking in a way that supports your body's holding of that pain. Addressing sciatica, and back pain in general, from this progressive approach helps my clients' back pain improve, it also lessens the severity/duration of future episodes In many cases, it helps keep the pain from coming back all together.

Are you a tightass?

Most of us are, and the funny part is, we're completely unaware.

Ki Hara Active Hip Stretch

What is a tightass?

I define it as one who perpetually grips in their pelvis, specifically in the urinary and anal sphincters. Clenching here tightens muscles in the pelvic floor, which pull on the hips, which pull on the lower back.

How does one become a tightass?

Stress
Our bodies (nervous systems) are wired to process stress with fight or flight. Evolutionarily, if something threatened our survival, we fought or we ran. In the 21st century reality, it's usually not possible to discharge stress at the moment we're feeling it. Plus, we usually have multiple stressors hitting us simultaneously. We are then left with a freeze response, so the body goes on lockdown, as do our bums.

Breath
Building on the above, shortening our breath is a top physical holding response when we freeze. Unfortunately, this is where we spend the bulk of our time--barely breathing, which, only keeps our nervous system in a hightened state of stress. So the stress/breath cycle snowballs. Right now, take an inventory of your breath. Can you even out your inhalation and exhalation time? How many seconds does it take you to do an inhale/exhale? Can you increase that duration by 1 second, or maybe even 2 seconds? Does your body (pay attention to your pelvis, in particular) relax a little bit with this slightly longer breath cycle? Now pause and hold your breath...do you feel your sphincters tighten again?

Digestive Issues There's a greater awareness now about food sensitivities and allergies. When our digestive system is upset on a regular basis, it can lead to chronic clenching of the digestive sphincters. I also think sitting for long periods and the subsequent slowing of our metabolism can let things feel stuck in our digestive tract.

Sucking in the Stomach/Wearing Restrictive Clothing This usually applies more to women than men. Wearing restrictive clothing or sucking the stomach in, once again means the breath is affected so the tightass tendency follows.

Energetic/Emotional Component The area we're talking about in the body corresponds to the root chakra. This chakra, or energy center, represents our foundation, sense of safety, financial stability and tribal (family of origin) identity. Pretty much everyone has some emotional crap involving at least one of these issues. Emotional holding patterns surrounding fear, in particular, contribute to chronic clenching in the pelvis.

Why does it matter?

Tightening your holes pulls on your hip rotation muscles (especially the obterator internus), locking your femur (thigh bone) in a shortened range of motion. Chronic holding in this area of the pelvis directly affects not just hip rotation but also low back pain. The femur is a ball and socket, a super mobile joint. When we restrict its full range of motion (most of us don't even work the hips in their full range of motion on a regular basis, that will be another blog post) the sacral area of the low back gets pissed off because it's having to do the work that the ball and socket should be doing. Then we have low back pain. I'm not saying this is the exclusive reason for lower back pain, but it is a significant one.

What should you do about it?

Wear clothing that doesn't restrict your breathing and try to relax these muscles with your breath. For more information, check here on how to do that:

Pay attention to which foods your body is happy and nourished by and try to eat more of those. One of my favorite go-tos for eating more vegetables is eating 5 different vegetables each day. I find that the goal becomes the center-point of my meal planning because the focus is how I give my body nutrients rather than a thou-shalt-not-eat __ approach.

Do something for you throughout each day...even if it's just 5 minutes. As a movement person, let me suggest this be something movement-related. Not just because you're taking care of your body, it will also help aid your digestion and kick in your parasympathetic (calming) nevous system. Maybe it's taking a timer-motivated break for 5 mintues in which you just focus on your breathing or on your favorite cup of tea. Maybe it's repeating a favorite mantra each time you look in the mirror or take a bathroom break.

Start looking at your fear patterns and letting those fears go. We often hold onto fears that took root in our childhood that are no longer relevant and necessary in adulthood. A good place to start is noticing when you're triggered by something someone says or does and ask yourself why you had a reaction at all. Did it highlight a fear you have? Was it a way your parents/sibling/family member spoke to you growing up? Are you reacting to that trigger now the same as when you were younger? How does your body feel? Where do you feel tightness or restriction?

Trying a multi-faceted approach, meaning looking at your back pain (or maybe just your tight ass) from a physical as well as emotional perspective can lead to greater and longer-lasting pain relief...and help you grow as a person.