JUNE 2018 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK 067THE THRILL OF RUNNING CAN
distract us from the
reality of what is
happening to you with
every stride. Your heart beats
harder pumping blood throughout
your body. Sweat drips down your
forehead as your body temperature
rises. You feel the wind on your face
as you turn up the trail or down the
road. These are the images running
conjures up in our heads and they
are real but while your heart and
lungs are driving your engine your
chassis is under a lot of stress. Like
it or not your body must deal with
two-and-a-half to three times its
weight with every stride.
Think about this. If you stand on
both legs you have half your weight
on each leg. If you stand on one leg
thatâs 100 per cent of your weight
on one leg. Now take a barbell add
about 150 per cent of your weight
to it and hoist the load onto your
shoulders; then stand on one leg.
Like it or not this is how much
stress your bones tendons muscles
cartilage and ligaments support
with every stride you take. As
runners weâve been told distance
running is a small amount of stress
applied to your body for a long
time. If anything we could say that
running is large stresses acting on
our body for a long time.
Further complicating matters is
the fact that running isnât just a
single-plane sport. In addition to
these vertical forces we have to
deal with braking and acceleration
forces that amount to 40-50 per
cent of our bodyâs weight. And
thatâs while our body is kicked
laterally by forces of around 15 per
cent of our weight just from the
effort of running. Running creates
huge amounts of stress that acts on
the body from all sides.
This load acting on your body is
absolute and rather mechanical. But
your bodyâs response isnât just
mechanical. Imagine a rubber ball.
If you throw a rubber ball off the
roof it will first accelerate to the
ground. When it collides with the
ground the energy of the impact
will flatten the ball out a bit and
then the ball will rebound off the
ground and spring back up again.
The ball is passive â it compresses
and rebounds based on the density
of the rubber from which it is made.
This is a simple illustration of how a
passive object responds to load.
Now imagine you are soaring
through the air in mid-stride and the
same gravity that accelerated the
rubber ball takes you back to earth.
Thatâs where the similarity ends
because the body isnât passive. Itâs
a complex system of parts with a
neuromuscular system that actively
moves adjusts and coordinates
these parts in response to the
mechanical forces of running.Donât neglect the glute
When you run especially as your
speed increases more and more
oomph needs to come from the
muscles that extend the hips. But
itâs likely that years of overstriding
have wired your muscle memory to
favour the quads and neglect the
glutes. Put simply the typical runner
is quad-heavy and glute-light.
Most runners overstride. The lab
data Iâve collected over a decade
reveals that most runners donât
know how to fully use the muscles
in their backside. It would be much
easier if muscle control was
balanced around the body but the
reality is most people are out of
balance a problem that is not
exclusive to running. Dr Vladimir
Janda a pioneer in muscular
therapy coined the term âlower
crossed syndromeâ to describe the
imbalance that occurs when the hip
flexors quads and lower back
muscles are tight and overused and
the deep-core and gluteus maximus
are asleep at the wheel.
The best way to inhibit the
muscles around your hips is to
screw up your posture. And then
thereâs the issue of tight hips. If
those muscles are tight your hip
wonât have full extension to both
sides of your pelvis. This imbalance
isnât a running problem; itâs a body
problem. But if itâs not corrected
youâll never be able to correct your
stride. About 80 per cent of runners
will need to do a lot of hip flexor
stretches to improve this.
Your quads are big muscles
capable of producing a huge
amount of force. No matter what
your running form you need your
quads to work hard. But muscles
donât act alone and we certainly
donât want the quads to carry the
torch when running. Changing your
dominant muscles for moving and
running is critical to improving joint
health and performance.WHEN YOU RUN ESPECIALLY
AS YOUR SPEED INCREASES
MORE OOMPH NEEDS TO
COME FROM THE MUSCLES
THAT EXTEND THE HIPS
1 / HIP-MOBILITY TEST
Kneel inside a doorway with
your mid-back touching the
doorframe. The thigh of your
kneeling leg should be vertical
and the shin of your opposite leg
should also be vertical. In this
position youâll have a small gap
between your lower back and
the doorframe.
Now tuck your tailbone under
so that the hollow between your
lower back and the doorframe
disappears. To make this happen
imagine your pelvis as a bowl of
cereal that you are trying to spill
behind you. This movement is
commonly referred to as pelvic
tilt. Once you are in this position
what do you feel?
If you feel a huge pull in front of
the thigh incorporate the kneeling
hip flexor stretch (below) into your
weekly maintenance work.
If you feel nothing or just a
gentle lengthening there is no
need to do any static stretches
of the hip flexors. The Running
Rewired workouts build in plenty
of dynamic mobility movement
to ensure you use the hip motion
you do have.2 / KNEELING HIP
FLEXOR STRETCH
Kneel on a pad or pillow making
sure to keep the thigh of the leg
you are kneeling on vertical.
Tuck your pelvis under (see the
posterior pelvic-tilt instruction in
the hip-mobility test above). Hold
this position for three minutes.
To increase the stretch position
the foot of your kneeling leg out to
the side a few inches (this will
rotate your thigh inward) before
moving into a posterior pelvic tilt.TRAINING