For the runners AND the not so runners!

Are you a runner? ... if so you are going to want to read this. If youre not a runner youre still going to want to read this as it is applicable to all !

When we run SO many of us experience major discomfort and in so many different ways its actually scary to think how such a "meant to be" natural movement is so difficult for many of us to achieve. There are many contributing reasons for this but primarily to blame is our "new" daily lifestyles we have adopted over the millions of years. In other words we are ruining our bodies natural functional patterns, the way in which we are MEANT to move as apposed to the way we FORCE our bodies to move nowadays.

An analogy for you, many of you will role your eyes but just read this. Millions of years ago, when neanderthals/ our ancestors essentially used to rome the earth - they never really used to SIT the way that we do today. Many of you will go ahhh yes but surely they still sat down! Of course they would, very sporadically for short moments AND when they used to sit they would be on their haunches VS what we have today called chairs. Imagine we had to sit behind our desks on our haunches ... how long do you think you would last ? 1minute ? maybe 3 at a push ? ... The human body was NOT BUILT to sit the way we do today. You go sit on your bed and try the typical cross leg sitting... it takes me about 1 minute and I start feeling awkward and uncomfortable and the reason for this is because when we sit our bodies start switching off a whole host of muscle groups that we usually use to keep us upright because we were not built to sit. We were built for movement.

What is the relevance here? These ancestors of ours on average would've had the most functional, most natural raw form of movement. They never had any negative influences that we do today, they were ALWAYS moving, they were always forced to be functional, they had animals to hunt, they had food to catch, they had to fight, they had to follow the seasons to follow the food sources. They had no choice but to MOVE. The saying movement is life could never be more true. It is now the goal to try and get back to these roots and fortunately we have the means of exercise and modern day gyms to help us achieve this.

If you look at this picture above, this gives you a good understanding of how our FUNCTIONAL patterns work. We have opposite sides/ muscle groups that MUST work together in order to provide us with a natural and functional stride. This does not only apply to running but SO many other aspects of life and movement.

The body works in "slings" for example... your right inner thigh muscles (adductors) work DIRECTLY with your left region of your core (obliques) ... how cool is that? I find it very fascinating that essentially there has to be a massive chain reaction of muscle contractions from left to right/ right to left to give us functional movement.

This is where the issue comes into play with running. This sling/ chain of muscle groups can very easily become slack/ not stimulate like it should and this introduces a whole host of issues. Due to the "sling" of muscles becoming non-responsive /working in the way they are supposed to our bodies create a compensatory pattern.

A compensatory pattern is the bodies way of using the incorrect muscle groups to provide the movement. Example, you have a kyphotic (very rounded shoulder blades) posture ... this will prevent your shoulder blades from being able to naturally lock back, this then in turn inhibits your rib cage's ability to rotate efficiently, now what happens that you can't rotate your rib cage properly ? Firstly your diaphragm (lungs) are effected because this will not allow you to inhale and expand your rib cage to its maximum capacity, secondly due to the fact that you can't rotate as you should, your obliques (muscles mentioned above in the "sling") and lats are usually un responsive and don't really contract to help your body rotate. They are a vital part of the functional chain. What happens now when those specific muscle groups don't work? Your body starts to compensate by forcing other muscle groups to take on the work load that they either shouldn't be doing in the first place OR they are already doing but now working 10 times harder.

If you are one of those that ALWAYS have a certain muscle group that ends up cramping/fatiguing 30 minutes in or even 5 minutes in this is your main reason why. These muscle groups are becoming exhausted very quickly because they are over working, carrying the load and work that another muscle group should be doing. This is one of the good tell tail signs that your body is compensating.

It's never too late to start breaking down years of bad habits, releasing certain muscle groups whilst strengthening the ones that need it.

If youre interested in finding out how YOUR body moves, check out my services page for the Biomechanics Screening section.

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