Running is bad for you, no really, it is. Keep doing it, and you are going to break. Maybe you should stop, for good. Have your attention yet?
In an average year, 65% of all runners are injured. One running injury occurs for about every 100 hours of running, and runners miss about 5-10 percent of their workouts due to injury (‘Incidence and Severity of Injury Following Aerobic Training Programs Emphasising Running, Racewalking, or Step Aerobics,’ Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 25(5), p. S81, 1993).
One of the main reasons is because it takes place in a single plane of motion (moving forward), is every often done after sitting all day (which shortens hip flexors from excessive time in the seated position) and causes losses of flexibility from the repetitive stress nature of the activity. Keep in mind “muscles that are used frequently can shorten and become dominant in a given motor pattern (Principles of Corrective Exercise, Clark, 2010).” This doesn’t even begin to take into account how traditional running shoes and incorrect running form factor into the mix.
If a muscles shortens from repetitive stress, you begin to alter joint angles. Keep in mind if a change in alignment occurs at one joint, changes in alignment of other joints MUST occur in other ones. Tighten a hip flexor, lumbar spine begins to hyper extend. When that happens, you can change knee angles from the hip because of the angle of the pelvis.
If you hit this joint jackpot, you may even begin to over pronate. No amount of stability in a shoe, orthotic or any other short term fix will correct this.
Potential Injuries from Muscle Imbalances
So, according to the graphic, running, trashes your body, and changes joint alignment, sign me up!
Can’t you cheat the system?
Yes, to an extent. Orthotics, stability shoes and more intervals will help in the short term, but ultimately will do more harm than good because you aren’t addressing the root of what might be causing these issues. This includes the new fix dejuer, physio tape. This method will work, BUT ONLY if you are doing corrective core strength work to fix what’s wrong. Unfortunately, mummification of your body with tape won’t fix what the root cause. Maybe you should stop, for good.
True or False: Cardiovascular fitness is the biggest limitor to running performance.
Well, you need your heart and lungs to work properly, efficiently, etc to run. Running is an aerobic activity. So, how could this not be true? Well, this is FALSE.
The biggest limiting factor affecting running performance is Joint Stability. Your heart and lungs can take a lot more punishment than your joints can. Postural alignment is the key to athletic performance. The better it is, the better your neuromuscular coordination and core strength.
Neuromuscular Coordination (NC) is essentially a measure of how much muscle can your brain turn on during multi-joint movements. For runners this means how well the muscles of your trunk, hips, knees & ankles work together to propel you forward.
NC is based on any perceived threats to the musculoskeletal system. The higher the perceived threat, the more guarded the response, the lower the output allowed by the nervous system. The reason being is that your body will only allow you to exhibit the amount of force your joint stability allows. Less stability, less force production. You can’t fire a canon from a canoe. I don’t make up the rules people, I just play by them!
If you do have poor core strength and joint stability, the higher the perceived threat levels from any postural distortions, muscle imbalances, lacks of flexibility or core strength. The more muscle fibers your brain can turn on when you move, the stronger that given movement will be, the higher your quality of training and ultimately, the better you will perform in an event.
You can’t do intervals and hill repeats if you’re in pain. This is why Core strength is the key to maximizing performance. If running isn’t the best way to become a faster runner, what is? Get off the track/pavement/trails and get into the gym.
Core Strength & Functional Training: A Runners BFF
All of the so called “experts” constantly extoll the virtues of core strength. They all say we need it. But what is it? What does the core actually do?
Core strength is your body’s ability to stabilize joints (think joint support during the foot strike phase of running), decelerate movement (think controlling your body running downhill) and produce force with strength, balance, power. Your body is designed to move as an integrated unit stabilized by your core muscles. Long story short this means that every time a joint moves, something somewhere else in your body is providing a foundation of strength for that to happen.
Even something as simple as brushing your teeth has several joint stability components:
The muscles in the wrist and fingers working together to hold and move the brush. Your forearm muscles holding your wrist up. Biceps bending the elbow so the brush can get to your teeth. Rotator cuff rotating your arm while your chest/shoulder muscles moves your arm forward. Your obliques stabilizing your trunk so it doesn’t move all over the place while the arm moves the brush around. The neck muscles keeping your head still.
None of this can happen without an integrated set of muscular contractions working together to produce movement. Yes, core strength can even help you brush your teeth better. Especially if you try to do it on one leg!
Hmmm, just like when you run……. I had to bring this back around somehow! You have to give a few points for creativity here. GIVE THEM. NOW!!
Since running is a single leg strength/power dominant activity, single leg functional training will make you a better runner. Single Leg Exercises activate more stabilizer muscle than 2-legged, have a ton of functional carry over to running and don’t require anything other than body weight to perform.
“Functional Training on a regular basis can significantly reduce injuries by 75% and training days lost to injury by 90%,” says Mark Alexander, Physiotherapist for the Australian Triathlon National Team.
So in the beginning of this running literary diatribe, you were told running is horrible for you. You need more core strength. Brushing your teeth can be a core strength exercise but you haven’t been told what the best ways to do this are. I bet you’re wondering what the best way is to avoid total body structural meltdown? Well, long story short, effective strength training for runners is ANYTHING. DONE. STANDING.
This is the most effective way to build the necessary structural stability to run safely and perform at a high level. “Sitting on a solid surface as you exercise, with a machine dictating the way you move can increase the pressure in your lumbar disc region (low back) up to 90%,” says “Supertraining” author Mel Siff.
“Seated exercises always impose a greater load on the lumbar spinal discs than equivalent standing exercise. Even without an added load, sitting with the back maintaining its neutral curvatures increases the lumbar disc pressure by about 40%. This is why standing exercise is a superior approach.”
This means throw out the leg presses (trashes lumbar spine), get rid of the hamstring curls (hyperextends the lumbar spine) and crunches (causes spinal flexion that is detrimental to disc health). Add in rear foot elevated squats (Bulgarian Split Squats), single leg pushing/pulling, lunges, single leg bridges and pretty much anything that allows you to challenge trunk stability while moving the arms and legs together.
“When we stand on one leg, as in a one leg squat, we engage three muscles that we don’t use in a two leg squat,” says the ”The Case for Single Limb Training” author Michael Boyle.
If you do this, you will stimulate your nervous system MORE, build a much better basis of functional movement, increase single leg balance, improve neuromuscular coordination, make it easier to acquire new skills, and best of all, run stronger and last longer!
*Fitness tip provided by Al Painter, NASM CPT, CES, PES. The Founder and President of INTEGRATE Performance Fitness in Mountain View.
**Al has been named the “Best Bay Personal Trainer” by CitySports Magazine, as well as having been selected for a “People’s Choice Award” in the Palo Alto Daily. INTEGRATE has also been called “Northern California’s Best Fitness Facility” by Competitor Magazine.
