healthy-living |

Just Keep Swimming

I recently talked with someone at my local running store about my hip flexor injury, lamenting the fact that I haven’t been able to run without exacerbating it. She gave me the contact info of a local sports physical therapist that she said was excellent and went on to say that she tore her hip flexor so she knows what I’m going through. It was great to talk with someone who actually went through what I’m going through now. She recommended swimming, saying that it not only kept her from going crazy while she couldn’t run, but that it kept her in good cardio shape and brought her back to running in three months.

While three months seems like a long time, my goal is to be a life-long runner so I want to recovery the right way and if that means taking more time to strengthen my muscles and prevent future injuries then so be it. The woman went on to say that her therapist recommended one-leg bridges (a favorite pilates move of mine actually). She said to do three sets with ten leg-lifts on each side every day. A pain in the butt (ha!), but strengthening the glutes, strengthens the hips, both of which are common weak areas for women so it’s good to focus on those muscles anyway.

I’ve been in the gym a lot, doing pilates and lifting weights, working on my core and legs especially. My body has definitely grown tighter and stronger, although I haven’t seen much, if any, improvement in my hip flexor. So my new goal is to contact a sports therapist and jump in the pool as much as I can. I’m not going to give up. I will run again. Like Dory says – Just keep swimming! 🙂

Happy running!

2013: 04/14
CATEGORY: Cross Training (XT)
Fitness
Healthy Living
Healthy Running
Training
workout
TAGS: healthy-living
hip flexor
Injury
life-long runner
lifting weights
Pilates
Running
sports physical therapists
swimming
Training
XT
Leave a comment

Newton Running Clinic

I wrote a post a few months ago that highlighted Newton Running Shoes and their growing emergence on the running scene. Last week I went to a running clinic at a local running store named The Sneaker Factory that was sponsored by Newton. One of the guys running the clinic was Ian Adamson, adventure racer, ultrarunner, and Guinness World Record holder. He was a great guy, very friendly and I was able to chat with him for a while before the event began. We talked about why he thinks Newton’s are a better running shoe, why I didn’t necessarily need my Nikes (these were my questions, he never tried to push me into buying anything!), strength training for runners among other things.

There are a lot of articles, and more popping up every day, on the benefits of running in a “minimal” shoe, ie. a shoe that doesn’t have a thick heel that essentially throws off your running gait and makes your muscles over compensate for your altered gait thus increasing your chances for injury. I’m always a little incredulous when a new trend pops up and wait to see if a. this is something that would work for me and my body and b. to see if there’s more to it than just a fad following. But the more I read and talk to guys like Ian, the more I’m realizing that it’s time for me to make the switch. Ian also mentioned not switching 100% in the beginning, but combining your runs with maybe a mile at first in a minimal shoe with the rest of your mileage in your normal shoes. I’m sure there are other philosophies as well, but that sounded like a logical method to me!

In addition to chatting with Ian, he and his colleague took the group outside to practice some drills that essentially mimic how you should be running. These drills, with practice, should allow you to run the way your body is meant to rather than the heel striking way many of our bodies have been conditioned to run due to added heel support in the majority of running shoes. To find more on how to run naturally check out Newton’s Run Better page or the book Natural Running by Danny Abshire.

Happy Running! 🙂