Physio Room

Lifestyle Factors and Running Injuries

Injuries happen. They’re part of every sport or activity, and typically will happen to almost everyone at some point over their training career. Often when people step into our office, they tell us about the single movement that led to the ache or pain that they are experiencing. Unfortunately, except in the case of significant trauma (ex: NFL running back tears his ACL while being tackled) this is almost never the case. Overuse injuries, or even “tweaks” do not happen in a vacuum. They’re not caused by that one, single wrong movement. They are often caused by many, repetitive wrong movements and choices that could have been improved along the way. But what else impacts the severity or frequency of injuries we deal with?

There are many factors involved in almost every issue we face, and it is hard to determine exactly how much of a role each factor plays. Let’s explore some of the most important ones you should consider. 

Sleep
Prioritizing sleep goes a long way for many reasons and is a crucial aspect of injury prevention. Sleeping accelerates our recovery processes including recovery from inflammation, muscle repair and restocking cellular energy. Aside from being the prime time that our muscles and bones recover from the stressors of daily life, the recovery and rest for the brain and nervous system may be the most important piece of sleeping. Aim for eight hours of sleep per night as getting less correlates with an increase in injury risk. 

Nutrition
What we eat impacts our performance, recovery and how we feel. In general aim to make the majority of what you eat consist of whole food sources with plenty of vegetables and healthy fats. Yes, carbohydrates are important for energy, but don’t forget the protein. Most of the endurance athletes we work with are significantly under consuming protein for their body mass and activity level. For proper muscle recovery and repair we must eat an adequate amount of protein. Our general guideline is to aim for ~1g/lb of body weight per day.

Stress Management
How we manage our stress has a big impact on our ability to have the energy to train hard, and recover well. We all have things that cause stress in our lives, whether it be work, family dynamics, finances, traffic, traveling, you name it. What is important is that we have a strategy around combating these stressors with healthy outlets so that they do not wreak havoc on our bodies and nervous/immune systems. Running is a great outlet! Sleep, nutrition and hydration also impact this a great deal. Have you ever noticed that when you get stressed, you crave junk food? Me too! Unfortunately, the more we give into that temptation the more our body craves that outcome. 

Hydration
Fluid intake is another key aspect to injury prevention and recovery. Adequate hydration helps maintain soft tissue integrity during workouts and also helps clear waste from muscle tissue post workout. Pre and post workout hydration is crucial and coffee doesn’t count! Aim for a daily amount of at least half of your body weight in ounces of water. That’s 75oz for a 150 pound individual. Now, that’s a baseline to hit for everyone, even before factoring in training or activity level. Replace lost fluids in addition to this.  If you are exercising and sweating regularly it is generally a good idea to include some form of electrolyte replacement into the mix. Often, when doing a great job following the guidelines in the nutrition section above, we are under consuming sodium. We recommend sodium supplementation to many of our athletes. 

Movement
It is hard to quantify the importance that daily movement plays on our ability to be resilient from injury. What we do know is that individuals with sedentary jobs or lifestyles tend to lack mobility, range of motion, strength and tolerance to exercise much more than those who are moving often. Take the typical desk worker for example. Yes, it’s true that standing work stations are preferred over sitting, however just this one change alone is not enough! What’s important is to change positions often throughout the day and get our body into different shapes. Think about getting your hips, ankle, shoulder, spine etc. through a full range of motion for a few minutes and then return to your work. Remember, cliches don’t become cliches unless they are true… When it comes to mobility, if you don’t use it, you lose it. 

Before moving on let’s touch on positional errors. What we mean by this is finding ourselves in abnormal or non-optimal positions/postures throughout the day. Examples: standing with duck feet, feet turned outward, sitting in a slumped position over your keyboard or standing with your knees locked out throughout the day. These positions do not serve our tissue and joints well in the long term, though they may provide short term relaxation or stability. The more you can catch yourself and correct these throughout the day, the more natural being in a more optimal position will start to feel and you will tend to bias that way automatically! If you struggle with this, we can help.

Community
Without going down too deep of a rabbit hole – surround yourself with people that support the lifestyle you are attempting to lead. The old adage is that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time around. If you think about who those people are for you, do you like what you find? Your friend group, work circle, and training environment are all things where community and camaraderie make a big difference. Small modifications go a long way. 

We don’t recommend biting off more than you can chew in an effort to implement these things if you find holes in your day. Instead, make small changes, work to be consistent with them until you build a habit. Then implement another small change. 

Until next time, happy training. 

• Andrew

Rethinking Running Injuries – 4 Causes You Should Be Aware Of

In this post we are going to discuss three things related to running related injuries – Why they happen, how to manage them, and what to address to bounce back from them quickly. As we talked about in our last running blog Running: Expectations vs. Reality, running is one of the most common exercise activities in the world. Unfortunately, runners have a high prevalence of injuries with up to 80% of runners sustaining an injury in a given year. This number creeps even higher when we consider marathon running, where nearly 90% of marathoners experience an injury throughout their training cycle!

With advances in footwear and healthcare technology, as well as the increasing knowledge around training and nutrition guidelines, why then do injury rates remain so high in the sport of running?

Let’s explore four causes that lead to running related injuries that you should be aware of.

Training Errors
Training errors generally involve improper progression of the volume or intensity of one’s training. One of the most common training errors is simply doing too much, too soon. In general, the less experienced or conditioned you are the slower the process should be. However, having experience or being in shape doesn’t mean you can skip the process all together. Volume and intensity must be built slowly over time.  

Another important aspect that falls under training errors would be an incomplete training regimen. We often see runners who are missing a proper warm-up, cool down, and strength training program. We all struggle with not having enough time to do all of the things we want throughout the day or the week. Three things to not sweep under the rug when it comes to avoiding a running related injury would be the warm-up, cool down, and strength training routine.

Last but not least, we will touch on the importance of recovery. When we are training hard we have to provide the body with adequate time to rest and recover to reap the benefits of our training load. Building active recovery days into our schedule is an important factor to staying healthy and performing at our best ability level.

Movement Dysfunction
This item boils down to our ability to move our body through full ranges of motion without significant compensations. When discussing running specifically, it is important to focus on the feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine mobility. Limitations in one or more of these areas will alter our running mechanics and increase the likelihood that we sustain some sort of injury. These issues generally happen slowly over time as a result of not using the range of motion that we are capable of. 

Lifestyle Factors
It is complicated to determine how much of an impact our lifestyle plays into our ability to resist injury. What is not complicated is knowing that it is a major contributor! Which lifestyle factors are most important when it comes to reducing injury risk for runners? Here are a few factors to focus on: sleep, nutrition, stress management, hydration, daily movement, footwear selection, and positional errors. 

In general, the more dialed in you have each one of these factors, the more you will be able to challenge your body without breaking down. Each of these factors are areas that we address with our clients regularly.

External Factors
This section addresses the variables that are out of your individual control. Sometimes injuries are accidents, such as slipping or falling during a run. As a result, we are now in a position to treat and recover from an unexpected injury.

Another external factor we must take into consideration is our competitive nature or the amount of adrenaline we exert. We’ve all had times where we get into the heat of the moment, push ourselves a little harder than we were prepared for, but don’t notice any negative repercussions until after the fact. Remember, the more you prepare your body with the items mentioned above, the less this external factor will play a role in leading to injury. 

We hope this article educated you on running-related injuries and provided guidance in how to best avoid and manage injuries moving forward. 

If you’re interested in discussing this topic in more detail or if you’re struggling with an injury and seeking support, please feel free to call us at 720.316.9974 or email Dr. Andrew directly at andrew@physioroomco.com

Running: Expectations v. Reality

So you want to be a runner? Go out, let the sun and breeze hit your face, and cruise down the path without a care in the world. Sounds nice. Maybe you have a race in mind. You’re going to run a local 5K/10K and have a nice after race beer. You’ll get your T-shirt, finisher’s medal, maybe even brunch with some friends on the way home. These are the ideal scenarios, but not always how things play out.

It’s no secret that running is one of the most popular forms of exercise around the globe. Every year, millions of people lace up their shoes and go run. The unfortunate reality however, is that the vast majority of those people wind up injured every year as well. What follows is often worse, those nagging injuries get ignored or trained around and lead to even more issues.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the more popular races, the marathon (26.2 miles).
– There are approximately 30 million regular runners in the US.
– There are over 1,100 marathons held each year in the US.
– ~90% of marathon runners sustain an injury during training.
– Each year, ~80% of runners sustain an injury that forces them to stop running.
– There is an inverse relationship between the cost of a running shoe (the US running shoe industry rakes in about $4 billion a year, by the way) and the likelihood of a runner getting injured. In other words, the more expensive your running shoe, the more likely you are to get hurt. “So which shoes should I buy?” you might ask… Well, that’s a topic for another day. My recommendation for now, just wear what is comfortable to you and don’t worry about the price, brand, features, or what your friend is wearing.

So now you might be wondering, how can you make sure you are able to run without being injured? Great question! Because let’s be honest, telling a runner to stop running is like telling them to stop breathing or telling a fish to stop living in water… That’s just crazy!
There actually is a way for you to run, enjoy it, get good at it and even stay healthy. Our running checklist below is a good place to start.
In this checklist we dive into the 12 essential areas that can impact your ability to run effectively. From head to toe, warm up to cool down, we’ve got you covered. To see our complete list click the link below!
Get Checklist Now

Stay tuned for more running related posts as the weather continues to warm up!
Stay safe & stay healthy, 
Andrew

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

A Bulletproof Core: Find and Engage the Multifidus

How has your core been feeling lately?  Were you able to find and engage the lower abdominal muscle to give you more support during exercise?  Do you have a better understanding on how to contract your pelvic floor? In this post, we’re going to discuss how to find and engage the multifidus, a key component of a strong core.

What is the multifidus?
The multifidus is a diamond shaped muscle in your lower back that sits deep to your spinal erector muscles. While these muscles are often quick to kick in to help stabilize, they get tight very quickly and can cause  compression in your back.  The  question then becomes – how do we find that deep muscle and activate it?  No worries, I’ve got your back. (see what I did there?)

Finding the multifidus
Start in a standing position and put a hand on each side of your lower back right over those spinal erector muscles.  Lean backwards slightly and feel those muscles contract and tighten under your fingers.  Now, come back up to neutral and tip just slightly forward and you should feel those erector muscles relax; if you keep leaning forward they will tighten back up to support you from falling over. 

Come back up to the point where you feel those erector muscles are nice and soft and sink your fingers deep to feel the multifidus.  From this point, try to come an inch taller without letting those erector muscles get tight. 

Activating the multifidus 
There are a few different ways to activate this muscle. You can either engage by practicing a few different positions or engage as prep before an activity that involves support such as carrying or lifting.

I encourage you to try these exercises and consider incorporating into your overall fitness routine. If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me at amber@physioroomco.com

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

Train Smart, Run Healthy: Understanding Training Errors

In today’s post we are going to talk about training errors. Training errors generally involve improper progression of the volume or intensity of one’s training. One of the most common causes of injury is simply doing too much, too soon. In general, the less experienced or conditioned you are the slower the process should be to ramp into training. However, having experience or being in shape doesn’t mean you can skip the process altogether. 

Follow the 10% Rule
If you have taken long periods off from running, your running volume should be built back up slowly over time. General recommendations are to follow the “10% Rule” or to increase your mileage approximately 10% per week over time. There is evidence to suggest that trained runners can advance a little quicker than that, though injury rates increase dramatically as the percentage of volume nears or exceeds 30% week over week.

This is extremely important when it comes to reducing the risk of sustaining an injury, and one of the first questions we ask our clients. Generally, our cardiovascular fitness improves more quickly than the body tissues can keep up with, which makes it challenging to hold ourselves back. The primary reason to progress gradually over time is to allow the tissues to adapt and build our structural integrity. This means our muscles, joints, bones, tendons, ligaments, etc.

Develop a Complete Training Routine
Another important aspect that falls under training errors would be an incomplete training routine. We often see runners who are missing a proper warm-up, cool-down, and strength training program. We all struggle with not having enough time to do all of the things we want throughout the day or the week; though these three things should not be skipped. 
While strength training builds tolerance in our tissues to the rigors of running, warm-ups are pivotal to priming the body for the movement and strain you’re about to endure. Cool-downs on the other hand normalize tissue function through movement while reducing heart and respiratory rate. 

Recovery
Last but not least, we will touch on the importance of recovery. When we are training hard we have to provide the body with adequate time to rest and recover to reap the benefits of our training. Building active recovery days into our schedule is an important concept.

In high level running it is not uncommon to see training schedules that involve running all seven days of the week. For most people, we do not recommend this, but rather scale the frequency back to 5-6 days at most in order to reduce injury risk. That doesn’t mean you should do nothing on those other days of the week. Continuing to be active, work on mobility drills, or resistance training would be good uses of your time when you are not running. Even when you are training consecutive days throughout the week, each training session should not be extremely taxing. One of the sure fire ways to increase your risk of an injury is by trying to make every run intense. Variety in training is important to allow you to continue training for a lifetime.

What Is Your Core And How Can You Activate It?

Have you been told to “turn on” your core when you exercise? Do you struggle to understand where these muscles are and how to effectively activate? If so, you’re not alone. Let’s discuss what your core is and how to activate so you can become stronger, healthier, and more resilient to injury.

What is your core?
What muscles do you think make up your core? There are a lot of muscles in the abdominal area that are considered part of the core. The main purpose of the core is to provide stability without limiting mobility.  If you contract the upper abdominals and then try to bend backwards, you will find it hard to complete the same range of motion if you were not contracting these muscles.

The four muscle groups that make up the core are the transverse abdominis, the multifidi, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor. The purpose of these muscles is to support you while you move and to manage the pressure within your abdomen and pelvis while you perform different activities. When these muscles are not working optimally, symptoms such as low back pain, urinary incontinence and difficulty progressing with movements may develop.

How can you activate your core?
1.) Focus on the transverse abdominis
To activate, you may have been told to suck your belly button in towards your spine or rotate your pelvis so when you are laying on your back you flatten your spine into the floor. While these are good tips, I tend to find that they often cause you to over contract and engage extra muscles. The cue I prefer is to “bring your hip bones together”.  While you won’t actually generate any motion, this helps to bring the contraction lower in your abdomen and keep your upper abs and glutes from overpowering.  If you bring your fingers about 2 inches in towards your belly button from your hip bones, you should feel this area firm up without pushing up with the contraction. 

2.) Focus on the pelvic floor
While it tends to be talked about more with females, both females and males have a pelvic floor. However,  the anatomy changes slightly and therefore, cueing on how to activate is adjusted.  The one cue most people are used to hearing is to stop the sensation of having to use the restroom.  This direction may cause you to over engage and can lead to bladder dysfunction. 

To engage these muscles, you want to stop the sensation of flatulence, and “zip” that contraction forward.  This should be a gentle contraction and you should feel supported without feeling like you are working too hard.  You can then add the above transverse abdominis contraction to create a well-supportive sling.

I encourage you to try these exercises and consider incorporating into your overall fitness routine. Stay tuned for part two of this blog series, which will cover the remaining muscle groups that make up your core. If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me at amber@physioroomco.com

What Are The 7 Most Common Running-Related Injuries?

As humans, we were built to withstand running for long periods of time at various speeds. However, this highly repetitive activity inherently involves a significant level of impact, leading to a plethora of injuries. Have you met a runner that hasn’t dealt with some sort of injury? Odds are you haven’t. The majority of injuries that runners sustain involve areas ranging from the lumbar spine (lower back) to the foot.

The seven most common injuries runners experience include the following:

1. Runner’s Knee (AKA patellofemoral pain syndrome, or PFPS)
2. Achilles Tendonitis/Tendinopathy
3. Hamstring Issues
4. Plantar Fasciitis
5. Shin Splints
6. Iliotibial (IT) Band Syndrome 
7. Stress Fractures

For good measure, I would like to add to this list an eighth item, lower back pain (LBP). I have worked with countless runners who experience lower back pain, often in conjunction with one of the other pain points listed above. That brings us to a critical focus point: injuries are never treated in isolation. What do I mean by this?  When someone comes to the clinic with knee pain, we know that only treating the knee will not solve the problem. When treating any patient, our first goal is to first help them manage the symptoms so they can remain as active, and healthy, as possible in their discipline. Once the symptoms are under control, we aim to identify the root cause of the issue. Lastly, the goal is to educate the client on how to best manage the issue independently to prevent it from recurring. 

Treating the seven common injuries listed above generally comes down to managing the runner’s training load. Take care of the easy “wins” first so you can then focus on areas that may need more attention such as adequate mobility, strength work, gait analysis, and more.

Are you battling a running injury? I encourage you to give us a call at 720.316.9974 for a Free Discovery Session to see how we can help you resolve your injury once and for all.

Zach Ripley 2 years ago

Improving Your Squat - Part 1

Improve your squat with Dr. Andrew Fix of the Physio Room! This is the first in a 3 part series. 

Lower Leg Mobilization For Runners - Anterior Tibialis

The anterior tibialis! If you've never spent time on this muscle in your lower leg and you're a runner.. well, you just might want to start! Too often we give our quads and calves most of the attention and we miss other areas of the lower leg.  Dr. Andrew will walk you through this simple anterior tibialis mobilization! Give it a try. 

90/90 Hip Stretch

The 90/90 hip stretch is one of our favorite hip mobilizations for after exercise and especially for our runners out there. Get into the routine of doing this one and you will steadily improve your hip mobility, keep those hips healthy and decrease risk of exercise or sport related injuries down the road.

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

Why you should STOP rolling out your IT band with Dr. Andrew Fix

Rolling out your IT band isn't necessarily a bad thing.. but we find that most people actually don't need to focus on this area to solve the problem they're trying to fix. The problem is likely stemming from your TFL upstream. In this video, Dr. Andrew will explain why this is more effective and why you should stop wasting so much of your time on your IT band.

Hip Strengthening Exercise for Lower Back Pain / Hip Pain / Knee Pain

This is a great hip strengthening exercise that we like to give many of our clients that experience lower back pain, hip pain, knee pain.. or maybe they're cyclists, runner or sit at a a desk all day. So really, this exercise can benefits almost everyone. All you'll need is a small band! This exercise will strengthen your hip flexors which is going to make it easier when you're running, cycling and might even help reduce some of that tightness you feel in the front of your hip.

Great Lower Body Exercise For Runners With Dr. Andrew Fix | Physio Room Co

Are you a runner and looking for some lower body exercises to strengthen your ankles and calves? Try this exercise! It's called the "Hover Walk".

How To Strengthen Your Calves

We’ve talked about how to stretch the calves (check out previous videos if you missed it) but today is all about strengthening those muscles! So find a slightly elevated area and give these exercises a try!

How to PROPERLY stretch your calf!

We have two sets of calf muscles; the gastrocnemius and the soleus. The gastroc is the muscle most of us think of as our calf and the soleus is a longer muscle that runs underneath. When we stretch the calf we want to make sure we're targeting both muscles because they both come together to form the achilles tendon. In today's video, Dr. Andrew will walk you through how to properly stretch both calf muscles!

Dorsiflexion & Plantarflexion Ankle Mobilization (No equipment needed)

Today’s ankle mobilization can be done exactly where you are with no equipment so kick off your shoes & go through this one with us! This technique will improve ankle dorsiflexion (the ability to bring your toes closer to your shin) as well as plantarflexion (pointing your toes forward). Both are important for proper ankle function and stabilization!

How to Safely Return to Running Postpartum

Running tends to be a common exercise for moms postpartum because they can take their baby with them, it doesn’t require a ton of equipment and it’s an easy exercise to get back into. However, it’s important to know that your core pelvic floor need to be able to handle the force that is coming from the ground so you can run safely and injury free.

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

Tight Adductors? Try This

There’s a difference between feeling tight and actually having shorten muscles that are tight. Today, Dr. Amber will help you determine which one you might be experiencing in your adductors, or inner thigh, and if you might just need to get your core working to take some of the load off. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Zach Ripley 2 years ago

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

Lock In Your Mentality

The final piece to our Ready to Run Checklist is to find your lock in mentality! We're talking about the mental aspect of your training. What are the things you're doing to prep yourself mentally for your run? If you have a system set in place for yourself, you have a much higher chance of setting yourself up for success on your runs. Not only will you be in the right head space but you'll get a better quality run in. Allow Dr. Andrew to explain further in this video and be sure to check out the rest of our Ready to Run Checklist if you haven't done so already. Each video is packed with valuable information that could really improve your running.

Strength Training For Runners

Is strength training important for runners? Yes, absolutely! It will improve your running ability, make you more resilient to injury, improve your running economy resulting in you running faster and you'll be able to run longer feeling better. Allow Dr. Andrew to take you through our recommendations when it comes to strength training.

How to Properly Warm-up & Cool Down for EVERY Run

One of the best ways to not only prevent injury when you run but to simply run more comfortably is to go through a proper warm-up and cool down before and after every single run. Most people believe the first mile of their run is their warm-up but there are a few exercises you'll definitely want to add to your warm-up routine to better prepare your body for the repetitiveness of running. The good news is, it really only takes about 5 minutes. Dr. Andrew will take you through his full warm up routine as well as cool down so you can feel your absolute best the next time you head out on your run.

Training At Your Pace

Today is all about not comparing yourself to the person next to you and training at your own pace. Often times we push ourselves harder than our bodies are ready for and increase injury risk when we run because we're trying to keep up with a pace we're not yet ready for. This helps us to train smarter. Allow yourself to improve over time but remember to stay at YOUR pace, not someone else's.

Progress Slowly With Your Training

Welcome back to our Ready to Run Checklist with Dr. Andrew Fix. Today’s video is about knowing what you are and are not ready for when it comes to your running routine or training. This idea of progressing slowly just may be the most important item on our checklist. In this video, Dr. Andrew will provide you with some general recommendations you can use to decrease your risk of a running related injuries.

Proper Head Position When Running

Believe it or not, your head position when you run can either make you a more efficient runner or a less efficient runner. In today's video, Dr. Andrew will walk you through a drill that will allow you to better control your head position. Apply this principle to your next run and notice how much more efficient you feel.

Spine Mobility

Today is all about SPINE MOBILITY and why it's actually pretty important for runners!

Hip Mobility & Squats

Welcome back to our Ready to Run Checklist with Dr. Andrew Fix. Today is all about hip mobility and squats. Can you squat with full range of motion? Are your hips too tight? Are your glutes firing? We'll discuss that and more in today's video as well as give you a test to see just how good your squat mechanics really are and if your hips are what's actually holding you back.

Ankle Mobility

Welcome back to our Ready to Run Checklist with Dr. Andrew Fix - today is all about ankle mobility and this is important because anyone that does activities on their feet (which is almost everyone) needs adequate mobility in their ankles for going up and down hills, stepping on and off curbs and sidewalks, the list goes on. If we don't have proper mobility here then we can be setting ourselves up for problems.

Bracing Your Spine

Welcome back to our 12 part Ready to Run Checklist series! In today's video we talk about the importance of bracing your spine when we run. Common faults we often see in runners is an over-arched lumbar or a rounded thoracic spine and we lose that relationship between our spine and hips.

Foot Mobility & Strength

Welcome back to our 12 part Ready to Run Checklist series! In today's video we talk about the importance of foot mobility & strength as it relates to running as well as give you a few exercises that you can do on your own to improve overall foot function.

Listen To Your Body

Welcome back to our 12 part Ready to Run Checklist series! In today's video we talk about the first item on the checklist; Listen to your body! This is such a key component to training whether you're training for a running event or training in general.

Post Pregnancy Plank Progression, Part 3

Part 3: At this point you should be ready to move into the final plank progression. Dr. Amber walks you through the correct way to hold a plank to decrease your risk of over-compensation and put you in the best possible position for maximum core strengthening. She will also show you ways to modify this final plank position if you still find it to be difficult. If you're interested in a one-on-one session with Dr. Amber please reach out at amber@physioroomco.com

Post Pregnancy Plank Progression, Part 2

Part 2: Many core-strengthening exercise programs for woman after having a baby includes movements like Planks - which are great! However, being able to do a plank effectively after pregnancy isn’t always feasible. In this Part 2 video, Dr. Amber walks you through more plank progressions that will help you begin the process of building up that core strength so you can go back to normal exercise while putting your body in a more optimal position.

Post Pregnancy Plank Progression, Part 1

Many core-strengthening exercise programs for woman after having a baby includes movements like Planks - which are great! However, being able to do a plank effectively after pregnancy isn’t always feasible. In this video, Dr. Amber walks you through some plank progressions that will help you begin the process of building up that core strength so you can go back to normal exercise while putting your body in a more optimal position.

Nicole Scott 2 years ago

Strength Training for Runners

If you're a runner, strength training is a must. Especially if you are prepping for a long distance run like a marathon. As a Physical Therapist, if I were to build a strength training routine for a runner I would focus on hitting the major muscle groups that are going to support you while you're trying to run. These would include movements like the squat, deadlift, lunge variations, single leg deadlifts, calf raises, suitcase carry and step downs. I would recommend strength training 2 days a week during marathon prep but of course, that can vary depending on the athlete. Hope this video helps you prep well for your next long distance race! Questions? Contact us at ✉️info@physioroomco.com 📱720-316-9974 - ✨Our 3-step process to your recovery✨ We use a personalized 1:1 approach to  1. Relieve your pain  2. Identify and address the underlying root cause 3. Give you tools to stay pain-free long term. - 💻We also offer virtual consults and treatments. 📱DM us for more information

Managing Aches & Pains

Aches and pains aren't a requirement as a runner (although it might sometimes feel like it is) - but they will pop up from time and time and you'll want to know how to manage those! Here's a few things to consider: 👉 Be sure you're getting in a proper warm up and cool down 👉 Post run mobility work 👉 Getting plenty of sleep 👉 Fueling properly If these things aren't helping then that's when we recommend reaching out to a trained expert who can help like a physical therapist, a massage therapist, chiropractor.. someone you trust who can help you get back to running without pain! Questions? Contact us at ✉️info@physioroomco.com 📱720-316-9974 - ✨Our 3-step process to your recovery✨ We use a personalized 1:1 approach to  1. Relieve your pain  2. Identify and address the underlying root cause 3. Give you tools to stay pain-free long term. - 💻We also offer virtual consults and treatments. 📱DM us for more information

Recovering from Long Runs

If you're training for a marathon, you're doing a LOT of running. This means that you will need to incorporate a good amount of recovery with all the volume you're putting in. 👉 Be sure to incorporate a proper warm up and cool down 👉 Be sure you're fueling appropriately 👉 Be sure you're getting enough sleep! 8 hour (or more) if your schedule allows for it. Questions? Contact us at ✉️info@physioroomco.com 📱720-316-9974 - ✨Our 3-step process to your recovery✨ We use a personalized 1:1 approach to  1. Relieve your pain  2. Identify and address the underlying root cause 3. Give you tools to stay pain-free long term. - 💻We also offer virtual consults and treatments. 📱DM us for more information