“I have hip pain. Well, it’s sorta my hip… or maybe my back too? I’m not sure.” This is a comment that we hear often. Where does the hip start? And the backstop? Is my hip on the front too? What about that side part? Welcome to the pelvis. The pelvis serves as the connection between the body and legs, which is so important for a runner… because you need to use your legs to move your body!
Cupping originated as a traditional, holistic Eastern Chinese medicine approach to muscle recovery and healing in which the goal was to balance the “qi” in the body as well as the “yin and yang” (positive and negative). However, more recently it has grown in popularity among a wide variety of athletes. In Western medicine, the cupping technique is described as creating a negative pressure to increase blood flow to the targeted skeletal muscles.
Flossing, or compression band therapy, is a tool that sports medicine professionals can use to assist with other manual therapy techniques. The “floss” is a latex, elastic band that is wrapped around a body part with varying degrees of tension. It cleans and clears muscles of irritation or congestion, improving muscle flexibility, joint range of motion, pain sensation, and blood transfer.
I’ve had scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, much longer than I’ve been a runner. While it’s tempting to focus more on the structural abnormality, scoliosis itself presents with a variety of symptoms. Examining the symptoms themselves is the most important course when you’re dealing with scoliosis in runners.
“I’ve got a bad back!” Low back pain is a frequent complaint and is common in runners. Sound like you? When experiencing low back pain, it’s tempting to blame it all on your “bad back,” but the cause of discomfort is not always where you feel the pain. Often, the true cause of low back pain lies in the nearby joints. This is especially true if you experience low back pain after running but not during daily life.
Patellar mobilization is used on clients that have a poorly tracking patella. Tracking issues can be caused by bad gait mechanics (usually related to weakness), but it can also be caused by pathologies such as poor alignment or arthritis.
When you’re on crutches, it’s already frustrating enough not to able to run and do what you enjoy, so the frustration that comes with moving about your day to day life is amplified.
Tendon injuries can be incredibly frustrating. While you can have a lot of improvements quickly – a decrease in the amount of pain (less intense or severe), improved flexibility and strength, and better running – the pain can linger for quite awhile.
Pain is so individual. It’s felt and processed differently by everyone. But what causes pain in the short and in the long term? Why does pain become chronic? Pain has many different elements and can broadly be described as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.”
If sitting is the new “smoking” health risk, sleep is the new performance-enhancing tool we don’t focus on enough. Getting enough sleep is essential for everyone to function, yet in our busy work/training lives, sleep is usually one of the last things we make time for. For runners and athletes, it’s the easiest recovery tool you most likely aren’t utilizing. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine states that adults require 7-9 hours of sleep for optimal performance. Performance doesn’t just mean exercise; it also includes the mental and physical performance needed to get through your daily routine.
