Resistance Stretching and Running Article

On the Innovative Body Solutions website there is a new article on resistance stretching. The article comes from Vogue magazine so unless you want to buy a copy of the magazine, you may want to read it there. It is authored by Elizabeth Weil, who wrote this article on Dara Torres for the New York Times and is the author of "Age is Just a Number" a new book on Olympic swimmer and Dara Torres. Of course it was Dara Torres' resistance stretching routine and success at the Olympics that brought a lot of publicity to resistance stretching.

Here is a link to a previous post I made with links to many other posts on resistance stretching.

Elizabeth Weil mentions that she had been a runner for ten years starting in her teens. As she is approaching 40 years old, she decided she wanted to become a runner again and run as fast as she had when she was younger. She was fortunate to get stretched by Anne Tierney and Steve Sierra. Innovative Body Solutions is their site and they are also Dara Torres personal stretchers. In other words they are the best in the business.

In the article Tierney says, "We are troubleshooters. We'll look you over and figure out where your trouble spots are. It's usually a small chain of imbalances that are holding you back. Once we figure those out, everything will open up."

The two stretchers noticed that one of Elizabeth's hips was higher than the other and one muscle making up her quads was not properly firing and they proceeded to go through two hours of stretching all over her body so as to fix her imbalances. It is an interesting read particularly as it relates resistance stretching to running.

I did go to a resistance stretcher last fall and had some good runs afterwards that continued as I did resistance stretching on my own. However I have not been doing it for the past month. Why? I have been doing something similar in application but more directed at my own imbalances. I have been pushing my legs, from my hips, against resistance (although I am not moving the leg through the resistance). This is what is ultimately balancing out my hips to a level that I haven't had in 25 years. I think this is why parts of resistance stretching were working for me. I was starting to get at my stuck hips. Whether you call it resistance stretching, Muscle Energy Technique, leveraging, or whatever I don't care. What I care about is that something is definitely working.

I am still slowly going over the DVDs on The Malalignment Syndrome: diagnosis and treatment of common pelvic and back pain, I haven't used their tests to figure out what is imbalanced with my hips, but I have been directing the "pushing" I was already doing with the guidance and direction from the DVDs so that I have an idea of the why and how of what I have been doing. It is interesting to note that Dr. Wolf Schamberger who developed this technique is a former 2:20 marathoner who used this to fix his own imbalances.

Although it is my left hip that usually is the "sore hip" I think that my right hip is the hip with an upslip. That means that it is higher than my left hip (which explains why this is my short leg) and probably why my left leg takes more of the stress (and reacts with its own twisting) when I run. To correct this I bend the right leg at the knee and I push the right leg against the pressure of my arms. I don't push it as hard as I was doing on my own. Then for the left leg I pull the left knee towards my chest as I resist against the pressure with my arms. Both of these are exercises I had discovered on my own but now I know the how and why of doing them (and which leg to do them on). I also am starting a few exercises for the rotations of my hip (one is farther forward than the other). Is it working? I have already mentioned that I feel better than I have in 25 years when not running. As my hips come into a better balance all the aches and pains as well as tension in my muscles throughout my body from feet to upper back seem to be leaving. In basic terms, I feel loose and I am not spending my day trying to figure out how to get rid of the pains and imbalances that I normally feel. I also don't pay much attention to my body being out of balance as I feel more solid and steady in posture.

As for running? I took a test run yesterday at the Freeze Your Buns 5k race. I did this race to see if my hips would stiffen at a faster pace of running. I must say despite a slow time compared to previous years of racing, that this is the best I have felt in a race in years. Was it perfect? No, but I was so much more balanced that I am used to and I felt like I was running smoothly and with a proper running motion. I haven't felt that good in a long time! I just hope that the path I am on continues, because I would like to see how I can really do as a runner when I am not fighting my own body as I run.

The other thing I continue to do each day is the Turkish get ups with my kettlebells. This exercise is helping my hips strengthen and increases the mobility through the movement of my hips. The funny thing is I used to spend hours a day trying to figure out what was making my body so uncomfortable and trying to relieve the discomfort. I now am spending hardly any time at all, just a few things thoughout the day and I am good to go.

As for the race, I thought I was running hard (so I probably was) but I was disappointed at the time I saw at two miles. I did put on a long surge during the last mile and caught up to and passed the lead female runner, Amber Cullen. I made up about 10-15 seconds. Maybe she was having an off day, but I rarely catch people near the end of a race. It was very helpful to be pushing with her at the end because it got me under 20 minutes for the race. This is a much better time than my first 5ks last year.

Here are the result of the Freeze Your Buns race.

5K Results 2009-March-01
Name Town Age Sex Time
Ferreira, Danny Concord, NH 26 M 0:17:36
King, Andy Lowell, MA 33 M 0:17:42
Wade, Michael Nashua, NH 40 M 0:17:47
Indruk, Greg Nashua, NH 28 M 0:19:09
Hansen, Jim Nashua, NH 50 M 0:19:53
Cullen, Amber Concord, NH 26 F 0:19:54
Snow, Ken Merrimack, NH 53 M 0:20:11
Kane, Brian Merrimack, NH 47 M 0:20:29
Cullen, Gregory Westford, MA 56 M 0:20:33
Rouleau, Stephen Nashua, NH 30 M 0:21:00
Burnett, Jim Canaan, NH 59 M 0:21:31
Lee, Stephen Concord, NH 45 M 0:21:49
Poublon, Danielle Nashua, NH 10 F 0:25:58
Hiatt, Melissa N. Hampton, NH 11 F 0:26:50
Gallagher, James Merrimack, NH 42 M 0:26:51
Welts, Bob Hollis, NH 75 M 0:32:35
Adams, James Nashua, NH 35 M 0:33:13

A Great Day of Running on the Cape!

I went down to Cape Cod to visit my parents for a couple of days. After arriving on Thursday I put on my running gear and headed out for a run. My hips were feeling good so I started thinking that I might do more than the 5 miles I had planned. My parents live in Falmouth, right off the road at about the 18.5 mile mark of the Cape Cod Marathon (which makes for a great place to quit the race on a bad day!). I headed out on the marathon course and ran about two miles to Woods Hole. That is where the course joins together with about 200th yard of the Falmouth Road Race course. I ran the route of both races and hit Nobska Lighthouse, where my wife and daughters were enjoying the afternoon, so my daughter took a picture (if you know the course, you will note that I did turn around for the photo to get the lighthouse in the picture). Since I was feeling so good and the weather was perfect for running I kept going and did the whole Falmouth Road Race course. Then I kept going down to Little Pond and back up through Falmouth Heights to run by the house I grew up in on Lake Leamon Road. So many things have changed. My old style Cape house has doubled in size with additions and a huge garage. I ran through my old neighborhood and headed back to my parents house. It was a great run. I ended up doing a little more than 14 miles. I felt energetic and was never tired the whole way. My hips weren't perfect but they weren't painful or stuck in bad positions. It was one of those rare wonderful days where everything falls together.

Things are coming together in many ways and I hope it is a good sign for a good running year. Last year was my worst year ever so any improvement will be welcomed.

I have now completed four weeks on the Warrior Diet. Basically I am eating healthy foods and leaving out the processed or sugary foods. I have lost some weight but I feel I am fueling myself so much better. In the four weeks I have only had two cookies and two bowls of ice cream. I used to eat more than that most days! I did my 14 mile run in the afternoon, after only drinking a protein drink for breakfast, eating some fruit and cheese for lunch, and a Balance Bar before the run.

My hips and back have been the best they have been in over 25 years. That is no lie! However they feel great when I am not running and just walking or sitting. I am still working on getting them balanced for running. At the beginning of the year I started doing a leg press against my own resistance of my arms. This seems to put the hips and pelvis back into some balance. A couple of weeks ago I made up my own stretch that hits the point where my pelvis connects to the sacrum. Sometimes when I do this right it does some magical realigning. I am still experimenting with it but when things back there start tightening up it relieves a lot of my symptoms. I can walk and sit and not have the pains in my hips and psoas that have bothered me daily since about 1983 when I started doing triathlons! It has also relieved the tension and tightnesses in my legs. I think I am finally learning how to get my hips and pelvis back into alignment. When that happens the muscles throughout my body no longer have to react and compensate.

I did get a couple of DVDs that I had ordered this week. The doctor calls what many people have the Malalignment Syndrome. I have watched most of the DVDs and I like the explanations of different pelvic rotations: inflare/outflare, forward/backwards rotations, and upslip/downslip. The DVD shows you how to assess yourself as well as how to correct these rotations through Muscle Energy Techniques, Contract/Relax, and traction. I haven't tried the remedies yet, but I did note that one of the techniques is exactly what I have been doing on my own since January. Now I know why it seems to work. The DVDs are very educational as I understand things and terms a whole lot better now. I will review the DVDs at a later date after I have tried the techniques.

It has taken many years, but as my wife noted after my long run, things are improving. She said that this was the first time I have been able to ride in a car for a couple of hours and get out and run. Usually my back is so sore from the car ride and I have to stretch or try to do something to feel "right" before a run and usually I can never get to that point. All that I had to do on Thursday was put on my shoes and head out the door!

I also noticed that Emily's (my daughter) camera had some great pictures of the Falmouth Mile men's and women's races last summer that she took. I will put a few up here. Nice Job, Emily!