New Year Off to an "Unrestricted" Start

In only a couple of weeks I hit the 50 years old milestone! I am looking forward to a new age group.

Whatever I did to my sacrum after the Millennium Mile has been helping my balance and stride ever since. I never can figure out exactly what happens with how my body works. For now my legs and hips are running very smoothly and I can only guess it is because something adjusted back in the sacrum area. My legs swing free. I don't have the tight spot at the back of my left hip and my hip flexors and left leg don't feel like they need constant stretching or adjusting. I can balance on the left hip evenly and the left knee doesn't take pressure on the inside (and buckle in). The left ankle doesn't turn out so much. My left foot can balance on the ground pretty much fully. So this is how most people feel? Last week no amount of tugging, stretching, or pulling could relieve those symptoms.

It makes me consider a lot of things that point to what causes my running (and balance) problems. I am waiting for it to fall apart but am enjoying the feeling of strength instead of imbalance while it lasts. I am getting in good hour plus runs on the treadmill and feel very much even and balanced while doing that running. It is amazing how when the bones are in the right places how easy running, shoveling snow, and everyday movement can be! They best word I can give is "unrestricted".

Matt Metzgar sent me information on a book he has been reading called "The Ageless Spine". One sentence said basically that when the bones of the body are positioned in a natural relationship to each other then the muscles are simply relaxed and free of tension, and therefore inherently flexible. Yes, for the past few days that is how everything feels: "free of tension". Now "how do I keep it like this?" is the BIG question.



In thinking more of what I did after running the mile race to remedy the tightness and imbalances I had, I remembered I did only one other movement or stretch besides the sacrum movement. I saw it on Mike T. Nelson's blog. It is an advanced Z-Health psoas muscle stretch (not found on the DVDs that I have). I did this about an hour before I did the sacrum movement. One or the other or both really helped. Those are the only two stretches or movements I have done all week (while I feel great) except for some resistance stretching on my hamstrings. So far so good!



While checking out Mike Nelson's stretch, youtube referred me to some other interesting variations of stretches and movements that may be good to try some day. This is the Cook Hip Lift. It is a functional training movement (possibly form Gary Cook?) that uses a tennis ball to help you do the standard hip lift or bridge. Sebastian Gonzales has some other intesterting variations on stretches that I'll have to try someday later.

This is a standing Psoas stretch.



The Postural Syndrome Band exercises look really good for after you have been sitting a long time. I did try these and they feel real good for that tightness between the shoulder blades/



You can find the rest of his videos here.

Loosening Up Tight Hips: Sacrum Adjustment

After running the Applefest 1/2 Marathon on Saturday my hips remained as stuck as they had been for the days before the race and during the race. Sunday as I reported here I found some new videos. As soon as I did this video with the sacrum release, I felt immediate improvement and loose again.

Now I don't know if it was the sacrum adjustment that did it but the tightness was gone even though I felt nothing move, shift, stretch, or adjust. What was going on? Well Monday I ran and felt great. I was running and my quads were moving me as opposed to feeling forces in my hip joints. Tuesday felt good too. I had a great run. Again I did nothing new just the resistance stretching, a bit of light psoas release, and this sacrum adjustment. Wednesday I was feeling even better. The workout was 5 X 1 mile on the track with a one lap rest. It was supposed to be run at 1/2 marathon pace, but as the first mile started I felt good and loose and I just ran free. I did a 6:01+ first mile, the second one was about a step faster again at 6:01, on the third my left lower hip QL started tightening up but I ran through it to 6:00+ and I was a step faster again to the finish clock. I did a little version of the sacrum stretch and then did the 4th in 6:00 and about 1/2 a second but without the tightness. Literally I was running about 1/4 of a second faster for each interval. I did the last in 6:00 and about 1/4 second. It was faster than I was supposed to go but it felt great and I had perfect pacing throughout. It was the first track workout where I wasn't constantly stretching between intervals trying to get looser. In fact it was my best running of the year. This is how I want to feel when I run!

I bought the ebook form the Self-Adjusting Technique website. It doesn't describe this stretch but I would really like to know what it is doing and if it is what is making my sacrum loosen up. Only time will tell if it continues to work. Meanwhile I am reading through the e-book and seeing what other good things are in there that may help me recover my stride.

Tips for the Adjusting and Releasing the Psoas, Sacrum, and Piriformis

The past few days my left side has been off again. From the leg to the knee, and the hip front and back at the sacrum, as well as the whole back everything was not in alignment and uncomfortable. I was so tight I didn't run Thursday and Friday before today's Applefest half-marathon. The whole race was uncomfortable alignment wise although my muscles did well enough to get me a decent place and time for my fitness. It was no fun running, however, with my hips not lining up and moving correctly. I was trying to adjust things the whole race. The resistance stretching is loosening up my muscles but now I am frequently back to having that left leg unbalanced. It just felt stuck at the back of the left sacrum and that shifted my whole running form. I couldn't figure out how to fix it so I looked at some new things online. I found these to try later. However I tried one and all the tightness seemed to go away instantly. I don't believe it for now and will see how long it lasts, but I will be definitely trying that sacrum release again when or if I need it to see if it really does work that simply.

Here is a video that shows how to roll on a ball like a tennis ball or even a harder ball to release the piriformis muscle and loosen up tight hips.



Here is a psoas stretch using the theracane. I have had one of these for years but have found that it sometimes does more harm than good if you don't know how to use it. This looks interesting and I may give it a try. It seems to work similar to the ART (Active Release Technique) psoas release.



This is a theracane. It is used to work on trigger points.



This video shows how to find the psoas and release it. It comes from a site called http://selfadjustingtechnique.com/.



From the same person this shows a kid doing a sacrum self-adjusting yoga pose. This one is interesting as my hip in the sacrum region has been tight for 4 days. I just did this once and it loosened up even though it didn't seem like I did anything major. I'll have to check it out again it would be pretty good if this is something that could work easily on me and it not being just a coincidence.



This shows the resistance stretch for the hip flexor. The interesting thing I learned here is that the stretch starts and is most powerful when the hip is flexed. I have been doing this but thinking that it was going to work best once the hip is extended. My arms never seemed long enough, but I guess that is not where most of the stretch happens.