As an athlete approaching the age of 40, I frequently have to pull out all the stops to keep myself feeling limber and prepared for my training. It seems awareness of the importance of self-care is growing, as illustrated by the increasing number of articles I’m seeing in publications like Runner’s World, Running Times, and Competitor on the subject. The concept of “pre-hab” seems to be all the rage, and I hope to get into this in more detail in future posts as it is a topic of great interest to me. As a start, though, I’ll tell you about some toys I’ve collected over the years to help me in my pursuit of approximating that 18-year-old body that probably could have handled the training I want to do a whole lot better than this 39-year-old one can.
Read MoreWith some basic proficiency in self-massage techniques you can help yourself out by preempting overuse injuries, or by working them out as they are starting to occur. In my view, self-massage should be a regular part of a runner’s daily routine. Prior to a run, it can be used to even out asymmetric muscular tensions that occur because of all the non-running things we do in our lives: sitting at a desk, commuting in the car, carrying squirming toddlers around, etc. These imbalances affect our running gait, which can cause strain over thousands of steps. After a run, it’s a great way to make sure everything feels healthy, and to help things recover if they don’t.
Read MoreI once saw a post on Facebook that said something like, “The first 3 miles of my run were the best….said no one, ever.” How many times have you spent those early miles waiting for a tight muscle to ease up or gritting it out until you finally hit your groove and stop feeling so flat?
We’ve discussed warm-ups here before: last spring, our esteemed leader, Salty, wrote an informative post about the race day warm-up with some excellent tips for the race or hard work-out situation. Going a step further, I think a warm-up can be helpful if included before any run you do. A good warm-up can get rid of the kinks while pumping up your heart-rate so when you set off on your run you’re feeling loose, light on your feet and ready to go, right from the beginning.
Read MoreTalk to any runner and they will likely have a strong opinion on most topics related to training, racing, and injury prevention. The topic of static stretching is no exception: whether or not to stretch before a run or only after, how long you should do it, and lately, whether you should ever stretch at all.
However, it is important to keep in mind the recipe for staying healthy and performing well is as individual as the number of runners out there, and you need to pick and choose the ingredients that will work the best for you. So here I present to you some information on the now controversial practice of static stretching – and I hope it helps you decide whether or not it should be in the mix for you!
Read MoreCan your menstrual cycle cause or worsen injuries? This post reviews the literature on the subject.
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