You pedal with your legs, but your shoulders and core drive the front end, and deserve some respect too. In this video, Jay Dicharry and Lindsey Voreis will teach you why posture and shoulder position are critical to keep you solid on the bike.
Better bodies make better riders, and better rides!
Does anyone else live in a bubble where time-zones tick by as fast as minutes? Last night I got back home from one trip, unpacked, repacked, and flew off again this morning….traveling can be tough on our routines, and unfortunately, wreak havoc on our athletic efforts. Let’s face it, on some trips we have hours on end to utilize the high end gym (that is likely nicer than the one you have at home!). But for most of the time, it’s a pulley machine, a swiss ball, and a treadmill stuck in a standard sized hotel room masquerading as a “gym”. Not really an ideal environment to push the limits. And on top of limited equipment, you likely only have about 30 min between answering emails from your “regular work” on top of everything else demanding time on your trip. So how do you maintain your benefits of your weight work while facing the demands of traveling?
Its easy to say – OK – no weights, I’ll just go for an easy run. No harm in this at all. But for those of you really dedicated to making gains while on the road, there is a will, and a way. Take a look again at the previous post on ways to improve your neuromuscular recruitment. If the weight room isn’t set up to help you kickstart those fast twitch fibers, hitting some local hills, or even doing sprints in the parking lot go a long way.
But remember, the goal of these is to go HARD. Really hard. As hard as you are working on the last few reps in the weight room. And to go that hard, it means you have to rest between intervals. For those of you who think that rest is only for the weak, let’s look at what sprinters do. People who run hard for a living (sprinters) take approximately 1 full minute easy for each 10 meters they run. So yes, a 30 meter sprint means 3 minutes rest before the next one. And keep the durations short. Intervals over 40 meters aren’t helpful. And while sprinting hills is really tough, the effort should still be quite high and be limited to less than 20 seconds of effort. Throw your shoes on, hit a short easy run, some dynamic warm-up moves, and then hit some intense hills or sprints. Jump in the shower, and get back to travel life……knowing you did something for yourself before the day even started.
LAVA Magazine came to visit, check out what they had to say, and find some tips to help your knee cap move like it should.
And if you want to read a snippet on the latest with now-local phenom Kate Grace- check this out here!
today, do something that scares you, something that challenges you, and something that makes you laugh. Its how we grow.
The University of Virginia Running Medicine Conference continues to be the premier source of training and applied knowledge for clinicians across the country. I’ve been lucky enough to co-direct this course with my colleagues Dr. Robert Wilder and Eric Magrum for the past twelve years. We assembled an entourage of experts to bring us up to speed on the latest research, and how this applies to our patients. And this year, we had requests to expand into talks on performance planning and progression, and we delivered.
From the clinical side:
Dr. Fran O’Connor described findings of “Exertional Rhabdomyolysis”. Its great that the endurance community is embracing strength training. However, going to big too soon can lead to some serious health implications. Dr. O’Connor described how to identify these signs and symptoms when people go a little too aggressively in CrossFit and other competitive environments, and how to ensure that you are progressing training appropriately.
Dr. Wilder described “The Runner With Heel Pain.” Sure your plantar fascia can be the driver of your nagging pain, but there are other structures in this area that drive symptoms, and other areas that can refer to the heal. He reviewed what these are, and how to manage them for success. And on Saturday, Dr. Wilder led a water running lab to discuss tips to ensure high physiologic training stress to maintain fitness while placing the body in a reduced training load.
“The Great Toe” was presented by Eric Magrum. Conservative clinical management of the big toe is essential to proper foot stability. We reviewed normal foot function, problematic scenarios, and how to address each. The one-two punch was saturday’s lab session with hands on evaluation and treatment.
But sometimes, the great toe isn’t so great. Dr Joe Park presented “The Not-So-Great Toe” and discussed the skilled surgical management of the foot and lower leg when conservative care hasn’t worked. Dr Park presented the current state of care for foot management, how this impacts the entire lower quarter, presented some case studies to offer real world application, and innovative, outside the box solutions for correction of serious disorders.
Dr. Siobhan Statuta wasn’t stressed out when she presented “You’re Stressing Me Out! – a review of foot stress fractures.” We reviewed the identification, management, and return to play criteria to ensure successful care.
Dr. John McKnight had some great content (and great pictures) of “common skin conditions of the foot” – we discussed everything from blisters to foot fungus to serious infections, and how to treat these from a clinical as well as a practical approach. Yes, make that one more use for duct tape.
Have you ever wondered what happens “inside” the muscle, and why some tissues sustain strain injuries (tears) more than others? Dr. Silvia Blemker presented the engineering side of the equation. She showed her innovative work with real-time MRI and how the shape of the aponeurosis affects the stress and strain of muscular forces, and how we can learn more in the future in our efforts to prevent injury. In short, muscle architecture matters.
Now, we’ve discussed how to get runner’s healthy, let’s look beyond into the world of performance.
Have you ever wondered what type of cutting edge training principles are employed by Olympic athletes? and why this works? Our keynote speaker Dr. Brad DeWesse identified what constitutes successful athletic performance, and how to cycle your training to achieve it. Sure there’s an “art” to coaching, but is’t it nice when you can make things objective? Brad was able to present data points on values they assess on all their athletes, how they implement training for targeted improvements in the lab, and what kind of outcome this has in the real world. Impact? The US has won more medals in the sports Brad is working with. Its the stuff of genius.
With a formula for successful training in front of us, yours truly provided an overview talk called “Run Better: Clinical, Strength, and Power Prep for Strength and Endurance Athletes.” We identified how to put a better body into your overall plan: how to screen for muscle imbalances that restrict optimal physical development, how to fix them, and most importantly, how to integrate these skills into running mechanics. Following this, I presented real world case scenarios (with data) to show how this impacts both quantitive lab values and race times. Result? Pain free runners that are setting good numbers in the lab and PR’s on the course.
I’d like to thank over 230 physicians and therapists who attended, and about 100 of you who return each and every year. This course almost seems like a small family at this point, and we greatly appreciate your support, enthusiasm, ad feedback each year. Dr Wilder, Eric, and myself wish you success in implementing these concepts with your patients and athletes!
If you want pull a 1080 Japan air in the half pipe, launch yourself 100 yards on downhill skis, or accelerate a bobsled to peak speed before jumping in, science can help you do what you do, better.
NBC came by our lab for a little demo, you can check it out here. (updated with the video link)
Note: Just don’t ask me anything about curling…….
USA Triathlon selected my webinar “Running Footwear: A critical look at what we know about footwear, and how to select the right shoes for your athlete.” as the February spotlight. This presentation is loaded with objective information and references to understand what shoes do (and don’t do) and help you see past the marketing hype to select the right tool for your runs.
Smarter runners make smarter decisions on footwear!
Its always nice to get a shout out. Steve Magness is one of the “better thinkers” in the world of running, coaching, and athlete performance, and I respect his opinion highly. Apparently, Steve is nice enough to respect mine as well, and named Anatomy for Runners as one if his “Top 9 Though Provoking Books of 2013” – thanks Steve. If you live under a rock, and haven’t come across his amazing blog, I highly recommend checking it out: the Science of Running.
And while I’m at it, I’d like to say thanks to all of you who have purchased the book. I teach all over the country, and the number of clinicians and coaches who already have the book, and actually USE it daily on their teams and patients is, well, quite humbling. I know the little niche I operate in will never reach the status of the Harry Potter, but there are over 11,000 of you around the world reading this book over the past year. I hope its making you rethink the way you approach your training, and your patients, your teams, and ultimately producing better results. If you’d like to pick up a copy, click on the link on the right side of the page!
The work of a decade of my career, bound into the “take home version” for you.
Brace yourself. You thought heart rate and GPS was cool? The tech revolution is coming to running in a major way. Sure, it’s got some hurdles, but its likely going to be easier than signing up for health care insurance online.
So what if your shoe could tell you about your foot strike ? would it matter? what if you had gear that could tell you about more than foot strike? What can Tech do for you as an athlete?
Check out this link to listen to the NPR interview for some answers.
And if the merging of tech and athletics intrigues you, check out this article I wrote for Spark/Qualcomm.
Cool technology + smart people to make sense of it = some pretty cool times for you as an athlete.
Last week, I had the privilege of jumping on a plane and traveling to speak at the USA Track and Field National Conference in Indianapolis. It was a great melding of the minds, with the focus on “rebuilding” the athlete pool. I was asked to speak about injury and trying to reduce injury. My talk was titled: “Solving the mystery of running: practices for sustaining an injury free career.” Given that over half of runners get hurt every year, its a pretty important concept to take a step back and try to STOP this madness. In this presentation we talked about how and why mobility, stability, strength, and power are all unique traits that runners must have, and how these attributes directly transfer to gait. And most importantly, how to improve deficits you’ll find in your runners. So after a day of great discussion, meetings, and networking, I jumped on a plane back home to Bend, OR.
And nationals followed me back home!- This weekend is the USATF National Cross Country Club Championships. About a thousand runners are converging here in Bend to see which XC Club can take the cake. Local stud, Max King, has organized a challenging course for Saturday. On Friday, I’ll be hosting an all-star athlete panel Q&A featuring: Lauren Fleshman, Besty Flood, Mario Mendosa, Stephanie Howe, and Max King. If anyone wants to ask the best what makes them the best, and gain some scientific insight as to why and how these concepts may make sense for you, come on by – we’ll see you at 4 PM PST at the event expo. And on Saturday (raceday!), we’ll see you starting at 9 AM for the community run. The REP Lab tents will have fire pits, hot chocolate, a propane heater, and most importantly – we’ll be hosting a holiday cookie swap! -that’s right – bake some cookies, trade em out, and eat up. And yes, yours truly will be awarding bragging rights for the best cookie at nationals. Sugar cookies are cute, but don’t stand a chance. To all the potential bakers out there, I’ll give you a hint – don’t bother bringing an entry without chocolate if you really do want to win. And while you are munching, you’ll be cheering as MC’s Jesse Thomas and Matt Lieto calling the races from 10 until 2. And rumor has it there are some after-parties happening ’round town……come see us at the tent and we’ll give you the scoop.
And if you can’t make it to Bend this weekend, Make sure to check out the Runner’s World Google Hangout with Oiselle’s Project Little Wing. The REP Lab is proud that these elite women call our clinic home for their performance and injury prevention needs.
So this weekend: listen to the experts, eat cookies, and run…..that about sums it up!
Well, its that time of year again. The sun sinks below the horizon early, and with that my phone rings with reporters wanting to know what tips they should give to their readers about running successfully on a treadmill. Rather than risking this info getting watered down, I figured I’d give you the straight scoop.
What’s a safe way to run on the treadmill?
For those of you who like the fine print, feel free to read more below. And of note, all the information in this article pertains to steady state distance running. Sprint training on treadmills is a different concept entirely. My UVA lab group wrote one, and Irene Davis’ team wrote another. No matter on treadmill or outside – enjoy your run!
References:
Riley PO, Dicharry J, Franz J, Della Croce U, Wilder RP, Kerrigan DC. A kinematics and kinetic comparison of overground and treadmill running.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Jun;40(6):1093-100
Fellin, R.E., Manal, K, Davis, I. Comparison of Lower Extremity Kinematic Curves During Overground and Treadmill Running. J Appl Biomech. 2010 November; 26(4): 407–414.
Jay Dicharry's Website, An Athlete's Body 