Ted loves to run. We previously fixed his back pain from running. We kept in touch about all his successes with pain free running. A few years later he wrote, worried that his hip x-rays showed severe hip arthritis and an old hip injury hurt. We again got him back to pain free running. That is what we do at Fitness Fixer. In the New York Times, an article quoted a physician who always had pain after running and said he "had no idea why." More about that follows with what Ted and I did to fix his hip pain from running.
Four years ago, Ted came to me with back pain from running. He had been running with too much inward curve in the lower back, which is a common cause of lower back pain while standing, walking, and running. We stopped his back pain from running by teaching him to reduce the too-large inward curve to neutral spine during running and daily life - Back Pain From Running.
A year later, he wrote back saying that since his back pain was completely gone (plus a few other things we fixed in the interim), he noticed some hip pain. He had been running with the foot turned out (duck-foot) and wrote, "A straight push off after the foot-strike made the pain go away - Runner Fixes More Pain With Straighter Push-Off.
Earlier this year Ted wrote that his doctor said his x-rays showed arthritis in both hips. I told Ted not to let doctors scare him into anything rash (surgery, giving up running, taking medicines that cause other problems, and so on). Often the arthritis or other abnormality that shows up on an x-ray is not the cause, or only cause, of pain.
The New York Times recently ran an article quoting the President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as saying he (the president) "Has no idea why his knees are sore after each time he runs." The article also quoted several prominent physicians saying, "Most folks should not go (to doctors), because most general doctors don’t know a lot about running injuries. Most docs, often even the good sports docs, will just tell you to stop running anyway, so the first thing is to stop running yourself. In fact, because you probably will have to make a co-payment if you see a doctor, you will be adding insult -the fee - to your injury."
In a study reported at a recent meeting of the American Orthopedic Society, Dr. Matthew Silvis did MRI scans of the hips of 21 professional hockey players and 21 college players. Results showed 70 percent of the athletes had abnormalities, More than half had labral tears, which are scary looking rips in the cartilage that holds the leg in place in the hip bone. None had pain, or only minimal discomfort that did not affect their playing. The same is true for rotator-cuff tears. Studies have demonstrated that about half of all middle-age people with no shoulder pain have these rotator-cuff tears that show on scans but they have no pain or symptoms.
I wrote to Ted with several things for him to check and fix about his body mechanics. He replied:
"I used your ''Better Exercise on Stairs'' article to go Pain Free up stairs (which I had not been able to do for 8-months)
"Thus Encouraged, I ''flattened'' it out, and used the Same Mechanics to do AN EXTREMELY Slow Jog on my 20-min Sunday Walk/Jogs. which have been PAIN FREE.
"The doc looked at my x-rays, told me he had NO idea how I could run on my arthritic hips, had me demonstrate the Flattened Better Exercise on Stairs Method, I explained my 41 year Love of Running....and he said ''You've already figured it out, keep doing what works and YOU call ME if you need to come back.''"
Ted didn't need to go back to the Doc, but he did write to me:
"Sorry to bother you Dr. Bookspan, "In my running you helped me with my back, then you helped me with my knee, (and shoulder).
"I may be pushing my luck here, But NOW my hip flexor (psoas) is inflamed and essentially my thigh is swollen. By paying attention, I found the pain in the hip is in front, about where a tendon would attach to the hip (not the ball joint as I had feared).
"QUESTION--is there an isolation exercise for this tendon??? assuming there is one (I didn't pay much attention to Anatomy in Pharmacy School). What would be some good re-hab exercise/stretches?? This is an old injury from catching my foot on the upswing while running across a tarp spread over the track."
I gave him a nice stretch for the front of the hip where the leg meets the body (anterior hip).
Ted wrote: "Thanks for the quick response
"I went out this morning and did 40-minutes (ohboyohboy) PainFree
"I'm game for any other techniques (and am reading all your web site info…)
"This has added literally YEARS to my running starting 4 years ago when you helped me fix my Back Pain."
Then Ted went walking around downtown on concrete surfaces. He wrote that he was in pain again. I sent him to all the anterior stretches in my book Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier. Ted replied:
"Dr Bookspan,
"......WOW.....
".....I just got the book last night, "was hurting from a lousy 20-min run, "looked up ''quad'' and ''hip flexor'' stretches and was Pain Free this morning.
"Like I told my running buddy this is like a CookBook for Pain Relief,,,,,,,
"I cannot wait to go out and hurt something else."
Ski fast and shoot rifles! A biathlon is usually a race of two sports in the same event. In the winter Olympic biathlon, athletes ski cross-country then shoot at targets (not competitors in front of them).
The Winter Olympics currently offers four different biathlon races. In each, skiers carry .22 caliber rifles, weighting just under 8 pounds (3.5 kg). Skiers race to each shooting stop along the course. Half the shooting stops are prone (lying face down). Half the shooting stops are standing. The commemorative medal at right shows a hyperlordotic stance (overly arched at the lower back) during standing aim that will be covered in future articles on back pain and target shooting. Check the article, Prevent Back Surgery, and see if you can guess the cause, and how to change stance for shooting without back pain.
Winter biathlon is said to originate with Norwegian soldiers training for military maneuvers. Other northern countries offer their own history of training these disciplines for military and defense.
A summer biathlon usually combines cross-country running and shooting.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
If your knee pain from running isn't getting better with fixing bad gait, physical therapy, and medical care, check your yoga. Several poses directly twist, overstretch, or pinch knee cartilage. Over time, injury builds that does not show much in people who do yoga and little else, until their knees encounter resisted motion for running and sports, or from a trip or fall.
Not long ago, people in yoga or sports did not intersect much. Now, the previously more sedentary yoga populations try running, aerobics, and sports. Athletes are being told that yoga will give them magic benefits. Knee injuries bloom when they go back to sports, making the staunch yoga camps claim sports are the culprit, when it was the knee damaging motions in yoga and other stretches. The knee is a primarily a hinge joint, like the hinge on a door that only can open and close. The door swings toward you and away. If you lift up on the door, it twists the hinge and eventually loosens it. The door begins to creak and rub and make noise.
Think of sitting cross-legged (tailor style). Your knees are out to the side and your lower legs bend toward you. All is fine at that point. Now picture, as with lifting upward on a door, you lift the foot and lower leg to rest it on your thigh in Lotus position or lifting it in some pigeon poses as in the photo, at right. Unless you outwardly rotate the upper leg fully at the hip, the knee twists, overstretching the lateral (outside) ligament and pinching the medial meniscus and soft tissue.
Often people bend the ankle upwards too, also pictured at right, a separate problem - see Unhealthy Yoga Ankles.
How to picture rotation at the hip? Think of a stapler. Like the door just mentioned, the stapler has a hinge or knee joining two sections, like your upper and lower leg. It opens and closes on the hinge. If you pull the upper or lower part sideways, it twists or shears the hinge. To turn to staple sideways, you need to rotate the whole thing.
Hero pose, (Supta Virasana) begins sitting on bent knees, meditation style (left-hand photo below), which often is fine. The knee hinge closes, like closing a door, normal bending. Then the pose continues by pulling the feet outside of the upper legs, like pulling upward on the door hinge. If you do not inwardly rotate both upper legs at the hip fully, your knee twists at the hinge, overstretching the medial (inside- facing the other knee) ligament, pinching the lateral (outer) meniscus and soft tissue. Lying back, as in the right-hand photo adds prying of the joint to the rotation damage (often people overarch the lower spine too instead of stretch the muscles, an additonal problem). In "W" sitting, both feet face outward. Not a problem for the knee unless the hips do not fully rotate (whether relentless W sitting is eventually is too much at the hip is a separate question). Runner's hurdler stretch is the same issue, one leg at a time.
Even though yoga may call for "doing both sides" and following each motion in one direction with one in the other, twisting both the medial and lateral sides of the knee cartilage by doing both Lotus and Hero will not cancel each other, but can overstretch and degenerate both sides.
Warrior poses 1 and 2 are like a lunge. Check your front knee: - Is it inside the line of your foot? - Do your foot and knee face the same direction?
Sagging inward unequally loads the knee and when the foot and knee face differently, the knee twists under body weight (blue center model, photo at right).
Keep your knee above your foot, both facing directly forward.
Mighty Chair pose - watch for, and change overly-stylized artificial position, not valuable for any functional motion (photo right and lower drawing left).
For chair pose, use outer thigh muscles to hold straight and prevent knees from sinking inward. Use neutral spine instead of overly-arched to practice movement the way it is needed all day for real life. Right-hand drawing below shows fixing.
Make yoga something that benefits your real life movement habits, not trains artificial, damaging, motion you don't even need.
Hindu squats and one-legged heel-up deep bends may not twist the knee as much as pry it. Picture a tool to crack nuts - two handles joined at a hinge, like your upper and lower leg joined at the knee. Imagine putting an object (for example, a soccer ball) between the upper and lower leg and try to close the heel toward the upper leg - if the ball does not compress, the hinge (knee) pries open. That happens with low squats on the toes (heels up) if you have large or heavy legs. If you have slender legs, the heels can come closely, like bending your elbow so that your lower arm rests along your upper arm. Slender legs do this, while muscular athletes may destabilize their knees, leaving them venerable to future injury.
The beginning of one of the pigeon poses is pictured at right. The person pictured is sitting to the side, instead of keeping the back knee and leg rotated to face straight downward. Sitting to the side greatly reduces the stretch, especially to the rear hip's front muscles that need the stretch, but usually no big problem to the knee. When the pose continues to lift the back foot for King Pigeon, if you lift the foot up without facing the knee downward, you twist the knee joint. By turning the whole leg downward, you get a better anterior hip stretch, and when you lift the foot, the knee can bend like a hinge, not twist.
One Legged King Pigeon kneels on the rear knee with that knee bent so only the kneecap bears your weight. To reduce compression, and get a better stretch for your hip, move your back leg further back so that your weight rests on the thigh, not kneecap.
I have taken several yoga teacher certifications. Each gives different, plausible-sounding rationale why knee twist poses help, but the anatomy is just off enough to come to wrong conclusions. In one, they taught to deliberately twist the lower leg on the upper "to protect the meniscus." Twisting does not protect, but twist in a damaging way. There are two bones in the lower leg, allowing some rotation, but twisting injures other structures. Another teacher training stressed extreme knee twisting as a stretch in itself, stating that any increase in motion is beneficial, especially from joints. Knee laxity results. Without much muscle and positioning training, you predispose yourself to instability when giving the knee challenge, like going back to sports, or from a fall or blow. Another certification teacher training taught that knee twisting is beneficial since it allows great range of motion in case you fall down with your knee twisted backward. Sounds plausible for that one fall (unless you fall differently), but for every other day in your life, so much extra space can result that the joint 'rattles' and wears prematurely. In another class we were made to sit in Lotus, then, still folded in Lotus, rise to knees and swivel from knee to knee to waddle around the room, compounding damage with body weight on the twisted strained joints.
In each yoga teacher training and class I take, I hear teachers tell about their knee pain and surgeries. They don't know why. They think they need more yoga and do more injurious poses, getting relief or distraction for the moment, then pain comes back. Movement in general often relieves pain for the moment. No need to repeatedly add injury to get temporary relief. Stop the causes and the pain stops.
There are assertions that many people do these stretches and not everyone gets knee pain, so they must be fine. Smoking and unsafe sex also do not have a one-to-one association with immediately bad consequences every time. Some stretches and movements twist the knee and overstretch cartilage. If you do these stretches and have pain, or just sit or stand with your knees hyper-extended (locked back) even if you think it is unrelated, it is one place to think about.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels, links in posts, archives, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe free - updates via e-mail or RSS, upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for direct feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Reposting - Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able
Monday, August 24, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Last week, several Fitness Fixer posts did not become viewable after writing and posting them. One reappears here (hopefully) with the rest to follow this week. Photos will not load at all, so I have included links to view them at another page. May all life's troubles continue to be this small :-) enjoy the posts:
Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer.
Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.
"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.
"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.
"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.
Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.
"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.
"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.
"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!
Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer. Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.
"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.
"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.
"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.
Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.
"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.
"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.
"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!
Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
This is fun - this article is the 600th Fitness Fixer post.
Yesterday's post started a series on Triathlons. Triathlon races of different names, organizing bodies, and distances are held year-round. The Ironman is a trademarked name of one particular triathlon and its qualifying races.
The Ironman Triathlon is a long-distance race of a 2.4 mile swim (3.86 km), 112 mile (180.25 km) bike, and a marathon run of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km), continuously, in that order.
Fifteen men competed in the first Ironman triathlon in 1978. Then, it was a known "Fitness Fact" that women could not do hard athletics. Several sports of the time banned women. Magazine articles appeared regularly that women had special problems that made doing athletics more dangerous and less possible. Scuba magazines printed (and reprinted) bizarre myths by reporters, that women were physically predisposed to injury from heat, cold, exercise, and decompression. Even chapters in medical books had separate "woman sports" chapters with "proofs" such as shorter legs and less testosterone and blood volume. Currently, teen Asian girls are beating the times of big Western men from that era. Injury rates are shown to be not from gender as much as training. I am a former anatomy and physiology professor. Don't try to snow an anatomy professor about joint angles and limb length as proof of athletic prowess or injury. Future posts will dissect these myths from a physiology basis.
The name "Ironman" and related "Iron" labels are official property of the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). The WTC hosts other triathlons around the world that are called Ironman. Who owns what name seems to change, and can get confusing. Several events formerly called Ironman no longer use the word due to aggressive trademark protection. Readers can comment to keep us current.
The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon (various alternate names) hosts the Ironman world championship and owns the race held each fall in Hawai'i. Last year's 2008 Hawai'i Ironman drew over 1700 athletes. The 2009 Hawaii Ironman will be held October 10, 2009. Qualifying races required for eligibility are held throughout the year. Several qualifiers are going on right now, this June and July.
More - Click the label Ironman, below, for all articles on the Ironman, and each label, swimming, biking, running, and others for all Fitness Fixer on each topic.
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Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. See class schedules, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
This week - a fun series with a post each day about triathlons.
A triathlon is usually a race, where each competitor swims, bikes, and runs one continuous effort. The first person to finish all three is considered the course time-winner. The order is often swim first, then bike, then run, although order can change depending on the length and kind of course, and opinions of the officiating body.
Some triathlons are relays. One person enters each part, for example the first person swims, then their teammate continues the run. A race consisting of a run, bike, then run again is considered a duathlon, even though the competitors do three parts. "Run-bike" and other duathlons will be covered in future posts, as will summer and winter biathlons.
The first modern triathlon was possibly a race in 1920 or so, in France, called "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports). Within that decade, several more three-event races of various distances and names followed.
In the 1980s, different big triathlons became more popular - including the several Ironman distance races and comparable races, called full triathlon and long distance, by other organizations. The "Ironman" brand and name is highly protected and can't be used by anyone else, a topic for another post. These are usually 3800 m swim (2.4 miles), 180 km bike (112 mi), and 42.2 km run (26.2 mi). In 2005, the World Triathlon Corporation started the Ironman 70.3, also known as a Half Ironman.
Triathlon became an Olympic event at the Sydney Games in 2000. Olympic Distance is considered a short triathlon - 1500 m swim (0.93 mi), 40 km bike, (24.8 mi), 10 km run (6.2 mi). The Olympic Triathlon is about half the bike and run distance, and a slightly shorter swim, of what is usually called a half-triathlon.
The many other triathlon events can vary in length and level of organization, depending what is available to the organizers. Distances may conform to standardized organizational rules, or vary with whatever length the available course allows. A kids' summer camp may use their pool or lake and a dirt road, track, or field nearby. A town may organize their waterways or harbor and roads. Sometimes the world comes together to host international events.
In some smaller-scale races, participants can show up on race day, sign up, and go. Larger races require registration and briefings before race day. Big triathlons require qualifying times in previous races and large entrance fees.
Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and readers, and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. See class schedules, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Photo 1 - Emma Snowsill wins in Beijing, image by Getty Images via Daylife Photo 2 of winner at Southeast Asian Games 2005 via Wikipedia
Weak Hips on Purpose? Running Injury and Hip Strengthening
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Who works their hips? Fitness Fixer success story Robert Davis wrote me several
notes that the weightlifters he knew didn't want to exercise their hip because they thought it would take away from the "V shape" they worked for.
Mr. Davis said that using my daily good bending and other functional exercise worked his hip greatly. He was pleased with reduction of stiffness and pain and increase in strength and mobility. No decrease in "V-shape."
The May/June 2009 issue of Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, published a study based on a literature review, concluding that running injuries to the lower leg may have more to do with weak hip muscles than how many miles run. Lead author Reed Ferber, Assistant Professor and Director of the Running Injury Clinic from the University of Calgary stated ”Hip muscle weakness especially appears to lead to atypical lower extremity mechanics and increases forces on knees and feet while running.” He also stated, "Based on a literature review, it appears that foot pronation (turning the arch and ankle flatter to the ground, and/or the knee inward) and inadequate hip muscle stabilization are the top categories for injury.”
From my own work in this area, I found that strengthening alone won't make you run with good mechanics, prevent pronating, or other injurious habits, you need to retrain them too. Not hard. Stopping your life to do rehab exercises then returning to bad daily movement also isn't so helpful. My work builds-in both strengthening and mechanics to daily life - functional exercise. Robert Davis has been sending in his successes fixing back and other injury using functional fitness.
Robert Davis writes:
"I had made a slight error in my story! I just wanted to let you know.. I had not ordered fix your own pain till only about 4 weeks ago cause I was looking at my expenses and the Amazon one came up!
"So to see how rapidly things change when you take up these habits is even more encouraging.
"Some things I noticed along the way (I did have some slight questions on this!). My hip muscles for one, started to get "sore". I believe this is because of over tightness and overall lack of use. My guess is like every other gym rat they avoid things to make obliques and lower back "too" big because it takes away from the V shape they are after. Everyone seems to fall for this but it is an un-healthy trap I now realize.
"Anyhow I had started to get really sore over the last few weeks in hip muscle areas and even upper buttocks from stretching these areas and working them (using your stuff). When I practiced going into full squats, this really seemed to stretch out areas that began to show signs of weakness/tightness. So it was like working out muscles and getting that "soreness" when your muscles start to adapt. I kinda figure it is as it is just as normal to workout a bicep and for it to "be sore" the next few days.
"The soreness goes away and with each passing week, it becomes more mild - kinda like the body getting used to biceps being sore and you don't get sore anymore.. They do not get sore like they did when I first started your stuff. I was just curious if you had seen this. I am sure it is normal, especially for a group of muscles not used to being used or stretched out.!
"Jeez I do not think most people realize just how tight and weak they can be in areas, mostly because they are never used or people are used to being tight there. People do not believe in the squat (I showed a few people to prove them wrong lol) because they are too tight. I realize how much I am glad I found this out early in life. I get stronger every day in the areas that were weak. I know I will have a much better core, lower back, complete back, and body then before I hurt myself :)
"I put together my "planche/pull up" setup for pictures and to start working on a full planche! That is difficult to do like you do it! Any suggestions? Just keeping trying? Heheh
"Thank you again! Thank you for posting my story."
Mr. Davis, thank you. You are well ahead of the fancy researchers :-)
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
The RSS feed may still be down. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Grace didn't have a lifetime of track and field experience. She lived a life of real movement, called functional exercise, raising 11 children and doing chores. She decided to run a race. One month later, she ran the race and broke a world record.
A video should appear below of Grace Foster. Click the small, right-pointing arrow at bottom-left of the video box to watch her straight body positioning, the race, and her happy family.
Grace exercises daily, stretches, eats healthful food. Other racing record holders over age 90 will be featured in future articles.
Get moving, stay moving, be happy. It keeps you vital, more with each year.
Click the labels, aging, running, and spirit under this post. Labels give all Fitness Fixer posts about that topic. The label video-movie shows all Fitness Fixer posts containing a video to watch and enjoy learning how to be happy and fit.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. SeeDr. Bookspan's books.
When I was in the military, we ran. A lot. Every day. I love to run fast. When we ran, we sang. What did we sing? What they told us to sing - How much we loved to run. How much we loved everything about the military. Why? It kept us from saying what we were thinking. Military cadences have long been used for physical training. These are the Jody Calls.
The origin of the Jody Calls is usually given around World War II, but chanting, sea shanties, group mantras and hymns, and others have been known for centuries. It is generally thought that group unison music reduces perceived exertion, allowing greater effort toward the common goal.
I am a career physiology researcher in extreme environments. That means I spend much time directly testing humans to see what they can do, then how to make them better at it. Doing experimental and research work personally, makes it easier to know if what you hear about fitness is true, or just another of countless repeated myths. Even doctors learn from books that are often not primary sources, just repeated by someone else who learned it in school, repeated from a non-primary source.
In the military, and since then, the Jody Calls interested me. I wanted to know if chanting and singing really make the work of running easier, or just make it seem easier, or perhaps even use more oxygen and is actually more work than running without singing. I did many laboratory experiments on Jody calls.
Some of the experiments I conducted involved running troops on treadmills at different speeds, with specially fitted masks, so that they could chant into the mask, or just breathe regularly for control tests. I collected their expired air (what they breathed out) and analyzed it for oxygen usage and carbon dioxide production, a measure of the work of running. I compared oxygen usage with chanting and without.
Why are U.S. military chants called Jody Calls? There are many stories, usually involving a civilian character named Jody or Jodie, who stayed home when you left… you left… you left… right… left….
Below, hopefully sound file will appear. Turn your computer sound on, and click the arrow to listen to one stereotype call of the U.S. Marine Corps:
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
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A debate in fad fitness is if you need aerobic activity to lose weight, or if weightlifting is sufficient. The larger issue is that you need to use your cardiovascular system for health.
A 21 year long study from the Stanford University School of Medicine found that older runners live longer and suffer fewer disabilities than healthy non-runners.
All 440 study participants were 50 years old or over at the beginning of the study. All ran an average of four hours a week. By the end of the study, all were in their 70s, 80s, and older, running an average of 76 minutes a week.
At the 19 year mark in the study, 34 percent of the non-runners had died, compared with 15 percent of the runners. Onset of disability was delayed in runners by an average of 16 years.
Lead study author, Dr. James Fries, is almost 70, runs 20 miles a week and plays tennis. He stated the positive numbers for runners was not even as high as compared to average populations, because "the control group was pretty darn healthy." The "health gap" between runners and non-runners increased with age. Fries said, "I always thought that the two curves would start to parallel each other and that eventually aging would overpower exercise. We can't find even a little twitch toward that gap narrowing in the present time."
Study authors also stated that, "The findings probably apply to a variety of aerobic exercises, including walking."
Study was published in the Aug. 11 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Conventional medical texts originally stressed that exercise would harm elders. That viewpoint led to disastrous decades of needless infirmities among people who could have retained mobility and independence.
In 1980, Dr. Fries wrote a landmark paper of his "compression of morbidity" hypothesis, that "regular exercise would compress, or reduce, the amount of time near the end of life when a person was disabled or unable to carry out the activities of daily living, such as walking, dressing and getting out of a chair."
Stay active, keep moving whatever your age. It is the most important medicine you have.
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A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found no evidence of accelerated rates of osteoarthritis among long-distance runners.
Further, weight-bearing exercise like running helps stave off osteoporosis by maintaining bone mineral density.
Study source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine August 2008; 35(2):133-8.
With good movement mechanics, running will not cause early wear on your bones and joints. With injurious poor movement habits, of course, you can wear and injure the joints.
Posts showing good movement mechanics during exercise and daily life:
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
The Shinobi no Mono, or the Ninja of old Japan, were renowned for their running speed and endurance.
Running drills called "ashi" (foot or feet) were an important part of Ninjutsu physical training. Try this basic Ninja ashi, or running drill:
Put a straw hat on your chest.
Run without holding the hat with your hands or other fastening.
Run so fast that the hat does not fall - this requires keeping a minimum speed for the duration of the ashi drill.
Where is the photo? He (or she - there were female Ninjas) must have run by so fast you didn't see. We are still working on the problem of photos not uploading. Healthline staffer Jerry has been helping to upload several photos for posts to come. Thankyou Jerry.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives, and labels under posts. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
Exercise and Aging - Don't Limit the Patient to Limit the Pain
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
A Reuters news item last week reports that "baby boomers" are accumulating wear and tear injuries, and they should consider cutting back on amount and type of exercise they get.
The article points out that contributors to injuries are biomechanics, poor flexibility, and "pounding" or stomping down unnecessarily hard when running, jumping, walking, etc. Even with that knowledge, the news report goes on to say the answer to reduce injuries is to cut back activity. In Sunday's Fitness Fixer post, Forearm, Upper Body and Hand Exercise, I wrote that it is not a healthful or useful solution to "limit the patient to limit the pain."
The Reuters article quoted a foot and ankle podiatrist saying, "It is really important that people continue to be physically active, but they need to think logically about how to remain active as they age… Probably when you start getting into your 40s and 50s, the half marathon is a great alternative (to full marathons). Or, if you did two or three marathons a year, cut it back to one a year or opt for 10K or 5K runs." The podiatrist himself is a marathoner. He stated, "Having run 25 marathons, it was hard for me to cut back."
I would suggest looking at biomechanics, poor flexibility, and "pounding" first, before telling someone to stop doing what they love:
I have some exciting developments about getting you information on Exercise and Aging. Will announce soon.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Last year, reader Ted fixed back pain by learning to use neutral spine during running and daily life. This week he checked in to say the back is still fine, and that he went on to fix other painful sites.
Fixing pain and injuries by doing some exercises may temporarily ease symptoms. Instead, you can stop the source of injury by making movement habits healthy while exercising and moving through daily life, so that you can get exercise at the same time that the area can heal, and the pain not return.
Ted writes:
"Dr Bookspan, last summer, you helped me return to running, and did an article on me and how the neutral spine fixed my back problem with running.
"The back is a NON ISSUE. Thank you so much.
"Currently, I am working on hip/hammy/knee issues (probably due to over-training). Just thought I would share a thought on the ''Duck Foot'' issue you had talked about (I read the Fitness Fixer religiously). While running on the padded infield of the Stadium Football Field, I was still noticing pains in my hip (caught my foot on the ''upswing'' during a run, hip has hurt off and on since October).
"I focused on my feet, specifically, how I pushed off after the foot-strike (very soft, I often scare other runners because they can't hear me coming up on them). A straight push off after the foot-strike made the pain go away (probably because it aligned my foot/knee/hip during the movement). Also, when the knee pain flared, tensing my quads made it go away.
"I have enjoyed reading your ''Running Articles' please keep 'em coming. AND Thank you for fixing my Back. Much Appreciated, Ted H"
To fix the source of pain, it works best to understand healthful movement retraining and not just "do" a series of rules. One important example is keeping feet parallel or facing forward. The idea is to understand that a straight push-off comes from keeping all the joints in the kinetic chain from feet to hip and spine from twisting in unhealthful ways, not just straighten one segment by twisting another. Yanking or forcing the feet straight is not the point of good positioning.
Ted has more helpful stories to come in future posts. Click these posts for more:
Raina and several other readers asked about plantar fasciitis.
On a house, a fascia is a flat horizontal surface just under the roof. In your body, a fascia is flat fibrous tissue that wraps your muscles and soft structures. You have fascia in several places. One is across the bottom of your feet. "Plantar” means the bottom of your foot that you "plant" on the ground. Your plantar fascia is the fascia on the bottom of your foot. Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation (-itis) of the fascia on the bottom of your foot.
Normal Plantar Fascia Action When you walk or run with your feet facing straight ahead, the line of bending of the foot is straight from front to back. Each step gives you a nice, built-in small stretch across the bottom of your foot. As you walk, run, jump, and move, your plantar fascia transmits body weight across your foot. It is part of shock absorption for your entire leg.
How Bad Movement Mechanics Hurts Several things can make the fascia tighten and hurt. Here are three. More to come in future posts:
1. When you walk or run with feet facing outward, the fascia loses the normal stretch. Over years of not getting its normal stretch, it becomes tight. Walking with feet facing outward also puts sideways forces on the fascia with each step instead of the needed stretch. Walking with poor shock absorption, banging down heavily with each step can amplify strain forces on a tight fascia. Every step you take on a tight fascia yanks on the heel where it attaches. Eventually the heel and bottom of the foot get irritated from the yanking and start to hurt. Irritation can eventually cause the bone to thicken to protect itself - a heel spur.
The tighter your Achilles and foot fascia, the more "normal" it feels to walk toe-out. In a circular problem, walking toe-outward is a common fascial tightener. It may be "natural" with tightness, but can increase tightness over time.
2. Letting ankles constantly sag into pronation (flattened arches) is another fascial strain. Keeping body weight more evenly around the sole of your foot, not pressing and downward on your arches, lifts the weight off the arch. Reader David from Belgium made us a great short video of easily changing from rolling in on the arches to holding straight in Fast Fitness - Fix Flat Feet, Pronation, and Fallen Arches.
3. Hard sole shoes and some fasciitis braces stop the sole from getting the normal lengthening while walking, stopping the pain from the stretch, giving the false impression that the injury is lessening. A negative cycle continues of shortening and continuing the source of the injury. Injections briefly make the area more prone to injury. Pain pills allow you to continue the injury process without pain telling you that it is wrong. Several kinds of anti-inflammatory and pain medicines interfere with healing. Wearing high heeled shoes raises the heel, shortening the length of the Achilles tendon, putting less stretch on the tendon, the lower leg muscles, and the fascia of the foot.
Fasciitis can be quickly stopped. It does not have to be chronic. "Doing" a few stretches does not undo a lifestyle of shortening, tightening, and straining. Forcing tight, artificially straight position instead of creating the length and use of the area that allows healthful motion, can create more pain in other segments. Use your brain and learn good body movement to allow it to heal and be functional.
Helpful links to move in healthy ways to stop plantar fasciitis:
The book Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery has a section on fasciitis, the many unhealthful lifestyle contributors, and simple lifestyle fixes to build into daily life and your exercise classes.
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