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Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 6 – The Incredible “Runner’s Stretch”

Casey — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 14:30:02 +0000

This is Part 6 in the Egoscue and Running Injuries blog series.

One of the interesting things about dealing with chronic running injuries is that aches and pains can become so common that you can forget that you have a problem.

For example, I have long known that my hamstrings are incredibly tight. However, due to compensation from my lower back and quad muscles, the tightness of my hamstrings has been masked for a long time.

Instead of feeling the hamstring tightness, I feel pain in my lower back muscles which are forced to take over for the inflexible and weak hamstrings.

My hamstrings have been able to hide out for a long time. Fortunately, thanks to the last e-cise menu from Matt, the path to fully functioning hammies has begun.

The Egoscue Runner’s Stretch

The e-cise that really woke up my hamstrings was the Runner’s Stretch. At first glance, this stretch doesn’t look that bad:

The goal is to kneel down with your front foot touching your back knee . Curl your back leg toes under. With your hands on each side of your font foot, stand up while keeping your knees straight.

Now for the hard part: Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back. Hold for one minute.

Let me tell you something. There is no WAY I could do what that woman in the picture is doing. It is impossible for me to straighten my legs while my hands are still on the ground.

In order to get my legs straight, I need to prop my hands on a bench. My plan is to gradually reduce the height until I am able to place my hands on the floor.

Benefits of the Runner’s Stretch

According to the description of the e-cise, the purpose of the runner’s stretch is to “isolate the hamstrings under bilateral pelvic demand to promote coordination with the hip.”

For me, the real benefit of this exercise is that it enables me to stretch and lengthen my tight hamstring without any compensation by my lower back muscles. The cue to “arch the back” with the legs straight is critical in achieving the desired hamstring isolation.

Other common non-Egoscue hamstring stretches, including the hurdle stretch and the standing hamstring stretch permit the back to take much of the flexion that should be reserved for the hamstring.

One of the key indicators that the runner’s stretch works is that the Downward Dog e-cise is much easier after the runner’s stretch. I don’t have to bend my knees quite so much in order to get the arch in my back while performing the Downward Dog.

Of course, in order to achieve maximum benefit, the runner’s stretch needs to be done together with other Egoscue e-cises designed for your imbalances. For example, I am sure that gravity drop and a hip lift e-cises are helping to release other tight muscles thus making the runner’s stretch easier.

I’m definitely excited about my new hamstring flexibility and reduction in pain. More to come!

Visit Oregon Exercise Therapy for more information about the Egoscue Method.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a collaboration with Oregon Exercise Therapy. All opinions are my own.

The post Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 6 – The Incredible “Runner’s Stretch” appeared first on The Runner's Resource.

Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 5: My Back Is An Over-Protective Parent

Casey — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 14:53:57 +0000

This is part 5 of the Egoscue and Running Injuries blog series.

The work to get stronger and correct my postural imbalances continues. As I have been discussing in prior posts, the focus of my Egoscue e-cises has been to strengthen the hip and glute muscles while trying to turn off the lower back muscles.

I can already report that my right trapezius pain is getting better! I have been able to run up to 30 minutes without pain instead of the usual 20 minutes. Exciting stuff!

Unfortunately, I’m still experiencing some pain and think that it’s related to my lower back.

The Lower Back: An Over-Protective Parent

At this point, I am starting to view my lower back muscles as an over-protective parent for my hip muscles. Let me explain.

For the past seven years, I have been sitting at my desk at work for eight to nine hours per day. This has caused my hip flexors to shorten and weaken and my glutes to atrophy.

However, during these seven years I have continued to run and occasionally have done some pretty difficult workouts. Without properly functioning hip and glute muscles, my lower back has been forced to compensate for my weak hip muscles in order to allow my body to run.

My back is basically an overprotective parent for my hip flexors and glutes – it so concerned that my glutes and hip flexors won’t properly stabilize the hip that it does the work that other muscles should be doing.

My lower back has become so accustomed to taking the function of a hip flexor and hip stabilizer that it is very difficult to turn it off during the Egoscue e-cises involving hip flexors and glutes are especially difficult, including the Sitting Isolated Hip Flexor Lifts, Supine Leg Raise, and the Hip Lift.

A Targeted Approach to Convincing the Back to “Let Go”

I told Matt at Oregon Exercise Therapy about the issues with my over-protective back muscles, and he suggested a new menu of e-cises to target my weaknesses while in manner that does not activate the low back.

This new menu includes the following e-cises:

One takeaway from this menu is that includes the Downward Dog exercise, which is a common in yoga routines. One of the great things about Egoscue is that it takes some of the best parts of a variety of different disciplines, including yoga and pilates.

After performing this e-cise menu a few times, I have already felt less tightness in my lower back.

One of the e-cises that was especially difficult was the flutter kicks. Matt emphasized that the flutter kicks should only be performed with the back flat on the floor. This exercise really works the hip flexor and abdominal muscles.

The runner’s stretch is also a difficult one due to the tightness in my hamstrings. My left hamstring is incredibly tight during this exercise – especially when I properly flatten my back.

I’m excited about this new menu and hope it will help target my muscular imbalances while not engaging the muscles that have been over-active.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Visit Oregon Exercise Therapy for more information about the Egoscue Method.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a collaboration with Oregon Exercise Therapy. All opinions are my own.

The post Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 5: My Back Is An Over-Protective Parent appeared first on The Runner's Resource.

Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 4: Building Hip Strength

Casey — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 14:30:54 +0000

This is part 4 in the Egoscue and Running Injuries blog series.

In my prior post, I described the first Egoscue e-cise “menu” that Matt from Oregon Exercise Therapy sent to me. The purpose of the e-cises was to combat the serious postural imbalances that I have throughout my body. These imbalances put me at serious risk for running injuries and reduce my ability to run efficiently.

Targeting the Glutes and Hip Flexors

The biggest takeaway from my first Egoscue menu was the incredible weakness of my glutes and hip flexors. I had a very difficult time with the quad lift and gluteal contraction exercises. I think one of the biggest culprits for my lack of strength in these muscle areas is my job situation. I sit eight to ten hours per day on average.

Sitting this long every day tightens and shortens my hip flexors and locks down the glute muscles. Due to the lack of strength in the hip area, the body over-utilizes other muscles, including the back and quads, to propel the body forward when running.

The realization that I have these muscle imbalances is actually encouraging, however the strengthening exercises that Matt has suggested for me are also really tough.

Unfortunately, my lower back is so accustomed to performing the functions of the hip flexor that it continually fires when I try to perform exercises like the quad lift. This causes the back to become tight and sore.

The quad lift was actually so difficult that Matt took it off of my second menu of e-cises. I now have a variety of other exercises that target with hip flexors without engaging the lower back.

Second E-Cise Menu

In addition to the new hip flexor e-cises that Matt provided me, the second Egoscue menu also includes e-cises for glute strength, torso rotation, ab strength, and hip stability. Here is the menu:

As you can see, the menu is pretty long and it can be challenge to find time to complete it every day. However, I am so sick of running with pain that that I’m willing to invest the time to target my postural weaknesses.

Supine Leg Raise: Not As Easy As It Looks

Unsurprisingly, the most difficult e-cise in this second menu is the one the focuses on hip flexor strength: the Supine Leg Raises e-cise. According to the e-cise instructions, I am supposed to lift my unbent leg to this level with my back arched:

The problem is that I simply do not have the strength to lift my leg even close to the level of my bent leg. I am lucky to be able to raise the leg six inches and am sweating after only three sets of 20 repetitions.

Clearly, I have a long way to go to get my hip strength to an acceptable level.

Stayed tuned for more updates on my experience of battling running injuries with the Egoscue Method.

Visit Oregon Exercise Therapy for more information about the Egoscue Method.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a collaboration with Oregon Exercise Therapy. All opinions are my own.

The post Egoscue and Running Injuries Part 4: Building Hip Strength appeared first on The Runner's Resource.

My First Egoscue Menu: Getting Stronger To Run Faster

Casey — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:40:27 +0000

This is part 3 of the Egoscue Method and Running Injuries series.

As I described in my last post, Matt of Oregon Exercise Therapy provided me with a menu of Egoscue e-cises after I sent him a description of my running injuries and photos of my posture.

Are These E-Cises Too Easy?

On the surface, the e-cises appear like they should be easy. For example, the quad lift e-cise merely requires you to sit against a wall, create an arch in your back, and raise your leg off the ground.

However, it was extremely hard for me.

I could barely get my leg off the ground and felt my lower back engage to help with lifting the leg. I informed Matt about my trouble with this e-cise and he told me that it showed that my hip flexor muscles were extremely weak.

Another e-cise that seemed like it should be easy was the standing glute contractions. This e-cise simply requires you to stand with your hands at your sides and flex your glute muscles – making sure that your hamstring and back muscles are not the muslces that are flexing.

Just standing up and flexing my rear end? Should be no problem, right?

Nope!

I found it very hard to isolate my glute muscles with my hamstring or lower back muscles taking over. Matt told me that this shows that my glutes are very weak.

So based merely on these two exercises, I got a pretty good idea that my glutes and hip flexors are very weak and that other muscles (i.e. lower back muscles) are picking up the slack for them. Clearly this could create all sorts of overuse problems for my hip and back.

In fact, it’s kind of amazing that I am able to lift my leg and propel myself forward during running. The primary muscles responsible for these motions are basically non-functional!

Egoscue Tower

One e-cise that did not require a lot of muscle strength was the supine progressive stretch in tower. Matt does a great job of explaining this stretch on his web site. The overall goal is to promote proper flexion and extension of the leg.

The basic idea is that you lie on the floor with one leg over a block or chair, bent to 90 degrees. The other foot is placed in the highest rung of the Egoscue “tower.” You stay in this position for five minutes, then place the foot in the next lowest rung of the tower and wait another five minutes.

There are 6 rungs of the Egoscue tower, so this entire stretch takes one hour for both legs. Definitely a major commitment of time, but I have already felt looser in my hips.

In addition to the time commitment, there is also the monetary commitment to buy the tower. It currently runs around $100 at crookedhuman.com, but I found one cheaper through e-bay.

Takeaways

In summary, this first e-cise menu has showed me the incredible tightness and weakness of my hip flexor and glute muscles. I’m really looking forward to doing the exercises and seeing if I can address the longstanding imbalances throughout my body.

There is no question that doing the entire menu of e-cises everyday takes some time (currently from 80-100 minutes), but I am sick of being in pain and willing to make an investment of time to hopefully run without chronic injuries.

Visit Oregon Exercise Therapy for more information about the Egoscue Method.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a collaboration with Oregon Exercise Therapy. All opinions are my own.

The post My First Egoscue Menu: Getting Stronger To Run Faster appeared first on The Runner's Resource.