With the NY Marathon a mere 11 months away, numerous triathletes, marathoners and weekend warriors alike will hit the pavement over the Christmas holiday to begin the run up to race season. And while a base of fitness is vital to improving your performance, another benefit of starting early is the opportunity to prevent injury.
As man’s most fundamental weight bearing exercise, running is a great way to build strong bones and joints while strengthening the muscles. Done correctly, this age old movement utilizes the hamstrings, calves and glutes to absorb and redistribute force to add spring to your step. But without proper posture, an externally rotated foot or stiff hamstrings can become a jackhammer on the body rendering each step an exercise in pain.
In particular, one ailment which commonly affects runners with day jobs of the sitting variety is a lack of ankle mobility. This is important because without the ability to flex and extend properly, the bones and joints of the ankle, lower leg and knee quickly become prone to pain and stress fractures brought on the by the high impact activities (running, walking, etc)
While we often hear sitting causes tightness in major muscles, the calves– which act to extend and flex the ankles-have the greatest affect on stiffness in your feet/ankles. Because these muscles are overlooked in many strength training programs, the calves fail to receive the attention (either via stretching or strengthening) necessary to effectively move the ankle.
to evaluate the foot’s ability to plant and flex ,try this ankle mobility drill -
- Throughout this drill, the bottom of your front foot should stay down until the knee touches the wall.
- If your heel raises off the floor, chances are your ankle has long some degree of mobility.
Poor ankle mobility may also explain pain elsewhere in the lower body (knees, low back, feet). With this in mind, restoring range of motion and preventing injury can be accomplished through a four part strategy (brought to us by the National Academy of Sports Medicine):
1) Inhibit muscular lesions:
It is important to release trigger points which may have formed in fascia and soft tissue. This can be achieved by utilizing a foam roller, tennis ball or other small flat object to roll along tight muscles in search of trigger points.
These will appear as lumps, or tight/slightly painful spots along the muscle. Once these areas are identified, press down on each for 60-90 seconds or until the spot has dissolved noticeably. In the case of the ankles,
tight muscles in need of release often include:
2) Lengthen tight muscles:
After eliminating trigger points, lengthening tight muscles can be achieved through static stretching (stretches held for 30 seconds). Generally these stretches should be performed three times throughout the day for the first three weeks to restore length and at least once per day thereafter for maintenance.
The areas most in need of stretching include:
3) Nervous system activation:
The next step after muscle length has been restored is to condition the ankle joint to respond detect and respond properly to various plane of motion. This is done through activation and mobility drills to improve range of motion. Because we naturally lose mobility as we age, how often these drills should be performed is based upon the decade rule-add one day based for each decade of your life.
For example, a thirty year old would perform three days of mobility drills while a forty year old would perform four. Each drill should be performed for two sets of 10-12 reps.
These drills include:
4) Integrate motion:
Once the ankle is fully free to move, the objective becomes bearing weight again with fully integrated movement. This can be done initially by simply standing on one leg and progressed to tasks such as squatting down, hopping in various directions and walking barefoot on a treadmill.
Some suggested progressions include:
- Single leg balance reach- 2 x 30-60 seconds-
- One legged squat- 2 x 6-8 reps
- Box jump- 2 x 6-8 reps
* Begin with the first exercise for 2-4 weeks and progress down the list. Perform one of the above exercises as a warm up before running/jogging or lower body strength training.
5) Preventing future injury:
As ankle mobility is restored, the key to preventing future injury is strengthening the structures responsible for cushioning the lower leg. Because the calves (and to a lesser extent the hamstrings) are most often neglected in strength training programs, these areas are often weak and unable to perform their function.
With this in mind, try these exercises to improve running form:
- One legged calf raises- 2 x 12-15 reps
- Stability ball rollbacks- 2 x 12-15 reps
