Running with your Hips??
I have a love/hate relationship with a paved trail I like to walk near where I live. Just about anytime I take a walk, there are other walkers, joggers, runners and quite a few professional looking bikers whizzing by. I love this trail, it is easy to walk and you can go for several miles, turn around and walk back or just 20 mins.
I am not a power walker so most joggers and runners pass right by me. What is so difficult to me as a neuromuscular therapist who works with proper gait and muscle alignment, is to watch the way the runners and joggers use there bodies so inefficiently. I can almost see their knee pain developing right in front of my eyes.
I once was behind a woman who I was pretty sure was "this close to a heart attack". Watching her, made me remember back to a good friend of my fathers, whom I observed working out on a treadmill at a gym I belonged to at the time. I went home that night and told my father, he looked like he was going to have a heart attack. His face was red, his body looked heavy, struggling to keep moving, yet he kept on, panting and puffing. He wasn't an overweight guy, he was probably of normal weight just a little out of shape physically from what I could see. My father said he used to run a lot and thought he was in pretty good shape for his age but maybe hadn't been running lately. It was right after the holidays, so he was probably working on his New Years Resolution?? Two weeks later he passed away from a massive heart attack while jogging along the street in his neighborhood. He was a family man, 40 yrs old with 4 kids at home, had a great job, a bright future and a really nice guy. I personally was not surprised because of what I observed in the gym however. That was many years before I went to medical school, but I will never forget how he looked.
I have learned not to approach people, because they generally either don't believe you or don't want to hear there might be something wrong. Some get angry, and blow the whole idea off, some think you are a crazy person yelling at them. It is not easy to watch it happen, without doing anything, but I have learned to just observe, unless I can find a way to reach them without being put off by them.
I have had patients like that before. Runners or bikers are classic cases in my practice, who try their best to do all the "right" things. They come in for a knee issue or a back issue but they are positive it has nothing to do with their health or their body mechanics. Yet, they don't realize that if their health was good or they changed their body mechanics, they could recuperate from any injury or illness pretty quickly. Most avid runners and bikers have low muscle mass and almost no fat on their bodies. Women actually need fat on their bodies and low muscle mass on a man is not really healthy either from everything I have studied it shows they are deficient.
Getting back to the poor running form. Proper body mechanics is one of the most important things, not only in running but in anything you do. It is what drains us when we exert ourselves. With proper body mechanics, you can run longer, faster and more efficiently. I don't think there should even be a category for jogging, because there is no efficient way to jog. I believe people jog because there body mechanics are so bad they have no efficient energy to propel themselves forward properly.
Aerobics can be good for the heart if done correctly according to how healthy your heart is and you don't overdo, so I don't want to discourage anyone from going for a run or a bike ride...it might be best to see someone that is trained in good body mechanics or a neuromuscular therapist, who can analyze what you could do to make your gait more efficient before you head out on the trail again however. If everyone did that, my walks on the trail would be more of a love/love relationship :)
Happy Trails!
Patricia J Ahner, AP, LAc, LMT, Lic Esth. Reiki Master
www.get-relief.com | contact@get-relief.com/bio
I am not a power walker so most joggers and runners pass right by me. What is so difficult to me as a neuromuscular therapist who works with proper gait and muscle alignment, is to watch the way the runners and joggers use there bodies so inefficiently. I can almost see their knee pain developing right in front of my eyes.
I once was behind a woman who I was pretty sure was "this close to a heart attack". Watching her, made me remember back to a good friend of my fathers, whom I observed working out on a treadmill at a gym I belonged to at the time. I went home that night and told my father, he looked like he was going to have a heart attack. His face was red, his body looked heavy, struggling to keep moving, yet he kept on, panting and puffing. He wasn't an overweight guy, he was probably of normal weight just a little out of shape physically from what I could see. My father said he used to run a lot and thought he was in pretty good shape for his age but maybe hadn't been running lately. It was right after the holidays, so he was probably working on his New Years Resolution?? Two weeks later he passed away from a massive heart attack while jogging along the street in his neighborhood. He was a family man, 40 yrs old with 4 kids at home, had a great job, a bright future and a really nice guy. I personally was not surprised because of what I observed in the gym however. That was many years before I went to medical school, but I will never forget how he looked.
I have learned not to approach people, because they generally either don't believe you or don't want to hear there might be something wrong. Some get angry, and blow the whole idea off, some think you are a crazy person yelling at them. It is not easy to watch it happen, without doing anything, but I have learned to just observe, unless I can find a way to reach them without being put off by them.
I have had patients like that before. Runners or bikers are classic cases in my practice, who try their best to do all the "right" things. They come in for a knee issue or a back issue but they are positive it has nothing to do with their health or their body mechanics. Yet, they don't realize that if their health was good or they changed their body mechanics, they could recuperate from any injury or illness pretty quickly. Most avid runners and bikers have low muscle mass and almost no fat on their bodies. Women actually need fat on their bodies and low muscle mass on a man is not really healthy either from everything I have studied it shows they are deficient.
Getting back to the poor running form. Proper body mechanics is one of the most important things, not only in running but in anything you do. It is what drains us when we exert ourselves. With proper body mechanics, you can run longer, faster and more efficiently. I don't think there should even be a category for jogging, because there is no efficient way to jog. I believe people jog because there body mechanics are so bad they have no efficient energy to propel themselves forward properly.
Aerobics can be good for the heart if done correctly according to how healthy your heart is and you don't overdo, so I don't want to discourage anyone from going for a run or a bike ride...it might be best to see someone that is trained in good body mechanics or a neuromuscular therapist, who can analyze what you could do to make your gait more efficient before you head out on the trail again however. If everyone did that, my walks on the trail would be more of a love/love relationship :)
Happy Trails!
Patricia J Ahner, AP, LAc, LMT, Lic Esth. Reiki Master
www.get-relief.com | contact@get-relief.com/bio
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