Archives for October 2016

Tight Calves are a common lament among runners. I frequently hear about how runners, from beginners to experts, constantly battle tightness in their calf muscles. There are multiple underlying factors that can contribute to this, but at the end of the day, running thousands of steps are a big burden to all your muscles…but the calves can especially take the brunt of this. Because of this, routine maintenance of your calf muscles is extremely helpful for keeping you going.

Today’s video covers three simple ways to stay on top of your calf flexibility. If you find these helpful please let me know and share this video with anyone who struggles with calf tightness. Enjoy!

Flexibility is an important factor for running efficiently and living life efficiently. When we think of flexibility, it’s easy to assume that muscles are the only parts of our body that need it. But is there anything else that needs to be stretched? Our joints are held together by tight ligamentous structures called capsules that are underneath the muscles. These capsules are unfortunately overlooked much of the time when we address our flexibility and movement, to our own detriment.Loosening up your hip joints will allow the muscles to work more easily.

This is the topic of this week’s video, specifically hip capsule stretches. Take a look and give the exercises a try, especially as part of your preparation and warming up to run. Again, it would make my week if you shared it with a friend who may find it useful!

Shin pain is a common issue with runners. In talking with several high school athletes and coaches, they report this to be one of their biggest areas of pain. It can certainly be a complicated thing to unravel after the pain starts in with each individual having specific needs. When you look at the common underlying factors, what you often see is lack of flexibility in the calves, as well as weakness in the feet and hips. All these contribute to increased ground contact time with each stride causing increased stress on the medial shin. This is the subject I tackle today in this video! Have a look and please tell me if these are helpful to you and what other topics you would like to see covered.

Also, it would make my week if you shared this video or the site with someone else. No pressure or anything!

Hi all! Sorry for the slight hiatus with posting. After receiving feedback, my hope is to have more video with better explanation and demonstration of the topics presented. So…if you’ve ever struggled with hip pain, or wish you had better strength in your core or glutes, here’s a video for you. Please let me know how you like it and what topics you would like to see covered in the near future. Happy trails!