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“… any injury that makes it uncomfortable to walk or run will cause you to alter how you move your pelvis to avoid putting weight on the painful side, and we tend to continue using this movement pattern long after we have healed, thus interfering with healthy, comfortable, and enjoyable running.” <–that's me!
Have just found your website and this post spoke to me quite a bit. I got a total hip replacement 16 months ago but had lived with the hip arthritis for 3+ years before that, and tried to continue running and walking through the pain (I was in denial!). Not recommended! The surgery fixed the hip and I have since resumed running and full activity, but am finding lingering issues with running habits formed while trying to avoid pain, and am now having to work through various imbalances one by one. I think more core action will go a long way toward getting back in alignment and will try to be more conscious of that. I was definitely avoiding weighting the painful hip for a long time, and that caused all sorts of messes. Thank you for this article!
ReplyYou’re welcome, Carolyn! Best of luck getting back to comfortable running.
ReplyHi, Jae.
Just wondering what you think about Ken Bob Saxton’s (and a few others’) approach of planting your feet right under the centre of your body as if you’re running along an imaginary line (as opposed to each foot landing further out to the left or right) to avoid too much vertical drop of the free hip. It made sense to me.
ReplyHi Chris. I think that idea is a really poor one. The assumption is that a vertical drop of the free hip is a bad thing, but in fact in the right amount it’s a good thing and part of your spring system. The price of running as if on a tightrope is that not only do you lose the ability to have an appropriate hip drop; you also lose the ability to pronate your feet appropriately and use your big toes. It also makes you work harder and slows you down.
ReplyI totally agree with you Jae. We don’t want to be controlling movement of the pelvis, but letting it go instead – tilting, shifting, hiking, rotating as needed in the cycle.
The tightrope gait is characteristic of feet stuck in pronation, that therefore cannot access any more, nor supination. Hip extension begins with loading appropriately through the first MPJ and the rotation necessary for good hip extension also begins here.
These people will often not be able to shift the pelvis well and are often unbalanced.
Equally, a really wide gait is not helpful either and often indicates an inability to shift weight from side to side or rotate the pelvis to get length in the stride.
Just came across your site and really impressed. I’m not a Feldenkrais practitioner as such but use some similar approaches in the work I do with runners – focusing on movement first and slowing everything right down to change the brain.
Great work – keep it up!
Reply“any injury that makes it uncomfortable to walk or run will cause you to alter how you move your pelvis to avoid putting weight on the painful side, and we tend to continue using this movement pattern long after we have healed, thus interfering with healthy, comfortable, and enjoyable running.” <–that's also me.
I had an ACL reconstruction 10 years ago, and though i have gone back to playing football (soccer) and Martial arts, i keep getting regular injury on the knee. The last was a suspected cartilage tear. After one session of balancing the hip flexors my tight hips have released and i was able to run further pain free this morning. I am hoping when i start playing again in three weeks these issues are sorted. thank you very much for this information.
ReplyThat’s great, Mark! Thanks for taking the time to write and let me know.That sounds like great progress, and I hope you enjoy your return to football. If you do find you’re still having any trouble, we have lots more resources to help you.
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