oSTEOPATHY AND RUNNING
Efficiency comes from normal joint and muscle function.
Can your efficiency be improved?
The biomechanics, or way your body moves, is a complex inter relationship of muscles, joints and ligaments. Every muscle and joint and ligament has an order of functioning for you to walk, run, sit and move without pain. If all of these are working normally, then movement should feel effortless. When a body is working perfectly, movement should use very little energy. On the other hand, when muscles are strained, joints under excessive load and ligaments relied upon to carry too much strain, pain and a lack of energy arise.
Brisbane Osteopaths help you achieve your goals, Empowering mobility and freedom of movement.
Osteopaths distinguish themselves from other health care practitioners by focusing assessment and hands on treatment by looking at movement patterns.
Case study:
A recent runner I treated presented with lower back pain from teenage years that had been bothering him again recently after beginning running and working his way up to his first 10km race. Upon examining him, he had no neurological concerns so I moved on to muscle examinations and discovered excessively tight muscles on the inner leg (adductors), less movement than normal in the sacrum (big bone in the centre of your bottom), unusually weak front of thigh muscles (quadraceps) and excessively stiff feet. His lower back felt strained and didnt flex (bend forward) well. With a further look and question about his feet, he revealed he'd suffered badly in his teens from foot pain and had worn orthotics ever since, which helped a lot. Osteopathic treatment in this instance involved stretching the adductor and lower back muscles, articulating the sacrum and sacroiliac joints (joints between the spine and pelvis) and manipulating the small bones of the feet to increase the amount of movement within these. Osteopaths treat very holistically. This means we look at the site of your pain but examine your whole body movement to determine where the problem lies and treat this. Our aim is to get you back to training faster! This particular runner had such stiffness in his feet that his every step was heavy and laboured. The normal force transfer through the small joints of the feet did not occur and thus he used his leg muscles differently to how they should be during his run. This change then continued through his pelvis and into the spine, where a weak area from years earlier began to ache. By loosening the joints in his feet we were able to allow his weight to be absorbed normally through the feet and begin to normalise the muscle patterns required for a smooth running style.
Brisbane Osteopaths help you achieve your goals, Empowering mobility and freedom of movement.
Osteopaths distinguish themselves from other health care practitioners by focusing assessment and hands on treatment by looking at movement patterns.
Case study:
A recent runner I treated presented with lower back pain from teenage years that had been bothering him again recently after beginning running and working his way up to his first 10km race. Upon examining him, he had no neurological concerns so I moved on to muscle examinations and discovered excessively tight muscles on the inner leg (adductors), less movement than normal in the sacrum (big bone in the centre of your bottom), unusually weak front of thigh muscles (quadraceps) and excessively stiff feet. His lower back felt strained and didnt flex (bend forward) well. With a further look and question about his feet, he revealed he'd suffered badly in his teens from foot pain and had worn orthotics ever since, which helped a lot. Osteopathic treatment in this instance involved stretching the adductor and lower back muscles, articulating the sacrum and sacroiliac joints (joints between the spine and pelvis) and manipulating the small bones of the feet to increase the amount of movement within these. Osteopaths treat very holistically. This means we look at the site of your pain but examine your whole body movement to determine where the problem lies and treat this. Our aim is to get you back to training faster! This particular runner had such stiffness in his feet that his every step was heavy and laboured. The normal force transfer through the small joints of the feet did not occur and thus he used his leg muscles differently to how they should be during his run. This change then continued through his pelvis and into the spine, where a weak area from years earlier began to ache. By loosening the joints in his feet we were able to allow his weight to be absorbed normally through the feet and begin to normalise the muscle patterns required for a smooth running style.