Whether you run recreationally, competitively, or even if you’re just looking to get started, the lessons we will share can help to improve performance and mitigate the risk of repetitive strain injury by addressing some of the key concerns. Areas of focus will include flexibility, strength, stability, breathing, and awareness specific to the activity of running.
Improve Your Breathing, Run Further!
One’s ability to breathe optimally while running is important, and posture plays a large role in breathing mechanics. Upper body postural dysfunctions, such as rounded shoulders, forward head, or a slouched upper back can limit proper breathing, and hinder oxygen delivery to the body. This can cause a multitude of negative symptoms, including muscle cramps/spasms, premature fatigue, hyperventilation, anxiety, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, headaches, and dizziness.
Exercises which open the chest and shoulders and strengthen the mid-back and diaphragm can be used to ensure that runners are able to breathe deeply, utilizing their full lung capacity and thereby maximizing the delivery of oxygen to the body. Breathing deeply will aid in recovery during a long bout of exercise or between intervals of higher intensity running. Recognizing that different individuals may require a different approach, below are a few variations of such exercises, adopted from the fields of Physiotherapy (Therapeutic), Yoga, and Athletic Conditioning. A full table with pictures can be found at the end of this Blog.
Therapeutic Exercises
– Pectoral Stretch
– Wall Angel / Scapular W’s
– Band Resisted W’s
Yoga Pose (Asanas)
– Breathing (Bhastrika)
– Locust Pose (Salabhasana)
Athletic Conditioning
– Cable Resisted W’s
