8.03.2010

Sole Runners Post San Francisco Marathon Social

The Green Girl attended the Sole Runners post San Francisco Marathon social at McKenna's On The Bay last night.

Coach Steve invited Dr. Michael Day from the Advanced Wellness Center to be our guest speaker.

Coach Steve started off the evening by describing and demonstrating the three planes of motion in which we move:
  • Sagittal - forward or backward
  • Frontal - side to side
  • Transverse - rotational
He explained when we run, we are moving in the sagittal plane because we are moving forward.

Dr. Day emphasized the importance of range of motion in the planes in terms of preventing and treating muscular imbalances. Range of motion refers to the normal range of movement of a joint from full flexion to full extension.

According to Dr. Day's 'The Balanced Runner is a Thriving Runner':
A runner must be balanced front to back, side to side, and rotationally (no excess rotation on one side of a joint). Any deviation changes the nerve firing pattern and causes a faulty nervous system to fire improper messages for running.
Everything Dr. Day talked about coincided with what Dr. Gonzales had mentioned during my visit last month.

Dr. Day showed us some functional exercises we could use in our warm-up routine.

A couple of the exercises were of particular interest to me since Dr. Gonzales had mentioned I had issues with my left gluteus medeus.
One of them was the 'plank primer'. For this exercise, you start off in plank position. Then you lift one of your legs and rotate your toes outwards until your foot is parallel to the floor. You hold this for three seconds and then repeat on the other side.

The other exercise was 'balance and swing'. For this one, you stand with one leg at 90° and then you swing that leg back and forth in a running motion while alternating arm swings before repeating on the other side.

Each time Dr. Day reiterated the importance of the core and the glutes, I was reminded how crucial it is for me to learn how to start using my glutes when I run.

Dr. Day ended his talk with a question and answer session. Between the Sole Runners, we may well have covered the spectrum of common runner injuries.

Following Dr. Day, Coach Steve went around and congratulated the San Francisco Half and full Marathon finishers.

The sun set created a fiery glow over the marina as we chatted about running and caught up with one another.

5 comments:

  1. What a cool presentation! Always good to learn how to become a better, more balanced runner.

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  2. Ahhh, you brought back memories from when I took my personal trainer class and had a boat load of questions on my test about those planes. Nightmares, actually. Thanks for that!! Haha.

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  3. Very awesome! Thats so cool that your Dr. visit and this meet up totally connected! To bettering our running forever and ever :)

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  4. That sounds like a great event! I am always interested in learning how to improve myself and this fits the bill!

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  5. Sounds awesome! Way to improve and learn!

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