Keep Your Body Supple By Mobilizing
Key #3 MOVE - Chapter 8: Mobilize - Routine maintenance for your body.
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Step #8 - Mobilize
You maintain your car, but do you maintain your running machine? I'm going to go into Step #8 of the Forever Runner method, which is called “Mobilize.”
For us older runners, this is extremely important. And as I said at the very beginning, if you’re thinking that it is important to maintain your car properly, to keep it running for many thousands of miles, you need to approach your running in the same way and get into the habit of having daily maintenance on your body for your running.
I recommend adopting 3 habits to insure you remain supple as you age…
Adopt a morning routine to wake your body up.
Do a pre-run warmup to lubricate your muscles.
Perform an evening foam roll to loosen things up before bed
These are simple routines that don’t take much time, but can make a huge difference for enjoying your runs and preventing injury.
Mobilize Action #1 – Adopt a morning routine
As we age, getting those juices going in the morning can be a challenge. I strongly recommend you adopt some sort of morning routine after you get out of bed. As an example, when I wake, I measure my HRV, have a glass of water, then do a yoga sun salutation.
It’s important to top off your fluids and get your circulation going before you start your day. You can do Yoga, Pilates, body weight exercise or if you run first thing in the morning, a pre-run warmup.
Pick something you like and make it a morning habit.
Mobilize Action #2 – Pre-run warmup
In the old days, we were taught to always stretch before our runs. That has changed to mobilize before our runs. There are many ways to do this. I recommend searching on YouTube for a routine you like. It can be as simple as some leg swings, lunges and squats. The idea is to open up all those tiny capillaries that feed your muscle fibers so that when you start to run, your muscles have the fluid and nourishment to respond without stress.
Mobilize Action #3 – Evening foam roll and mobilization
The best daily maintenance for runners is foam rolling. There are all sorts of videos on YouTube on how to foam roll. But, the whole idea here is to get into the habit. What I found that works best for myself and my clients is in the evening, just before you go to bed, dedicate 10 minutes for mobility.
Start off with some foam rolling on your legs and other parts of your body and then finish up with some mobility work.
So the reason you want to do this every day is if you start foam rolling, you'll notice that it can be a little painful because your body isn't used to it and you've got that fascia that is adhering to your muscles. You need to break some of those little knobs that are catching and get things loosened up.
You'll find if you do this every day over a couple of weeks, that it won't be so painful to do the foam rolling. You'll start being more self-aware of your muscles in your legs and hips and buttocks. And you'll find those little things that will grow if you don't pay attention to them and end up being in some sort of muscle imbalance or injury later on. So just by doing a simple daily foam roll routine, you'll be able to catch some of these little things before they even cause a problem.
Let’s talk about mobility. As we get older, especially if we end up sitting at a desk a lot during the day or commuting or whatever, your hip flexors get short and they get tight. This really compromises your running form and can lead to injuries such as runner's knee, and not being able to fully take advantage of your natural stride. For us older runners, our hip flexors are very important. One of the best ways to maintain the flexibility and elasticity of your hip flexors is to do what's called a couch stretch. Again if you search YouTube under Dr. Kelly Starette, you’ll find the proper way to do it.
Activate Homework
If you're struggling with running slow at a slow cadence, this will help. Here is your homework:
1. Adopt a morning routine
2. Do pre-run warmups
3. Do an evening mobility session
Thanks for taking a look. I would appreciate some honest feedback on this chapter. This review is not about spotting typos. Instead, the most useful feedback is about stuff like:
Where do you get confused or lost or have an unanswered question.
Where do you disagree, or have different experiences.
Where you start to get bored and feel like skipping ahead or giving up.
Anything you find especially interesting or helpful.
You can leave comments below(paid member) or email them to me at: Herb@foreverrunner.com
Next Chapter: Chapter 9: Lift - Build and maintain muscle mass for longevity.