Running Form Insights From An Expert Physiotherapist

Finn Melanson [00:00:13]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Finn Melanson, and this is the Run to the Top podcast, The podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget. Laura Rutherford joins Run TO the Top to discuss several important topics within our community. We lead with her experience with hip dysplasia and the steps that she took through childhood and early adulthood to get to a point where she had near perfect running form and the ability to train for and race half marathons. After that, we get into her professional background as a physiotherapist and some of the insights that she's gained working with running related clients to rehab various muscles, joints, posture issues and overall movement problems. Then we get into some of the essential exercises that she recommends to improve form for endurance athletes, and we conclude with her interest in runner focused Pilates. This was a knowledge packed episode coupled with touching inspirational background stories that I think you'll enjoy.

Finn Melanson [00:01:29]: Laura, it's great to have you on the Run to the Top podcast. How are you doing today?

Guest [00:01:33]: I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here.

Finn Melanson [00:01:37]: Pleasure to have you. And, yeah, I guess the first question I have for you is pretty basic, and there there are likely people in our audience that have either dealt with this condition personally or, know someone in their network who has. What is hip dysplasia?

Guest [00:01:54]: So hip dysplasia is a condition that people can have it have discovered at any time in their life. So some children are born with it, some people develop it, and some people don't realize they have it until they're into adulthood. So, basically, the mechanism is that you have a ball and socket in your hip joint. And when you have a stabular dysplasia, it means the socket isn't quite deep enough, so the ball isn't supported in the socket very well. So the socket doesn't go all the way over the top. So what that really means is that anytime that we're weight bearing, we have to use a lot, lot, lot of muscle activity and rely on a lot of the soft tissues to give us support and stability because we don't have the bony stability that we genetically should have

Finn Melanson [00:02:36]: had. And for some people, they'll recognize that something is off early in life and it will be diagnosed. But for some people, you you mentioned that that they might not know until adulthood. How how is that the case?

Guest [00:02:50]: So, like I said, there there's congenital hip dysplasia, which is when you're born with it. And sometimes there is a developmental dysplasia, which happens and occurs later on in life. So even if you have been through all the checks as a baby and you're cleared, sometimes it can still develop later on in life. There is a screening process, and one of the things that I'm working closely with, some wonderful charities, if you don't mind if I may name drop, the, the International Hip Dysplasia Institute, are working around the world with their hip hop network, and, a few other charities I'd love to mention to go in the show notes afterwards if people are interested in, getting to know some more about this research. But, yeah, it's it's something that can develop through life. And if things are missed, which unfortunately they are, hopefully, the research will continue to develop to be able to make sure that no one is missed. And the ultimate goal is to have every baby screened at birth no matter whether they've got risk factors associated or not because, unfortunately, too many people are missed.

Finn Melanson [00:03:58]: We will certainly link to those charities in the show notes. Remind me offline. You have an interesting story. From what I understand, you you have the condition. It was you were born with it. You ended up having this major pelvis surgery when you were a kid, but and you've gotten to this point where the the outcome apparently has been quite positive and you're now training for half marathons and and marathons, you're racing them. Talk about your story.

Guest [00:04:27]: So, yeah, I mean, that that I I definitely was training for half marathons. That story has slightly changed. But, yeah, I had a surgery when I was 10, and the the surgery was called a periastatabular osteotomy, so PAO for short. And what happened is that I was missed, as a baby. So a lot of the conservative treatment, which is the nonsurgical approach, when you're a baby is to put you in a harness, and the pressure of the harness and the position that you're put in allows the socket to deepen as you grow. But that wasn't able to happen for me. So when I was 10, I had this PAO surgery. And what they do is they basically chop out your socket, and rearrange it and pin it all back together again, and then you have to learn to re walk and, to be able to to get strong with this new bony support.

Guest [00:05:23]: So there's there's different criteria and who's appropriate for the surgery and who's not, but I was lucky to be able to, to have that as an option. And yeah, it was the thing that inspired me to become a physio in the first place, because I just remember having the most amazing physio when I was going through, and if she's ever listening to this, you were amazing and you inspired my whole career. So, Yeah. It was it was a pretty amazing thing that even though it has its challenges, I'm still very grateful for. But, yeah, so that was what started it all. And then, yeah, I've always been a really active person. I've always wanted play sports and and be really active in lots and lots of different things. A lot of people, find it quite amusing.

Guest [00:06:08]: I have so many different hobbies, but, I really enjoy them, and, running was a pretty major one for quite a long period of time. So I was able to to do a few half marathons and, trained really hard. But, the amount of training to be able to do endurance running with a hip that isn't quite as stable takes a lot a lot of time and effort. And I'm not saying that it can't be done. Yeah. But it, but it takes a lot of, a lot of extra stability training because we can't afford to get tired. I think the thing with having hip dysplasia is if you get to the point where your muscles are tired, then you don't really have as much of a backup system as perhaps other people might. So, yeah, you've got to really do a lot of endurance training, but it is possible and it is so satisfying when you're able to do some of those things.

Guest [00:07:04]: And checking off some of those half marathons was an incredible experience. Yeah. One one's that I look back on very, very fondly.

Finn Melanson [00:07:13]: You mentioned that you you've been active in a lot of ways since you were a kid, but I'm curious how did how did running become a focus at least for a period of time?

Guest [00:07:25]: So, actually, running running was something that I always used to love to do for my mental health. It was something that I was doing in my twenties and, you know, I wasn't doing major distances. It was more like sort of 5 k's, 10 k's, but just for my own for my own mental health and, just loved the freedom that it gave to just go out and be at one with nature and just have this quiet time, in my mind. And that was that was always something that was really wonderful. And then a little later on in life, I was, with my, with my partner who actually, who, has or already been on this podcast with you, talking about nutrition and lifting. Yep. So, yes. When when we started working together, she was doing a lot of Ironman training.

Guest [00:08:16]: And so I got back involved with doing a little bit more, with her. So that sort of took me on to the higher distances that I hadn't really thought about before. And, it was really amazing to be able to to push myself to to those distances knowing what what was being overcome in the process.

Finn Melanson [00:08:35]: When you were, you know, learning more about hip dysplasia as a kid and then, obviously, as you were preparing for that surgery and you were rehabbing from that surgery, were you receiving encouragement from the medical community that that running could be an outlet for you? Was it seen as a place that, you know, was just sort of out of bounds just because of the demands? Like, talk about that too.

Guest [00:08:58]: That's a really, really interesting topic, and it's gonna it's gonna be a divisive conversation, I think. We, as a community of people with hip dysplasia, are advised by many a professional to not run, which is why some of the stories of the people that have hip dysphasia that do some of these incredible, incredible feats and do Ironmans and run marathons and all of this stuff is is so celebrated because it takes so much to overcome it. But, yeah, we are in general advised not to do a lot of impact sports. Now I'm a physio and I I don't I don't a 100% agree with that. I think that there are some people that it would be very detrimental for, and there are some people that it would be a lot more manageable for. But I think the most important thing to consider when you're talking about running an ability, if it is physically possible for you, there is so much more to think about than just just the physical act of running. I think when I'm talking to my patients about running and they've got hip dysplasia, I'm asking them about how important it is to to their life. Is it is it something that makes them feel alive? Is it something that brings them joy? Is it something that really, really makes them feel happy to their core.

Guest [00:10:23]: And if somebody feels that way about running, and who is anybody to tell you that you can't? You might be able to run for 5 minutes. You might be able to run for 5 hours, but there still might be some modifications that you can make to allow somebody to be able to run still. And even if it might not be the most advised thing, if it's giving you happiness and joy in your day to day life, is there a way to modify it? That means that you can have the strength, can have the endurance to be able to run for perhaps a shorter period of time while you're building up the strength to maybe be able to run for a longer period of time. Like I said, it's not it's not going to be the answer for everybody. And unfortunately, not everybody with hip dysplasia is going to be able to, to run. If it is physically possible and it means so much to you for your mental health, for your joy, for your inner happiness, is there a way that it can be modified? And that's the kind of approach that I come at it from, even though I can completely understand why the the medical profession say that it's not it's not ideal.

Finn Melanson [00:11:26]: Well, one of the places I wanna go here I'm not sure where I read it or if I saw it on social media, but couple running gait specialists had said that they had interacted with you or they had saw you run and that you have you had achieved like perfect running form. And I don't know if that that that's true or not, but, apparently, you have great running form. And I'm I guess I'm wondering. I'm I'm curious kind of on behalf of the audience. Because of this condition, do you have to sort of make sure that every other part of that sort of kinetic chain is just totally dialed to the things, you you have a chance?

Guest [00:12:03]: I think, I think it may have been, Sam actually that said that perhaps whether it was on one of her interviews with you or in one of the the podcasts that we had together. But Yeah. That story actually came from we were we were at a biomechanics center. It was a it was a place that sells all the shoes, and they do all the gait analysis. And the the shoes were actually for Sam. And, we were sort of doing some some running gait analysis, and I was having a chat to, to to the biomechanics person. We were having a chat just because of my career and just what we were thinking about it. And so we all got involved and we were all sort of doing a few demos up and down.

Guest [00:12:43]: And, yeah, to, to everybody's surprise, you know, I've got this hip condition, but, yeah, I was I was very chuffed to be able to be told that I had to, that I had very good form. But yes, it was, it is something that I'm so aware of because of everything that's going on with my hip. Because if I don't run with good form, it just hurts. And then I have flare ups and then they can last for for weeks. So, yeah, I'm very, very conscious that and I'm so privileged with the career that I have to be able to to understand and analyze and try and work through that stuff. But, yeah, that's, that's definitely where that story came from. And, yeah, it's wonderful to hear that back and, know that, yeah, it it does take a lot of work to to get that good form. Yeah.

Guest [00:13:32]: Very satisfying when you can get it.

Finn Melanson [00:13:34]: Well, what was some of the work you did? Like, was it certain, like, movement patterns, certain exercises, prehab stuff? Like, what were you what were you working on, to make that possible?

Guest [00:13:47]: I mean, there for me, there there were specific things for me that I had to work really hard on. So I think it's very different for every single individual on what they need to work on. But for me, after my after my surgery, I really struggled with strength into my external rotators in my hip. So the ones that turn the leg outwards, the ones that take the leg out to the side, so your abductors. And a very specific combination of both backwards and outwards is really weak for me. So, basically what happens that I don't know if you've heard of the the what's called trendelenburg sign. But in the hip world, this is where you stand on one leg and the leg that you're standing on, say we're standing on the left leg. If you don't have the strength in your standing leg, your right hip would dip down and your left hip would kinda stick out to the side a little bit.

Guest [00:14:35]: So they were all the muscles that were really weak on me. So I had to work really hard on on those muscles to be able to keep my hips level because otherwise, every time you you take a step forwards in a run, it's the equivalent of 5 times your body weight that's going down through that one leg when you're jumping. So I had to make sure that I was strong enough, not only to just be able to hold balance, but to be able to hold balance in a jump, which is the equivalent of 5 times your body weight of the pressure. So it takes a, it takes a lot of work to do that. But yeah, they were the main things that I was working on, but not only that to be able to then have the core stability to not let my back arch when I'm running, because that would irritate my hip as well. So if I had a, an anterior pelvic tilt, so for people listening, that's when your pelvis tilts forward, your lower back arches and your tailbone kind of sticks out behind you. If that would happen, that would cause pinching at the front of my hip. So I had to make sure that that was really kept neutral.

Guest [00:15:36]: But also then that helps you generate more power because if you're not tilting forwards at the hips and you're not letting your chest and your body full forwards, then you're generating way more power through your glutes in the back of your body to be able to push you forwards better. So it was, it was really interesting to be like, I have to do these things so that I don't get pain, but also by correcting those, I'm actually generating more power and strength. So that was, that was really cool. And then the last area is having really good ankle strength and stability to be able to to get that stability right from the first contact. Because when your foot first contacts, if your ankle rolls in slightly, that has a knock on effect all the way up the body. So as your as your foot goes down, even though we're supposed to pronate slightly, we're not then supposed to let the ankle collapse in afterwards, which then have potentially has that knock on effect of twisting the knee in, which then potentially has the knock on effect of twisting the hip in, and then having that knock on effect to the back. So it really can go all the way up the system. So, yeah, working on that ankle strength and stability was so, so important.

Finn Melanson [00:16:44]: I was taking a couple mental notes there. So, as as a personal aside, I I've gotten very much into the, like, ultra trail marathon scene recently and and just did a race couple days ago. But the last 4 or 5 races I've done, almost without fail at about the 4 hour mark of whatever event I'm in, my hips just fail on me. Like, I I think I have overactive hip flexors, flexors, and I'm not sure if I can attribute it to, core weakness, glute, inactivation, quad inactivation. But a lot of what you said there, just gave me some ideas. Because I do have that tilt issue as well, sort of with upper sort of trunk. So, Yeah. I find all that very fascinating.

Guest [00:17:26]: If, if you wanna talk offline afterwards, just let me know. I know. Well, god,

Finn Melanson [00:17:30]: my hips are this this is a very self interested episode for me because my hips have been my problem area since I was a kid too. I I don't have dysplasia, but I don't know. It's something there. So you said that you're a physio, and you you gave us a lot there in terms of insights on sort of how you work towards perfecting your own form. Are there any other insights that you've gotten working with various patients on, like, their muscles or their joints or their or their posture or their movement as it pertains to becoming a better runner that you think would be worthwhile noting here?

Guest [00:18:04]: I mean, yeah, I think I think there are certain things that every runner could could benefit from from being able to do is like a little a little checklist perhaps. I've definitely got some some exercises that, that we could chat about. They're like, can you do this? If you can't working on those things can only help with your balance, stability, strength, power. So, yeah, there are, there are a few things that, that we could go through if you wanna go through those now.

Finn Melanson [00:18:32]: Oh, please.

Guest [00:18:34]: Okay. So one of the things that I really love doing with with runners is to see whether whether people can stand on one leg in a heel raise and, and stay still. Yeah. So, so running, depending on the type of running that you're doing, you know, we're always towards like mid forfeit. If we're, if we're doing, if we're doing the sort of longer distances trail running and, ultra running stuff, yeah, we vary and perhaps come back onto the hill a little bit more. But for a lot of the people that are listening, perhaps that are doing some of the other distances, we're looking at a mid to full foot strike. So we need to be able to have really good strength up in that heel raise, but dynamic strength, not just be be able to balance, but be able to move within the ranges of the heel being the floor, to being up at its, at its highest height. We need to be able to activate with all those ranges.

Guest [00:19:23]: So just being able to see whether you can stand on one leg, come up into a heel raise and just balance there. Can you do it for 5 seconds? Can you do it for 10 seconds? Can you do it for 30? And then once you can do that, making sure that we're not then twisting hips, shoulders, we're not letting the core go. Can you then stop moving within that range? Still holding that balance on one leg. If you can do those sort of things, we're really reducing the risk of injury. So, so much. So I like to call it like a one and a half. So if you're standing on that one leg and we've got nice tools, stable hips, good core engagement, we've got that muscle squeeze. So the way really nice and stable from the top.

Guest [00:20:02]: And then we come up into the heel raise as high as we can. We come halfway down. We go back up to the top and then back down again. That is one of those exercises that you just think, okay, if everyone could do that, I think the risk of injury could be potentially so much lower. So that's one of my favorite sort of just very quick tests that I do with people because it shows so much. So you can see from that, you know, you could, you know, you could get people to video themselves and send it in and have critiques and stuff done. But as people are going through that move, you can see whether is is the is the arch of the foot flat? Is the ankle collapsing in? Are we getting the knee rotating? Are we getting stuff happening at the hip? Are we getting a lean from the body? Are we getting the back arching? Like, what's going on, while that's happening? And it gives us so much information for them being able to specify the exercises that are being done to, to try and help with rehab, to try and reduce the risk of injury. And I'm sure a lot of people about now are probably thinking about injuries because it's it's marathon season.

Guest [00:21:04]: There are so many people unfortunately get to about a month beforehand, and that's when all the injuries start to start to happen, unfortunately. So I'm sure there's a lot of people that are gonna be listening that are just this is really relevant for, but for for perhaps next next season, maybe this is one of the ones that people could check-in with and see, see how they're doing.

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Finn Melanson [00:23:14]: Now keep in mind that these retreats are not for elite runners. They're for runners like you who love running and just want to improve. Most of our attendees are between 40 to 70 years young in range and ability from Boston Qualifiers to those who are just getting started. To see all the accommodations, prices, photos, schedule, and all other details, head to runnersconnect.netforward/flag staff. You know, you just reminded me because it's something I'm I've been, again, getting curious about lately. When you think about these instabilities in the kinetic chain and inactivations of certain muscle groups that should be firing stuff like that. How much of it or how often can you attribute it to 1, let's call it, traumatic bout of exercise versus, like, a repeated issue over time and not addressing that area in that, like, efficiency of movement?

Guest [00:24:11]: I I think it's very rare that it's just one particular instant without there being risk factors or vulnerabilities, that preexisting. You know, bar bar having sort of trauma or a fall or, you know, something happened that you really can't predict. I think a lot of the time when injuries happen, we've just, we've just reached our, our limit, our capacity, our endurance of those muscles. And then that's when things start going wrong. But there, as we're getting closer and closer to race day, you know, we're wanting to push ourselves. We're wanting to hit those milestones. We're not wanting to not meet the demands of our training program, but that's when people are pushing it perhaps to the point that they're going so far past the the capacity that they have. And then, yeah, that's that's when the injuries are coming in.

Guest [00:25:01]: So I definitely I definitely think in most scenarios, there are there are vulnerabilities, weaknesses there prior to injury that could perhaps be picked up and worked on to reduce the risk of having those injuries in the first place.

Finn Melanson [00:25:18]: Any other so I I love that test of standing in a heel raise on one leg and being still, seeing how long you can hold that for. Any other good test exercises that, you recommend?

Guest [00:25:31]: I have a few. So the other one that is really good for really highlighting those areas of weakness is just doing a single leg hop test. So you stand on one leg, you repetitively hop like 10 times. And again, it's surprising to see how quickly some of those, some of those vulnerabilities come up, or some of those compensation patterns or, yeah, areas of weakness are shown. So that's a really interesting one for diagnosing some of the areas that can be fixed. Not so much an exercise or a strategy for getting stronger, but just definitely something that's really good to to highlight some areas that can be worked on. But yeah, I do have a couple of other exercises that I really love that are like core foundational exercises. If you want me to go through a couple

Finn Melanson [00:26:16]: of those. Okay.

Guest [00:26:19]: So one of, one of my favorite adaptations of exercises for runners, most people will have heard of, or do bridging exercises, right? So when you're laying down your legs, a bed heads down and you lift your bum up. So some people are doing those with bands or with, you know, weights over their hips. So people might do with the barbell over their hips and lift up. So they're working on hamstrings, glutes, lower back. They're great. However, I really like to adapt those and make it more functional so that we're doing a straight leg bridge because we're not running with our knees at a 90 degree bend or more. We're running with our legs where we're just off straight through to straight. So I like to do bridging work with people where they've got their legs up on, like, like a low stool or, a a low chair or maybe on the edge of the bed or something, and they're going up to bridge.

Guest [00:27:12]: But as they go up to bridge, they're going up to a straight leg position. So you end up with this straight line between shoulders, hips, and knees, and you'll flex a little bit through the ankle. So you're recreating some of the positions that you'll actually be using in running or walking, but it's a lot more functional. So then you can start doing modifications of that. So you can start doing, going up and doing this one and a half. So we talked about for the heal raise. So you can go up and halfway down, back up and down. You could go up there, hold it, and then start doing single leg moves off of that again, to recreate more of a running motion.

Guest [00:27:45]: But when you're up there with a straight leg and it's all of your body weight and you're creating other motion through the other leg, it really is a wonderful challenge. And it's so much harder because you don't have the stability of the foot on the floor. So it really tests you so much more and the the movement and the wobble of the hips is gonna be so much more apparent in there. So it really, again, highlights areas of weakness that could be worked on.

Finn Melanson [00:28:07]: Okay. So we've got the single leg hop test, the straight leg bridge. I've always done bridges just sort of in that stereotypical way, so the the single leg is interesting to me. These are excellent. How about how about this you have this philosophy from what I understand of finding exercises that fit into your day. Like, when you're working with your clients, finding exercises that really integrate into what they're already doing, can you talk more about that?

Guest [00:28:33]: It's it's my favorite way to to work with people. When, when I'm working with one of my patients, I think you could have the best exercises in the world. If they don't fit into somebody's life, they're not going to do them. And therefore they're not the best exercises because they're not being done on a regular basis. So, you know, we've gone through a couple of the, you know, my essential exercises for runners. But some people are gonna respond better to doing exercises on the floor. Some people are gonna respond better to doing them little and often throughout the day. Some people have it.

Guest [00:29:04]: Stacking is a really amazing theory to have because you're then tying your exercises to something you're already doing, and then it becomes a much easier way to fit it into the day. So doing things while you're brushing your teeth or making you coffee in the morning, something that you know you're always gonna do on a regular basis. But that's gotta vary for everybody depending on their personality, their routine, their lifestyle. There are some people that might have kids around that they, they just don't have time at home to do them and therefore they might need stuff they can do at work or vice versa or anything that just suits their lifestyle. So, yeah, I really, I really do love to, to modify exercises. And then so some people, it might be reps and sets. Some people, it might be just work on this for 5 minutes. And some people it's like, right, I want you to do a set of 10 as many times as you can in a day and record it.

Guest [00:29:55]: And some people respond well to having a tick sheet and some people respond well to having things different programs for different days and some people just like the same exercises to repeat over and over again. So it's really worth getting to know the people that you're working with and spending time getting to know. Yeah. Their personality, their situation to be able to give them the best exercises for them, because that's not going to be the same for everybody. So I've got another couple of exercises that I really love for runners here. I'd be happy to talk through. Yeah. But, again, they might not be the best for everybody because they might not fit into the days.

Finn Melanson [00:30:32]: The one thing I would just add, because and I can't remember who wrote the book, but I I read it a couple years back because it and it kinda plays into your whole concept of fitting exercises into the day. They were recommending even if if you're in like, I cook a lot, so I'll be in the kitchen and, the author was recommending the proper way to lift your shoulders to reach overhead into a cabinet above you to pull down, like, plates, pots, pans, like, even thinking on that level of of movement and exercise, like, the right way to, like, walk around the kitchen, which I found fascinating.

Guest [00:31:07]: Yeah. Absolutely. And there's, there's actually this one, this one person that I follow on Instagram and he's absolutely brilliant. If anyone doesn't follow him already, he kind of, he's brilliant at kind of taking the piss out of the physio world. Even, even though like he's, he's so knowledgeable in his, in his own, in his own career, but like, I just the way he does it is brilliant. I think he's called beard the best you can be. And he does all these demonstrations of like, when, when you go to reach out of a cupboard, there's like the way that your physio would tell you to do it. And then the way that you would do it in normal life.

Guest [00:31:41]: And he does it with such comedic value. Like it's absolutely brilliant for anyone that wants to go in and follow him. It just makes me laugh every single time. Yeah. Now this, this is one of my favorite exercises of all time because it covers so many different basis of strength and different ranges of movement at the same time. But you do look a little silly doing it. So, extra joy. The the exercise is banded walking.

Guest [00:32:08]: So what you do is you take like a short loop resistance band. So they're probably about like, I don't know, hip width apart, about that kind of size. And it's a continuous loop and you put it around your feet. So not your ankles, but just a little bit lower. So it's going underneath the arch of the foot over the top of the foot. And you take your feet out into the resistance of the band and keep that resistance as you just do this tiny, tiny little walk. And you do feel a little bit like a penguin because you're kind of waddling from side to side and you're taking really, really tiny quick movements, walking forwards, backwards. You're gonna do some side stepping, but you're always keeping in the resistance and then you do some circles.

Guest [00:32:48]: So you're kind of turning around like an like a clock face. Right? So you're just turning around on the spot in both directions. And the beauty of this exercise is if you keep that resistance on, you've got all of your posture points in place, your cause engaged tailbone's tucked under a little bit. We've got nice soft knees. We're keeping the weight through the heels. It really burns in the best way all the way through the outside of the hips. So you're getting your abductors, the ones that pull out to the side, you're getting flexion. So the forward motion, you're getting the backwards motion into your extensors, and you're getting your external rotators because the band is around your feet.

Guest [00:33:25]: If If you had the band around your ankle, you wouldn't get the external rotation so much. But if you put it around the feet, you just get so many different strengths in different ranges of movement. So bang for you back in for your time that is without doubt, the the best one for hip stability and in my opinion. Yeah, I absolutely love that one. Happy to do some recordings of these, and so you can pop them up on your on your site if you want to at a later date.

Finn Melanson [00:33:54]: Oh, that's would be great.

Guest [00:33:55]: Yeah. So so that's another one. So it's like penguin walking with a band around your feet, but yeah, absolutely brilliant. And then the, the other one that I do really, really love, and I think this one's a little bit more appropriate for people that do like trail running stuff. Because the range of movement requires through your hip is a little bit different. This one is a lunge that goes into a knee raise that goes into a heel raise. Then we can jump land on the ball of the foot, balance it, come slowly down onto the heel and do it all over again. So I call it the lunge into heel raise, but then we can hold the balance, combining some of these other exercises that we've already talked about.

Guest [00:34:36]: Do a little hop, control it back down again and repeat it into the lunge. It takes a while to get to that point, but it is, it's something that's so satisfying when you get it to be able to, to go through all of those motions. So we're then going through, yeah, all of the stuff for them going uphill a little bit more, needing to get into a little bit more hip flexion. We're going through the flat foot portion. We're going through the heel raise portion. So we're really going through so many different parts of running that might be required on different inclines, declines, undulating surfaces, working on the balance. It's it's a it's a real real cover all basis exercise.

Finn Melanson [00:35:15]: Lunge into knee raise into heel raise into jump landing on the ball of the foot repeat. That's really cool. Very cool. What is runner focused Pilates? I've done Pilates before, but what's what's the runner focused version?

Guest [00:35:33]: It's I mean, it is Pilates, but I think a lot of people view traditional Pilates as laying on a mat, doing a lot of core exercises, laying on your back and kind of moving arms and legs around. I think it's just a lot more functional and very, very specific. So Pilates is a lot about stability and control and postural elements. So it would vary from doing a strength and resistance workout in the gym using different machines, for example. And it also encompasses a lot of moves that would maybe traditionally look a bit like yoga, But Pilates is more of a strength approach than a flexibility approach. Runner focused is working on breaking down the different parts of the gait cycle, working on different parts of running form and putting them into controlled stabilizing exercises that are really gonna challenge every part of, of your running. And it's, it's really fun to have a specific focus to, to put the Pilates exercises into, and come up with concepts and different goals for different Pilates section sessions. It was something that was really fun that I spent a lot of time doing in lockdown, working on a lot of, a lot of Pilates classes for runners.

Guest [00:36:52]: Yeah. It was that was really fun just to have a specific goal in mind and be able to break down all of those parts of running into such tiny, tiny parts to be able to work on those with so many different Pilates exercises.

Finn Melanson [00:37:05]: Very good. So we have a lot of listeners, you know, that are international, but I'd say majority based here in the in the US. Are you do you know if most Pilates studios will have, like, a, like, a runners runners focus class? Or is this something that you're more on, like, the cutting edge of?

Guest [00:37:23]: I would I wouldn't say it's usual for most Pilates centers to to focus on running. It's not something that I've come across a lot of. But there are but there are people that do it. Right? And then you can you can find lots of videos on on YouTube of, you know, yoga for runners is is a lot more popular, I think, than Pilates for runners. So, you know, I definitely think that there's there's people that are doing it and doing it well. But I don't think it's something that you would walk into your local Pilates studio and say, hey. Do you do a run a class that's specific for runners? I think it's something you have to kind of look into a little bit more and probably more likely to get good versions of online. Unless you're very lucky to live very close to somebody who has a specific passion for it.

Finn Melanson [00:38:10]: Super cool. Yeah. No. I'm a big believer in Pilates too, so I I I was very curious about that. I know in your work with clients, you do a lot of stuff around, like, muscle release and and pain management work. I know just reflecting on what I've been working on personally the last couple days, like, I've been looking into dry needling. There's a local, like, stretch lab static stretching place here near my house, sports massages. Do you find that, like, those three things can can fit into a runner's routine and and be productive and and proactive in, kinda restoring or maintaining range of motion and keeping us healthy, or are those things less proven?

Guest [00:38:51]: I think everybody needs a different approach, and I think some people will benefit more from strengthening and stabilizing. I think some people will benefit a lot from mobility work. Some people will find that they potentially have other previous injuries that would benefit from things like doing dry needling or being able to have some regular massage work done. I think the the underlying reason for doing all of it is to be able to to find and keep good form. And I think if you've got areas that are tight, that are weak, that have got previous injury, you've got previous scar tissue, or you've got something that's stopping those muscles from working as optimally as they can, then yeah, it's gonna absolutely benefit to, to work on those underlying risk factors because they're the things that could creep in when you get to the end of your capacity. When you get to the end of your endurance, when that weakness starts to come in and we're having to use our backup mechanisms, like our ligaments, like, you know, using other compensation patterns. We don't wanna have to get to use our backup mechanisms and being able to work on on those all those underlying things is gonna mean that we don't have to use them quite so much with the range of movement and the stretching stuff. Yeah.

Guest [00:40:08]: I just think if we, if we have a functional range of movement, let's say for example, if, if our leg is moving forward to backwards in our running and the range of movement that we have is only the range of movement that we have in our running. When things get tight, when we start to get tired, it's gonna it's gonna tighten up as we get more tired. If we have a much bigger range of movement, we have more capacity to still stay really functional for longer as things start to get tired and tighten up. So having a better range of movement is only gonna again, help give us a little bit more longevity. And I say that, and I caveat that with, if you already have a full functional range of movement, we know we don't want to be pushing things into what we would call like a hyper mobile situation. So it's not always going to be beneficial to push your, your joints and your range of movement as far as you can. But you do want to probably have a little bit of extra scope outside of the functional range that you want to have so that you're not always working at the end of your range. You wanna just have that little bit of leeway either way, to to be able to cope better with the demands of the the task that you've got.

Finn Melanson [00:41:19]: I like what you said there earlier about how it it at the end of the day, all revolves around finding and keeping good form. I think I'm gonna be thinking about that kinda thematically, after this conversation. Last question. If you don't mind, talk about talk about your podcast and how it's based on sort of hip issues and, why this audience might be interested in checking it out.

Guest [00:41:41]: So my current podcast is the Health dysphagia podcast, and it it talks to so many different people and to get so many different people's stories. So we have interviews on there with other patients. We have parents of children that have children with hip dysplasia. We have professionals that work in the hip dysplasia industry. We have the consultants that are doing the surgeries, and everybody in between. And the idea is that we're raising awareness of hip conditions, to to the public. Unfortunately, hip dysplasia isn't something that's really very well known. And when people get a diagnosis, a lot of times people feel quite alone.

Guest [00:42:22]: So having a podcast where a lot of people are sharing their stories and being able to learn about these different experiences from everybody in the in the hip dysplasia community, professional and patient. It hopefully just makes people feel a little less alone going through something that can be really challenging because most people don't know in their local community face to face anybody else with hip dysplasia. So when you hear about somebody, you're like, oh my goodness, fellow hippie. Wonderful. So, yeah, that's that's why I created the podcast, to be able to share those experiences and hopefully just make people feel a little less alone.

Finn Melanson [00:42:56]: Awesome. Well, Laura, it's it's been truly awesome to have you on the show. We really appreciate all the knowledge and the value you you brought. We have a a long list of links to add to the show notes, which is great. I'll probably grab some of those charity links from you, after we wrap up here. But, any other final thoughts or calls to action that you wanna leave listeners with before we go?

Guest [00:43:18]: Yeah. If you if you love to run, please don't let anybody tell you that you can't. Because if you find the right professional that takes the time to get to know you as an individual, know your mind, know your life, know your passions, perhaps there will be a way that you can continue to do the thing that you love. So please don't take one person saying you shouldn't run as the be all and end all. Take your time, get second opinions, third opinions. It might be that you need to modify things a little bit or change the distance that you run or get a different trainer, be able to have to work a little bit harder on that strength and stability. But don't let people tell you that you can't until you've had multiple opinions. Stay, stay true to what makes you happy and find the people that will support you on that journey, even if it needs modifying.

Finn Melanson [00:44:24]: Thanks for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. Please consider connecting with me on Instagram at wasatch fin and the rest of our team at runners connect. Also consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the Spotify and Apple podcast players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with our guests, and premier access to contests and giveaways, and subscribe to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.netbackslashpodcast. Until next time, happy trading.