The piriformis is a small muscle, but it holds a reputation for being a big pain in the behind! This thin, triangular muscle lies deep in the buttocks, beneath the much larger gluteus maximus. The piriformis, in concert with other deep hip muscles such as the gluteals, help us to both rotate and stabilize our hips. For runners, these muscles act like the keel or rudder of a boat, countering rotation and lateral forces to keep you moving efficiently over your feet. There are a lot of anatomical structures surrounding the piriformis, including blood vessels and nerves. The sciatic nerve (which ..read more

This simple training plan has you running four days a week with core and stretch sessions on rest days. Find or create a routine that gives you about 10 minutes’ worth of exercises with each of the three core areas: abdominals, hips, and hamstrings respectively. For stretching focus on the areas, you use when running, starting from the ground up such as Achilles, calves, quadriceps, hip flexors, hamstrings, and gluteus maximus (glutes). When stretching keep it comfortable. An example of a comfortable stretch would be when we get up after a good night’s sleep and you give a good yawn, extend yo ..read more

Over the last 20 years many sport science articles have reported performance deficits — typically three-five per cent — after prolonged static stretching (more than 60 seconds per muscle group) when not including dynamic warm-up activities. That research almost sent static stretching to extinction as a component of a warm-up. However, evidence is building to show that when shorter durations of static stretching (less than 60 seconds per muscle group) are included in a full pre-exercise warm-up that includes aerobic activity, static and dynamic stret ..read more

“You need to stretch!” You’ve heard it a million times before. The perplexing assertion that you’re not stretching enough and that it’s why you’re injured or sore, slow or clumsy. Think of your first coach admonishing you to stretch after practice or your gym teacher preaching about the importance of stretching. Oh, your back hurts? No problem! Just stretch your hamstrings and it will feel better. You can’t get into a good squat position because your quads are tight? Just stretch them out. Conventional wisdom tells us that if we want to optimize athletic performance, improve flexibility, preve ..read more

It’s common to see people stretching before going for a run or working out in the weight room. The belief is that this will help make muscles more flexible and therefore prevent injury during a workout. But is this true? Today, despite long-held traditions of starting a training session with a bout of stretching, evidence from robust clinical research is clear: pre-exercise stretching does not reduce the risk of injury in endurance athletes such as runners or cyclists nor does it enhance performance. Injury Prevention Instead of stretching before a workout, there is emergin ..read more

Fall is all about finding balance between fun and getting back into our routine. These intermediate balancing postures help keep our core stability strong so we stay aligned on our mat and in life. Crow pose bakasana Balance in a low squat on the block with your bum on your heels and your knees wide. Tuck your outer upper arms to the insides of your shins, just below your knees and then plant your palms on your mat just under your elbows. Squeeze your shins tightly against your outer arms and hug your arms in towards your midline. With a little weight shift forward, an ..read more

There is an intimate connection between fascia and muscle function, but what is it and why should you care? Fascia is a complex network of sheets, bags and strings that divert and transmit forces in the body to assist in movement and is crucial to your function and form. Research has shown that muscles may not transmit their full force directly to the skeleton via tendons, but rather distribute a portion of their contractile or tensile force to other structures through fascial sheets. Fascial sheets transmit these forces to synergistic and antagonistic muscles to support their respective joint ..read more

Most of us have experienced tweaks, cramping, mild strains or catching of joints as our training progresses or when we are deep into a race. For the most part, we ignore these twinges and push through to our goals. But should we? When left alone, these seemingly innocuous twinges that come out of nowhere can escalate into major problems that can take you out of the game. Pain, put simply, is a warning signal to your brain that something is not quite right in the body. In this case, there is a loss of the physical homeostasis. What has happened in the body that has put it out of balance? Previo ..read more

Stretching is like an egg. One minute the research says it is healthy and the next minute it isn’t. Decades ago it seemed like athletes didn’t stretch. Then it seemed obvious that, of course, stretching is healthy, but don’t do dynamic stretching or you’ll hurt yourself. More recently the research suggests that static stretching weakens muscles. What gives? We’re here to answer five key questions about stretching. What’s a stretch? A muscle stretch takes place when the overlapping protein fibres of the muscle cells slide past each other to elongate the muscle. Static stretches are best for thi ..read more