Hamstrings get hurt when they experience too much strain. But strain isn’t just related to the force the muscles have to generate. It may be caused by poor hip mobility or stability. Here’s how:

Strain is defined as length under load. You鈥檙e not going to change your load a whole lot when running鈥攜ou have certain body weight and you want to run faster.

So, you want to try to keep the length of tissue in a narrow window. When tissues get in too long of a position, that鈥檚 when the strain increases and they break down.

Three things cause hamstrings to get over-lengthened and over-strained:

1) Your hamstrings are too short for what you need to do.

A few people do need to lengthen their hamstrings. You don鈥檛, however, need to be a super yogi to be a runner. Lying on your back, if you lift leg upright, you don鈥檛 need to hit 90 degrees鈥攏ot even close. 65 to 70 degrees is what you鈥檙e aiming for, because your leg is always going to be bent when you鈥檙e distance running.

If you can鈥檛 get to about 65 degrees, you have to stretch them. Most people over-emphasize stretching, however. You need enough range of motion, not too much.

2) You lack hip mobility.

Most people aren鈥檛 deficient in hamstring mobility鈥攂ut they are in hip mobility. Having tight hip flexors is worse than having tight hamstrings. When hip flexors are tight, it creates pelvic tilt (rotating down in front, up in back). When pelvic tilt increases, your hamstrings are in a longer position in every point in the gait cycle.

You notice this especially on the contralateral side. If you have problems in your right hamstring, you鈥檙e likely to have tightness on the left hip flexor, because when your right hamstring is lengthened out in front of you, your left hip is going behind you and it is that tightness that yanks the pelvis.

3) You have poor rotational stability.

Rotational control comes from hip muscles and foot muscles, not from hamstring muscles. Hamstrings bend your knee and extend your hip. When you鈥檝e got poor rotational control, that puts things under more torque and can strain the hamstring. The hamstring is getting overloaded and it can鈥檛 help. Having a stronger hamstring in that situation doesn鈥檛 help. You have to fix your rotational balance.

Hip Mobility Test

To find out if you need to work on hip mobility鈥攁nd the large majority of runners do鈥攖ake this test:

Kneel inside a doorway, with your mid-back touching the doorframe. The thigh you are kneeling on should be vertical, and the shin of your opposite leg should also be vertical. In this position, you鈥檒l have a small gap between your low back and the doorframe.

Now, tuck your tailbone under so that the hollow between your low back and the doorframe disappears. To make this happen, imagine your pelvis as a bowl of cereal that you are trying to spill behind you. This movement is commonly referred to as pelvic tilt. Once you are in this position, what do you feel?

If you feel a huge pull in front of the thigh > Incorporate this kneeling hip flexor stretch into your weekly maintenance work.

Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

• Kneel on a pad or pillow, making sure to keep the thigh of the leg you are kneeling on vertical.
• Tuck your pelvis under as described in the text above. Hold this position for 3 minutes.
• To increase the stretch, position the foot of your kneeling leg out to the side a few inches (this will rotate your thigh inward) before moving into a posterior pelvic tilt.

If, however, in the test/stretch position, you feel nothing or just a gentle lengthening > There is no need to do any static stretches in the hip flexors. You should, however, do dynamic mobility movements like the Twisted Warrior to ensure you use the hip motion you do have.

This exercise is not going to elongate tissue but helps to utilize the hip range of motion you do have and to get your body into twisting, not arching. If you have tight hip flexors, you have to elongate. But before you run鈥攚hether you have tight hips or not鈥攄o the twisted warrior to open the hip up, use the hip flexor length you do have, and translate your mobility gains into your form.

Twisted Warrior

From standing, drop into a high lunge. Position both hands on the floor inside your forward foot. Make sure the back leg is extended straight behind you.

Raise your outside hand off the floor and twist your upper body, reaching your arm up toward the ceiling. Twist your trunk, not just your arms and head. Hold for a count of one.

Untwist your body, and place your hand back on the floor. Repeat with the opposite arm.

Twist 10 times in total (5 times on each side), then lunge on the other leg and repeat.

TIP: Imagine you have a camera on your chest, and the goal is to twist the camera all the way to the left and the right to take a picture of the people on either side of you. If you just force your arms into a twist, you won鈥檛 get the photo.

Posture Test

Sometimes runners have good hamstring mobility and adequate hip flexor range but they have really poor pelvic postural awareness鈥攁nd that creates the same problem. Anything that lets your pelvis go into an anterior pelvic tilt is going to put more load on your hamstring all the time.

This test is easy: Stand up with your feet roughly shoulder width apart and relax into your normal posture. Go on and give it a try. Where is your weight?

If your weight is at midfoot > Great! This is the best position for doing anything active. This is your neutral spine position.

If your weight is at rearfoot > Place one hand on your belly button, and one hand on your breastbone. Keeping the lower hand and the belly still, slightly drop the ribs down and forward until you feel the balance point shift away from your heels and to your midfoot. Make sure you are moving from the rib cage鈥攏ot from the neck!

Now maintain this trunk position and let your arms hang down by your sides. Rotate your hands so your palms point forward, which will help screw your shoulder blades down and along your back. Now, keep the shoulder blades back and relax your arms.

If your weight is at forefoot > You are likely leaning too far forward from the ankles, or leaning forward from the low back. Pull your hips back slightly with respect to your feet and see how you feel. If this brings your weight over your midfoot, great. If you are now on your heels, run through the rearfoot sequence above.

Once you find your neutral spine position, stand on one leg and then the other. Make a mental imprint of how this position feels and come back to it every day, on every run, until it鈥檚 wired into your muscle memory.

Rotational Stability Work

All runners can benefit from improving rotational control. By targeting rotation, you can ensure that your core is working in tandem with the rest of your body, not in isolation.

You can do numerous exercises to improve your rotational balance. Start with the Twisted Warrior, above. Advance to the Banded Hip Twist and Rotisserie Chicken, below. You can find more exercises in .

Banded Hip Twist

Anchor a TheraBand at waist height, stand square to the band, and pull the band around your pelvis so that it sits just below your waist.

Put your hands on your hips, holding the band in place with some tension on it.

Stand on the leg where the band ends (if the band wraps around from the right, stand on your left leg) and rotate your pelvis in and out while keeping your hips level.

Do 40 reps on each side.

TIP: Step closer to the attachment to ease the load and farther away to increase the load.

Rotisserie Chicken

Lie on your back and place one leg in the suspension trainer, with the strap just below your knee. Extend your free leg next to the sling leg. Lift your hips into a bridge and extend your arms above your chest, palms together.

On the sling side, keep your kneecap pointed up to the ceiling and rotate your pelvis away on an imaginary axis, as if you were on a BBQ spit.

Rotate back inward past the start position. The hips should twist fully inward and fully outward each rep鈥攜our back stays quiet and your hands remain extended above you.

Do 2 sets of 8 reps on each side.

TIPS: Pay attention to whether you are twisting equally to the right and left sides. If you feel any tightness in your low back, drop your chest slightly until it dissipates.

If Your Hamstring is Hurt

Just because your hamstring is sore doesn鈥檛 mean you have to stop running. Sometimes you have to, but a lot of times you can keep going. If you鈥檙e dealing with a sub-acute strain, and you can run but it is a little bit painful, you don鈥檛 have to take total rest.

Just run a bit slower with a shorter stride, focus on contacting closer to you. Or run uphill, which also creates a shorter stride. The strain isn鈥檛 from effort but from the longer position, so most people with low-level hamstring strain can go uphill pretty well. 听Be careful to come downhill slowly, with short steps.

Motion is good for the tendon鈥攜ou want to use it and load it. To strengthen, you can start with isometric exercises like holding a 10-degree incline in a , or do an isometric hamstring curl: while lying prone, lift an ankle weight to 45 degrees and hold. Advance to a moving load on both the hip component and knee component of the hamstring鈥檚 connections.

But even more important is to make sure your pelvis isn鈥檛 in an anterior tilt. Everything that elongates up top is even more of a factor than from the bottom. If you鈥檝e got a big anterior tilt, you鈥檙e taking the hamstring into a vulnerable range even running slowly with short strides.

Exercises adapted from.

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn鈥檚 complete course with Jay Dicharry on maximizing your stride鈥檚 stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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Core training will improve the neuromuscular recruitment of the right muscles at the right time, but it鈥檚 not going to magically transform your alignment and technique while training. Let鈥檚 explore cues for your run posture to ensure the gains you are making in recruitment are showing up in the quality of your position and form while training and racing.

On the flip side, cueing better posture alone won’t magically transform your form. To optimize muscle recruitment and gain the postural endurance needed to maintain your most effective run posture, you’ll need to develop your core. Your core is not just your 6-pack, but a system of muscles that control precision movement of each segment in your spine. I鈥檝e developed this system and used it successfully with countless athletes to alleviate pain, bolster training durability, find seconds on the clock, and improve your form. Your sport is dynamic. It’s time we start training your core that way.

The Phase 1 is formulated to ensure you are focusing on the right muscle recruitment pattern. You’ll 听do these exercises for 8鈥�10 sessions to establish a strong baseline in terms of muscle recruitment and stability. After you鈥檝e built some new muscle memory, we鈥檒l alternate between Phase 2 and Phase 3 workouts to deliver the type of core stability that you need to bring to every workout and race to ensure your spine is up to the challenge.

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn’s complete course on maximizing your stride’s stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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One major focus is getting the most possible muscle recruitment with the least possible joint stress. Once we鈥檝e taught you to recruit the right strategy with the , adding rotation stress allows us to improve the recruitment and strength in a way that also strengthens your discs and targets rotational power transfer in your body that translates to better energy exchange from limb to limb.

Thread Needle Plank

Attach a TheraBand a few inches off the floor on your left side. Drop down into a plank position with the feet spread wide. Use your left arm to support your upper body and reach your right hand through to grab the band. Now 鈥榰n-twist鈥� your spine, suck the shoulder blade back along your ribs, extend the shoulder out until straight, and then re-coil back towards the band. Perform 20 reps and then switch sides.

Kneeling Chop

Anchor your TheraBand to something a few inches off the ground and lay it out straight. Get into a half kneeling position with the anchor directly on your left side facing perpendicular to the line of the band. Grab the band with both hands and twist from down-and-to-the-left to up-and-to-the-right, then return and repeat for 25 reps each side. The key here is to ensure that you are twisting and not arching your back. Switch and work the opposite side.

Med Ball Twist

Lie on your back with your thighs straight up toward the ceiling and lower legs at 90-degrees, parallel to the ground. Maintain a natural spine position while you hold a 5- to 15-pound medicine ball in your hands. Keeping your lower body relatively still, rotate both the ball and your entire torso over to the side. Continue back and forth for approximately 80 reps. Ensure that you keep your head relaxed.

Swiss Tuck

Put your hands on the floor in a push up position with your shins up on a Swiss ball. Now tuck your legs into your body so that your hips rise up to the ceiling and it looks like you could be sitting upside-down in a chair facing the floor. While holding this position, rotate the ball, right to left, as far as you can go while keeping things stable. Do 50 reps total.

Keep the core stabilization gains going with Jay Dicharry’s other Core Series workouts:

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn鈥檚 complete course on maximizing your stride鈥檚 stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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When most people think 鈥渃ore鈥� they think lift the belly button up and in, or flatten the spine. They think moving the spine into flexion, such as doing a sit-up. The problem is that improving your ability to flex your spine does nothing to reflect your needs as an endurance athlete. Your 6-pack is for show, not for go.

In this series we鈥檒l take the focus off those flexors, and focus your efforts on recruiting the deep core stabilizers that produce gains in alignment and precision movement in your spine. This section isn鈥檛 hard on your muscles, but it will tax your brain. New skills take practice, and we鈥檒l focus on this module for a few weeks to ensure you are using the right core strategy at the right time.

Kneeling Side Plank

Lie on your side with your elbow under your shoulder, your knees bent straight or at 90 degrees, and your top arm reaching up to the sky. Now push your elbow and foot (or shin if on knees) into the ground so that your hips raise until you have a solid line from your neck to your knee. Pulse back down to the floor. Do 20 reps each side.

Roller Dogs

Get onto the floor with your knees on the back roller and your hands on top of the ground. Spine should be neutral and arms and thighs should be vertical, feet hovering off the floor. While keeping stable spine, extend one leg behind you so that it’s horizontal, then bring back to the roller and extend the other leg back. When you’re comfortable doing this, after extending a leg, extend the opposite arm out until horizontal. Now lower your knee back to the roller and hand back to the ground. Continue alternating sides for 2 minutes total.

Ball Band Twist

Wrap one end of a band around a squat rack or door knob. Now hold a stability ball in front of you as you face perpendicular to the 听attachment point of the band, and hold the other end of the band in the hand farthest away, such that it passes over the stability ball with your hand holding at the ball’s widest point. We do this to increase the leverage of the resistance to target your core. Spread your legs just wider than shoulder width, and keep your hips stable. Twist your upper body (and the ball) right and left for 25 reps. Reverse your stance and hand holding the band and repeat in the other direction for 25 reps.

Inkpad Press Out

Lie on your back with your hips and knees bent up at 90 degrees. Next, wrap a TheraBand around your feet so that it pulls into the middle and hold both ends firmly in your arms. Imagine that you are on a giant ink pad with a lot of pressure in your midback and pelvis and less pressure in your low back. The goal is to maintain this position, with equal pressure on your shoulders and pelvis, as you press your feet into the band and away from you, either with both feet or alternating one at a time. Do this continually for 2 minutes.

Keep the core stabilization gains going with Jay Dicharry’s other Core Series workouts:

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn鈥檚 complete course on maximizing your stride鈥檚 stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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Core stability is more than a buzzword鈥攊t鈥檚 a way to train your spine to move more effectively for better power transfer in your sport and improved durability to ward off injuries. Here are three reasons why my core stability series will take your performance to the next level:

1. Core stability isn鈥檛 about strength, it鈥檚 about timing. Core muscles shouldn鈥檛 be RE-active, but rather PRO-active. In a healthy stable spine, our brain should trigger the right muscle recruitment before we move our arms and legs so that we can control the movement in our spine dynamically.
2. Position matters.听The reality is that we are creatures of habit. Our relatively sedentary lifestyle means that all of us have posture issues and poor habits from slumping at our desks, cars, and using our mobile devices. Over time, those poor positions imprint into our brains, and we carry those imbalances into our training. Throwing on your shoes doesn鈥檛 magically fix your alignment. As an athlete, it’s your job to address these postural imbalances ensure we are putting the best alignment, and best 鈥測ou鈥� into every training session. Better position = better gains.
3. Training must be phased to get听the right muscles to work: The secret to core training is to improve the reactive timing of your transversus and multifidi muscles. The Phase 1 is formulated to ensure you are focusing on the right muscle recruitment pattern. You’ll 听do these exercises for 8鈥�10 sessions to establish a strong baseline in terms of muscle recruitment and stability. After you鈥檝e built some new muscle memory, we鈥檒l alternate between Phase 2 and Phase 3 workouts to deliver the type of core stability that you need to bring to every workout and race to ensure your spine is up to the challenge.

Your core is not just your 6-pack, but a system of muscles that control precision movement of each segment in your spine. I鈥檝e developed this system and used it successfully with countless athletes to alleviate pain, bolster training durability, find seconds on the clock, and improve your form. Your sport is dynamic. Its time we start training your core that way.

Sign up for and experience more of Jay Dicharry’s core training to take your performance to the next level:

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A huge aspect of sport requires us to drive our hips into extension (thigh behind torso) while keeping the spine stable. Most athletes neglect this skill and extend their low back instead. This prevents your hip muscles from reaching their potential and creates a big injury risk for the lower back. This series will sync your core with your hip complex to develop a powerful drive.

Swiss Side Plank

Lie on your side, with a Swiss ball between your feet. Come up onto your elbow and draw the shoulder blade back and down along your ribcage for support. Now push your hips up so that your upper body is parallel to the ground. The challenge here is move in the lateral, side-to-side plane while trying not to twist or pike as you lower down to the floor. Hit 20 total reps each side.

Reach Out

Kneel on a foam roller with a Swiss ball under your elbows. Keeping feet off the floor, reach out in front of you as your let your hips open up behind you, but only go as far as you can with a 100% neutral spine. The instability of the ball and roller is challenging, but will help you maintain position in your spine. Aim for 40 reps.

Butt Scoots

Sit down on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you. Think about sitting at a true 90 degree angle so that your low back and pelvis are straight and not rounded. Clasp your hands and reach out in front of you. While keeping your upper body as still as possible, hike up one hip and twist it forward so that your leg moves forward past your opposite. You can imagine that you are trying to lengthen your legs by twisting from the hips. Take 10 “steps” forward with each hip, then 10 backward. Repeat for 3 sets.

Long Arm Band Squat

Attach a TheraBand to a point about chest to waist height and face perpendicular to the band stretched out to your right. Set feet up just wider than hip width and, with band in both hands, extend your shoulders out in front so there is tension on the band trying to twist you. Aim to maintain your upper and lower body in the same plane as you squat up and down. You can step closer to ease the load and further away to increase the load. Do 20 reps on each side.

Keep the core stabilization gains going with Jay Dicharry’s other Core Series workouts:

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn鈥檚 complete course on maximizing your stride鈥檚 stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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The off-season is a great time to reflect on what you’ve done to really achieve your best. You put in miles throughout the year, did workouts, watched your diet and raced your hardest.

But did you really put the work in to develop better control and stability听to improve durability? Did you really work on being a more explosive athlete?

Here’s the thing. You can’t race now. It’s a great time to stay inside and build some skills that running won’t build for you. And the great thing is, these skills directly transfer to better running. In fact, to be your best next racing season, you need this more than you need to run, as these skills will enable you to run more miles, more effectively, with less risk of injury.

Garage Fit Plan

WHAT: A fun group circuit you can do in your garage with friends. We don鈥檛鈥� know how many friends you have, but we hope its at least 3. Invite them over for a fun group workout that will be done in under 40 minutes from start to finish. We wrote this for 4 people total, but the exact same framework can work for 3 or fewer, and if you have more than 4 people total, just modify it by adding a station so that you鈥檝e got one person at each station.

Skills trained in this plan:

POSTURE: Running requires you to develop postural control from your trunk and core to help you maintain position under fatigue. Our society demands a lot of sitting and slumping and we take that poor position into our running, which compromises our running form. Running won鈥檛 help fix that鈥攖aking an active role to improve your core and posture will.

HIP: Good form demands that you can PUSH, STEER, and control POSTURE from your hips. This plan helps kick your hips into gear for better durability.

FOOT CONTROL: Your shoes won鈥檛 save you. Developing better control and stability in your own foot will. Adding MOBO into this stability plan will help cue your foot to do its job, and integrate it with your hips for a solid contact point. Better control in your foot = better control upstream in the kinetic chain too!

JUMP: Even though running is bouncing from foot to foot, research shows that the impact loads from running actually are NOT enough to maintain adequate bone health. Instead you need to need much higher loads on your bones applied in a really short period of time. Plyometric jumps aren鈥檛 just for performance, they are good for bone development too. For all these jumps, aims to be QUICK on and off the ground.

EQUIPMENT: For this plan, you need:

• Your body weight
• A swiss ball
• 2 boxes鈥攐r benches, stools, chairs鈥攖hat are sturdy on the ground and approximately 14鈥�15 inches high
• 听(enter coupon code PODIUMRUNNER10 for a 10% discount)

The Workout

HOW:

• Set up the first circuit as outlined below with one station in each corner of your garage.
• Designated one person as timer for the group.
• Each of you moves to a station.
• Start the watch and each person does the exercise at his or her station for 1 full minute.
• Take 30 seconds to rest and switch stations, then the timer starts again for 1 full minute.
• Repeat each circuit 2 rounds.
• Rest for a full minute while you arrange each station for the next circuit.

Workout math:

鈥� 4 stations x 1 minute plus 30 seconds rest for each station = 6 min for one round, thus 12 minutes for 2 rounds.

鈥� 12 minutes at each circuit x 3 circuits = 36 minutes of work, plus your rest to switch stations.

鈥� Start to finish in 40 minutes.

If you have fewer than 4 people, work through the circuits in the same way, with one or more station remaining empty with each move.

Circuit #1

Station 1: Glute Rainbow

• Start on all fours, with your thumbs pointing forward and your fingers pointing to the sides. Imagine there is a plumb bob hanging from your chest鈥攌eep it still as you start the movement.
• Lift one leg behind you so that your thigh is horizontally aligned with your torso and your knee is bent at 90 degrees with the sole of your foot pointing to the ceiling.
• Keeping your thigh at the exact same height and your pelvis and spine stable and level, sweep your foot outward and then inward like the sole of your foot is pressing into the arc of a rainbow
• Work your right foot for round 1, left foot for round 2.

TIP: Don鈥檛 let your low back arch or shift. The only joint moving is the hip.

Station 2: Tippy Twist

• Place your hands on your hips and balance on one leg, focusing on a strong tripod through the forefoot.
• Maintain a neutral spine and keep your hips level as you bend forward, extending the nonsupporting leg behind you.
• Twist your hips in toward the floor, then out and up toward the ceiling. Keep your weight balanced across the middle of your foot as you pivot from the hip.
• Return to level hips and the pelvis forward to come back up to starting position. That鈥檚 one full rep.
• Stand on your right foot for round 1, left foot for round 2.

罢滨笔厂:听If you wobble in your foot, focus on grounding the big toe to solidify the inside of the tripod.听You learn balance through successful movement. It鈥檚 better to twist the hip through a smaller range with good control than to try to twist too far and fall each time.

Station 3: Lateral Hurdle Hop

Equipment: Shoe, water bottle, foam roller or other small object to jump over

• Place the object on the ground and hop sideways over it from one foot to the other.
• Continue jumping for the full minute.

TIP: Keep your hips level at all times鈥攄on鈥檛 allow them to collapse inward.

Station 4: MOBO Hip Band Kick

Equipment: MOBO Board, Resistance Band

• Tie a small (4鈥�6 inch) loop in the end of your resistance band.
• Take that end of band and step both feet inside the loop so that it is around both ankles, with the long end of the band out to the side.
• Carefully step up onto your MOBO with your right foot, and hover the left foot just off the board. Place your hands on your hips as a cue to keep your hips level.
• Now move the left leg out and back behind you in a 45 degree angle and then back, aiming to float it on top of the MOBO without touching. Only move as far as you can control.
• Continue for a full minute. As you get stronger, aim to move the leg further.
• Stand on your right foot for round 1, left foot for round 2.

Circuit 2

Station 1: Bear Crawls

• Start on all fours, then come up on your hands and toes.
• Keep your back flat like a tabletop and walk forward with the opposite arm and leg (e.g., right hand goes with left foot).
• Take 30 steps forward and 30 steps backward.
• Repeat continuously until the minute is up.

Station 2: Banded Arm Circles / Pull-Aparts

Equipment: Resistance Band

• Hold a TheraBand in your hands about waist high, arms straight and hands about shoulder-width apart. Keep your elbows locked and raise your arms until they are just below your shoulders.
• Pull the band ends in opposite directions until your arms are spread wide, then release to starting position.
• Repeat for one minute.

Station 3: Box Squat Jump

Equipment: Two boxes or benches

• Set up a box or bench that is about mid-shin height and another box or bench about three feet away that is roughly the same height or slightly taller.
• Start from a quiet seated position, and then explode up and forward so that you land on the box in front of you. Stand tall on landing.
• Step (don鈥檛 jump) back down.
• Return to seated position and repeat continuously for 60 seconds.

Station 4: MOBO Star Squat

Equipment: MOBO Board

• Each rep has 3 mini-squats.
• Step up on the board with your hands on hips to cue level hips throughout your squats.
• Engage your big toe down to maintain a level MOBO.
• Now do a mini-squat extending the left leg forward, come back up, do a mini-squat reaching the left leg out to the side, stand back up, and then another mini-squat extending the leg behind you. These three make 1 rep.
• Repeat reps continually for the full 1 min.
• Stand on your right foot for round 1, left foot for round 2.

Circuit 3

Station 1: Donkey Toes

• Begin on all fours with your thumbs pointing forward and your fingers pointing out to the sides. Come up onto your hands and toes, keeping your arms and thighs perpendicular to the ground (like a human coffee table).
• Maintaining a stable spine, lift one thigh toward the ceiling while keeping your knee bent to 90 degrees.
• Return to all fours and repeat with the opposite leg.
• Build to 2 minutes of alternating continuous movement.

TIP: If you need to build up gradually, start off with 4 sets of 30 seconds to learn proper movement.

Station 2: Swiss Ball curls

Equipment: Swiss Ball

• Lie on your back with a Swiss ball under your heels. Lift your hips into a bridge, keeping your spine straight.
• Without changing the position of your hips, bend your knees as you press your hips up.
• At the top of the movement the soles of your shoes will be on the ball and your thighs will remain parallel with your torso. Don鈥檛 let the hips flex up. If you feel any tightness in your low back, drop your ribs slightly.
• Return to original position and repeat continuously for one minute.

Station 3: Split Box Jump

Equipment: Box听or bench about mid-shin height

• Place one leg up on the box and explosively drive your body upward, switching your leg position in midair.
• When you get back on the floor, aim to explode up again upon contact. Double bouncing is not allowed!
• Repeat continuously for one minute.

TIP: Aim to drive equally through both legs on each jump.

Station 4: MOBO Twisted Lunge

Equipment: Mobo Board, Box or Bench

• Position the MOBO so that the back of the board is about 2 feet in front of a box or bench.
• Step on the board with your right foot and then place your left foot up behind you.
• Grab your hands together in front of your body, and drop back into a lunge.
• Now aim to keep the board and your right leg straight as you twist your upper body to the right and left, and then press back upward. This is one rep.
• Continue for a full minute. Keep the motion small and controlled at first, working to a larger twist only as you build control.
• Stand on your right foot for round 1, left foot for round 2.

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Tendons need a strong, stable foundation. If you don’t have control of your body鈥攖he support base of the foot is not stabilized correctly鈥攖hen the points of attachment shift, and the tendon operates in a longer position. That causes increased strain; the definition of strain is length under load. And too much strain is what creates beakdown within your body and damage in the tendon.

The response to tendon problems is often to strengthen it鈥攁nd you should definitely do that. The reason the Achilles got damaged was that wasn鈥檛 robust enough to begin with.听Doing and 听will create a healing response to improve tendon health鈥攂ut it won’t fix the foundation. You need to fix both. It is great to improve the density and robustness of the tendon, but that tendon still has to sit on a solid foundation, and that鈥檚 what gets neglected.

But we can鈥檛 neglect it. You’ve got to learn how to control torsional displacement through your foot. The forefoot and rearfoot need to twist on each other. That twist is controlled primarily by the first ray (big toe). When you do a good job of utilizing your first ray, the pressure goes through the foot appropriately: Your rearfoot twists down to the ground, your forefoot twists down to the ground, the metatarsal heads are nice and flat to the ground, you roll through the metatarsal heads, you push off appropriately鈥攁nd that Achilles is in a narrow window. It鈥檚 happy.

Compare that to somebody who has an overly stiff foot; he or she tends to walk on the outside of the foot and the Achilles is in a longer position every stride. Or compare to runners with floppy foot control: Their foot is in a late-stage pronated position, and the tendon is in a longer position at push off.听Both scenarios takes the Achilles out of its preferred length/tension relationships. It increases the length of the tissue鈥攖hat causes shear, and that causes damage.

The following exercises work toward the goal of grounding the big toe to support the foot and improve the control and coordination of your arch, while integrating that control up the chain and throughout your body. You should do control exercises for 5 to 10 minutes, 2 to 3 times per week.

The following two exercises are excerpted from my book, .

Single-Leg Shoulder Press

• Stand on one leg, with a relatively light weight (8鈥�10 lbs.) in the opposite hand.
• Dial in your posture, driving your big toe down to set up your forefoot tripod from the inside to the outside of the ball of your foot, and extending to the end of the big toe.
• Press the weight overhead and bring it back down. The added weight creates more instability for you to control with the forefoot.
• As your arm goes overhead, keep your weight centered over the midfoot to avoid leaning back through your heel.
• Do 15 reps on each side.

罢滨笔厂:听Use a water bottle or milk jug if you don鈥檛 have access to weights. If you arch your low back when reaching overhead, try to drop the ribs down in front to keep a neutral spine.

Foot Screws

• Stand on both feet, keeping equal pressure across the tripod of each forefoot.
• Twist the rearfoot slightly out while keeping the big toe grounded, then raise your heels an inch or so.
• Staying up on your toes, let the rearfoot twist inward.
• Press the big toe into the floor to push your arch up and screw the heel into the outward position.
• Lower the foot to the floor and relax. This is one full rep. Keep the movement specific and controlled.
• Perform 20 reps.

FOOT ROCKS

The following two exercises use a board鈥攄esigned听with a hollow box under your little toes to prevent you from using a gripping strategy and thus train your big toe to support and stabilize your arch.

This exercise trains you to use your foot properly, to control the twist through pronation and supination. In the secondary rocking axis it gets the peroneals on the sides of your calf, also helping to help ground the first ray to create stability.

While standing with good posture, touch the toe side of the board down to the ground, then the heel side. Ensure the rocking is controlled, as if there are egg shells below and you are touching the board to them鈥攏ot smashing them. This is one rep.

Repeat for 30 reps, rocking from the outside of the heel to the big-toe side of the forefoot. Then do听30 reps rocking from the arch side of the heel to the pinky-toe side of the forefoot. (Note: when done on a MOBO board, the rocker fins guide you in the desired rotational directions).

Repeat this entire sequence for the left foot.

TIPPY BIRD

The deadlift is a key exercise to improve the posterior chain as you hinge from the hips. However, most people tend to reach forward, increasing load on the spine, instead of pushing their hips back.

Doing a deadlift on a MOBO has two main benefits. First, if you reach forward, the board tips down. This will cue you to drive the hips back properly and improve load to the hips. Second, it forces you to screw your big toe in as you screw your hip out, to maintain stability. Combined, you get a ton of benefit on your foot and does a great job to load your hip to work on propulsion.

For this exercise, 100% of the motion is a hinge from your hips while the spine remains 100% stable.

Step onto the board with your right foot, with your left leg hovering off the ground. Push your hips back so that your trunk becomes near horizontal and the left leg moves out behind you. Use your hands as a cue to ensure your hips stay level.

Drive back up to standing to complete one rep. The knee stays softly bent. You should always be looking in the same direction as your chest is pointing. This is a hinge, not a squat so the knee only stays slightly bent through the movement.

Aim for 3 sets of 10 reps and then switch legs.

For an added challenge, in the hand on the side of your non-supporting leg (a kettle ball, or just a gallon of milk).

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Check out Dicharry’s complete course on maximizing your stability and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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Jay Dicharry, MPT, SCS is a physical therapist and researcher in Bend, OR. He is author of and 听

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If you have been dealing with aches and pains on the inside of your shin, it鈥檚 time to stop chasing your symptoms and fix the cause. 鈥淪hin splints鈥� is the lay term used to describe what we in the medical community call 鈥減osterior tibial stress syndrome.鈥� Let鈥檚 decode this term.

Muscles work by pulling two parts together. One lever is connected to another lever at a pivot point. During a bicep curl, your bicep contracts concentrically听to pull your forearm up to your shoulder. A concentric contraction means the working muscle is shortening. When muscles work eccentrically, they move the levers by lengthening. An example of this is the 鈥渘egative鈥� phase of a lift, like when you lower the weight very slowly in that same bicep curl. Your bicep is working hard to lower the weight in a controlled manner. Eccentric control is actually very stressful to muscles. If you are like most runners, you might not be interested in bulking up your biceps, but you need to understand eccentric muscle contraction to solve your shin splint problem.

When the foot makes contact with the ground, it鈥檚 the job of the tibialis posterior muscle to work eccentrically to slow the foot as it twists down to the ground (pronation). In the case of the bicep curl, it鈥檚 easy to see how your rigid upper arm and your rigid forearm pivot on each other at your elbow. But the foot and ankle are more complex levers. The tibialis posterior attaches to your rigid shin (tibia) on one side, but on the other side there is not just one bone, but 26 individual bones that make up your foot.

If that set of bones is well controlled, the tibialis posterior can work eccentrically to smoothly lower your foot to the ground. But if you show up with poor foot coordination and control, one end of the lever (your foot) is very unstable and likely to collapse. This compromises the tibialis posterior and its tendon. Muscles and tendons don鈥檛 like to be in lengthened positions where they are under more strain, become weaker, and can鈥檛 generate the eccentric control to guide your foot safely down to the floor. So your shin hurts.

What鈥檚 the Fix?

In this all-too-common scenario, the posterior tibialis is the victim, not the cause of the problem. It鈥檚 being asked to do more than it can handle, and more than it ever should. The poorly controlled foot is to blame. That bag of bones needs to become a stable platform. Foot control is 100 percent dependent on your forefoot control, specifically the big toe. With a stable big toe, your forefoot is stabilized, which creates a stable platform for your rearfoot, which means your tibialis posterior can stop trying to do the work of other muscles. Simply put, if you want to unload the muscles in your shins, you need to improve the control and coordination in your feet.

To start improving your foot control now, check out these exercises to build a strong and stable foot.

Foot Control Test / Toe Yoga

• Stand on both feet, but focus on only one foot at a time. Raise your big toe while leaving the four little toes flat on the ground, then drive your big toe straight down (without curling it) and elevate the other toes.
• As you push your big toe down the arch of your foot will rise up slightly. Make sure you can drive the big toe down without collapsing the position of your arch and ankle to cheat the movement.

> If you can鈥檛 perform this test correctly:

Practice this movement, which I call Toe Yoga, as a听corrective exercise.

> If you found that you collapsed your arch to get your big toe down:

Place the heel of your shoe perpendicular to the inside of your ankle to provide a visual to ensure you learn to move the big toe without cheating your foot and ankle position. Practice this movement until you learn the pattern.

> If you have trouble raising your big toe:

We need to clean up your control. Position a ruler under your big toe so that the end of the ruler is beneath the ball of your foot. Raise the end of the ruler so that it lifts your toe upward. Hold the free end of the ruler so it provides a little resistance, and push your toe straight down, isolating the muscles around the big toe. Imagine you are pushing the toe and ruler through the floor. If you see the joint inside the big toe bending, you are cheating the movement with a muscle in your shin. Deliberate practice will create specific control of the big toe for improved balance and foot control.

This movement builds a tripod for better foot control. You learn how to distribute pressure among the inside ball of the foot, outside ball of the foot, and big toe for a solid forefoot. When you notice instability on one leg, it鈥檚 common to focus on the wobble, which leads to frustration and more instability. Instead, focus on the solution. Building this tripod will build a better foundation for all of the single-leg exercises in this program and for your run.

Single-Leg Shoulder Press

• Stand on one leg, with a relatively light weight (8鈥�10 lbs.) in the opposite hand.
• Dial in your posture, driving your big toe down to set up your forefoot tripod from the inside to the outside of the ball of your foot, and extending to the end of the big toe.
• Press the weight overhead and bring it back down. The added weight creates more instability for you to control with the forefoot.
• As your arm goes overhead, keep your weight centered over the midfoot to avoid leaning back through your heel.
• Do 15 reps on each side.

罢滨笔厂:听Use a water bottle or milk jug if you don鈥檛 have access to weights.If you arch your low back when reaching overhead, try to drop the ribs down in front to keep a neutral spine.

Tippy Twist

• Place your hands on your hips and balance on one leg, focusing on a strong tripod through the forefoot.
• Maintain a neutral spine and keep your hips level as you bend forward, extending the nonsupporting leg behind you.
• Twist your hips in toward the floor, then out and up toward the ceiling. Keep your weight balanced across the middle of your foot as you pivot from the hip.
• Return to level hips and the pelvis forward to come back up to starting position. That鈥檚 one full rep.
• Perform 2 sets of 10 reps on each foot.

罢滨笔厂:听If you wobble in your foot, focus on grounding the big toe to solidify the inside of the tripod.听You learn balance through successful movement. It鈥檚 better to twist the hip through a smaller range with good control than to try to twist too far and fall each time.

Foot Screws

• Stand on both feet, keeping equal pressure across the tripod of each forefoot.
• Twist the rearfoot slightly out while keeping the big toe grounded, then raise your heels an inch or so.
• Staying up on your toes, let the rearfoot twist inward.
• Press the big toe into the floor to push your arch up and screw the heel into the outward position.
• Lower the foot to the floor and relax. This is one full rep. Keep the movement specific and controlled.
• Perform 20 reps.

罢滨笔厂:听This is not a balance exercise, so feel free to hold onto a stationary object to make the movement more controlled and stable.听The goal is to maximize the twist between the rearfoot and forefoot while keeping the big toe on the floor, not maximizing the height of your calf raise.

Excerpted and adapted from听. America鈥檚 leading endurance sports physical therapist and coach, , shares a program for runners to become stronger, faster, and more durable. Dicharry distills cutting-edge biomechanical research into 15 workouts any runner can slot into their training program to begin seeing real results in about 6 weeks.

Check out 国产吃瓜黑料 Learn鈥檚 complete course on maximizing your stride鈥檚 stability, strength and durability for more efficient, less stressful miles:

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