Ready to Run by Dr. Kelly Starrett and TJ Murphy, (09) Standard # 6: Hip Extension, Notes

Post date: May 28, 2017 3:22:56 PM

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Chapter 9. Standard # 6: Hip Extension

• • 1. Question: Do you have a normal amount of hip extension? This means we enough range of motion the front of the hips that we can press the hips into full extension.

    2. Key Motivation. Taking care of the quads and hip flexors promotes health hip function and marginalizes the demonic forces that can torture the knees.

    3. Recommended Exercises. Find time to do the couch stretch every day or, even better, several times per day.

       1. Couch Stretch

       2. Banded Hip 1-Leg Squat (p. 231)

       3. Psoas smash and floss (p. 234)

    4. Briefing. With improved hip function comes improves posture and this may be the key to freeing us from standard knee problems. Knee pain is the most common chronic injury pain that runner’s face.

• • • 1. Much of the blame can be assigned to the freakishly short and tight muscles responsible for extending the leg.

      2. As one foot plants on the ground, the foot swings forward to become the new position of support. In the path of this movement the leg swings the foot forward. The kink is in way the foot rotates outward and operates in the manner of a ping pong paddle. Rather than a direct path the foot and leg remaining in straight neutral alignment throughout. By looping with the foot, we lack one or more elements of good powerful hip function. The muscle tissues in the front of the hip, the hip flexors and quads are short, tight and mashed up, robbing the hip of proper extension and the ability to maintain internal rotation of the hips. The lack of internal rotation spills open the pelvis and the foot ends up getting dragged around from foot plan to foot plant.

      3. This spillage of stability and power has repercussions throughout the system. It causes the open foot knee cave sequence that gives the an ugly twist of shear with each foot fall. The surrender of good hip function stresses the tissues of the knees and ankles, which take an ugly beating with every run.

      4. Shoes or orthotics will not fix the problem. This running pattern is a sure death nail, for any future as a healthy runner. The solution is to restore proper extension and internal rotation to the hip. Restore it now and again and again and again.

      5. If sitting a lot throughout the day, working toward achieving and maintaining this standard is going require extra vigilance. We must build a ne set of habits. The two primary weapons in the war on sitting are:

         1. Sit as little as possible.

         2. Do the couch stretch every day. This stretch is to healthy running what flossing is to healthy teeth.

• • 5. The Couch Stretch

• • • 1. This stretch opens up the hips and provides some slack upstream of the knees. It can help alleviate some of the common types of knee pain that confront runners, like patella tendinitis (runner’s knee.) and help resolve hip and back pain. Meeting this standard will support our mission sustain posture both in running and throughout the rest of the day.

• • • 2. Tip: If too tight to perform the couch stretch, scale it back by positioning a box in front of the body. Put weight on the box and don’t worry about posting the leg. Work at this daily for at least 2 minutes on each side to effect tissue change to improve toward the unmodified position

• • 1. Why Sitting Really is Hell on Square Wheels

       1. We need to overhaul the habits that do the damage. Every minute spent sitting is a minute spent with the hips turned off and positioned in a state of lazy flexion. The hip flexors shorten as a result. The tremendous power we should be funneling into our runnings gets diminished to a trickle. Cultivate the awareness that every minute spent sitting is damage to the body and to our running. Adopt a warrior stance and avoid sitting. The body was built to farm and hunt on foot, drink and dance until dawn, then go out and do more running.

       2. Set the phone on a timer to go off every hour so that we get up and mobilize for a minute or two. And if we have to go back to sitting, do so with butt and stomach muscles engaged.

    2. Runner to Runner. Commit to 2 minutes/day in the couch stretch. It is a guide through the depths of the ball and socket anatomy. Put an end to knee troubles.

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