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Post date: Jul 28, 2017 11:38:42 AM
Return to the Twelve Running Standards
Chapter 13. Standard #10: No Hotspots
Q: Are you free of hotspots of pain? We are ready to run when routine maintenance is up to date and we have no hot, sketchy tissues or joints.
Key Motivation: Staying a runner is the key motivation. Running through pain and injury has repercussions. There’s no way of getting away with it. It is how we do more damage and wear things out for good. Fixing our hotspots allows us to enjoy being a runner for years to come.
Heel pain? Knee dodgy? Stabbing pain in the butt? There’s a mechanics problem or a dysfunction of some sort that’s screaming to be taken care of. Can we run through it? Temporarily, yes. However, when we keep pushing and grinding past injuries, the body will eventually shut down. Running through hot spots over months and years can lead to devastating consequences including but not limited to peroneal tendon surgery in the ankle, the surgical removal of shredded knee cartilage, and hip replacement.
If pain is felt during and after movement, then what was being done was not functional movement. It must be functional if we want to run until our last days on Earth. If it feels sketchy, it is sketchy. If the gnawing feeling some tissue may be grinding up exists, we are right. When we feel something burning, tearing or becoming inflammed it’s time to take a few steps back and fix the problem.
Fixing Hotspots (The New Model)
Do a thorough warm up, including mobility work to tend to areas in particular need.
If any tweak is felt or anything begins to hurt, cut the run short.
As soon as possible, begin focused compression on or near the hotspot.
Perform mobilizations above and below the problem. Spend at least two minutes with each mobilization. If the knee is the hotspot, mobilizations would be performed above and below the knee.
Voodoo Floss Band Compression. Compression is a dynamic aid to restore range of motion and heal sticky sliding surfaces between tissues. For any hotspot, we want to dig into the underlying mechanics and repair the problem at its root. But the hotspot also is in need of immediate attention. Apply deep compression above and below the hotspot.
Voodoo Floss can help by:
Restoring sliding surface function, creating a shearing effect that un-glues sticky sliding surfaces.
Restoring range of motion in the joint
It floods the area with blood when the band is released, blood flows in with nutrients, especially valuable for those connective tissues that get a lot of blood flow.
It reduces swelling and revives the joint. Compression pushes swelling back into the lymph system, improving the natural stream of information from the proprioceptors and nerve endings dulled by the swelling
Technique. Compression is on the uncomfortable side of things. Use common sense: if it hurts in a sketchy way, then it's sketchy. To restore sliding tissues, use compression 2-3 times/day. To counter swelling 5-10 X’s/ day is ok.
Start a few inches below the hotspot.
Wrap the band toward the heart. If wrapping the knee for example, start below the knee.
Use ½ inch of overlap with each wrap of the band.
Shoot for about 75% tension when wrapping the problem spot. The areas above and below it can be about 50% tension.
Leave a bit of slack near the finish to tie off the band.
Once wrapped, begin moving the joint tor entire limb through its entire range of motion.
Any numbness or pins and needles indicate that it is time to unwrap (+/- 2 minutes)
Marks are normal. Normal flesh tone will return with the rush of fresh blood.
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