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INJURY PREVENTION THE forward arm swing lean (torso and upper body) x lateral Whole trunk lean x x trunk x rotation hip x extension pelvic drop Body vertical displacement (head to toe) I’m lying facedown on an exam table at a state-of-the-art running clinic in New heel whip York City, about to perform a basic exer- cise for professional analysis. “Okay, Katie, I’d like you to lift your right leg in knee the air, using your glutes,” says Colleen x flexion at mid- Brough, P.T., M.S., the physical therapist stance who’s there to check my strength and x x form. No problem, I think. She places her x hand on my right hamstring—my achy, troublesome one—as I lift and then FIX lower my leg back down to the table with knee Chronically injured and disheartened, x flexion minimal effort and an attitude of That’s cadence at initial contact a Runner’s World editor sought holistic all? “You contracted your hamstring as dynamic well as your back,” Brough says gently. knee alignment help from a team of therapists. Her “Try again, but this time, power the move with your glutes by squeezing your butt diagnosis (sleeping glutes?) and hard- before and while doing the lift.” Okay, got won lessons (master the clamshell!) it. Simple enough. But it isn’t. Impossible, actually. I lie there motionless, slowly can help you, too, stay healthy, happy, coming to the realization that clenching your face doesn’t help you clench your foot initial BODY BREAKDOWN contact and on the road butt cheeks. Forget lifting the leg. I am foot The experts at New York University’s placement entirely unable to activate my glutes, a RunSmart clinic predict a runner’s injury center of By KATI E McDONALD NEITZ risk in part by scrutinizing 15 different mass foot fact Brough describes with one cruel but placement biomechanical factors (indicated here). midline Photograph by REED YOUNG apt word: “Astonishing.” >>>>>>>>>>> x x x RUN THIS WAY and flexibility testing, and nutritional mation from each station in order to During Neitz’s treadmill screening, physical consultation. At each stop, you receive a figure out which findings are actually TRIAL therapist Colleen Brough (in blue) gives running cues while therapists Hiwotie Deres personal evaluation from at least one relevant to the runner in order to make AND ERROR (far left) and Hiromi Otani record the session. sports-medicine professional: Exercise phys- suggestions on how to improve.” My previous treatments for ham- iologists, physical therapists, and sports All the data from the testing and the string pain produced mixed results nutritionists make up the RunSmart team. expert huddle go into your take-home stemmed from similar issues. They imagined While some immediate feedback may report, e-mailed to you a few weeks later, CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS the good they could do if they could be given along the way (“My, what weak which you can then take to your own The good it did My chiropractor detected my identify and correct these weaknesses before glutes you have!”), the full details come local physical therapist to start a rehab pelvic drop by watching me walk across the room a full-blown injury developed. when you sit down with the team as they routine, if necessary. At 31 pages, my and then worked to realign my hips. I felt drastic “My philosophy is that it’s always better review your evaluations. The experts take document is epic. And fascinating (at least improvement initially, even going for a pain-free to prevent than to react,” says Rusty Var- a holistic approach in discussing any areas to me). Although it’s filled with notations 10-mile run after my third appointment. lotta, D.O., F.A.C.S.M., associate professor of weakness, asymmetry, instability, or about—and photographic evidence of—my Why it didn’t cure me While this work did of rehabilitation and orthopedics at NYU tightness detected, as well as any nutri- many flaws (heel-striker on left, midfoot- help align my hips, I wasn’t building underlying and member of the RunSmart team. “If you tional issues that could impact performance. striker on right; excessive trunk rotation; glute strength to keep my pelvis in the correct can recognize weaknesses or abnormalities, Then, in a conference room outfitted with excessive pelvic drop; inefficient arm swing; position. Now I’m pairing adjustments with you can address those areas and be more two 70-inch screens, they pore over your inefficient forward lean), the experts con- physical therapy. By strengthening my glutes, the WHAT MIGHT BE even more astonishing sleep-deprived world seemed like a victory. likely to prevent an injury and prevent the treadmill video. You are filmed from three cluded that I’m 100 percent fixable. My goal is that I’ll be able to successfully hold the is that I’m Runner’s World’s Mind+Body edi- Running pain-free seemed like a luxury. downtime needed to rehab an injury.” angles (front, back, and side), and the team hamstring pain, they told me, is the result pelvic alignment my chiropractor helps me achieve. tor. When a person’s job requires talking And then I had the opportunity in Similar running clinics at medical cen- has the capability to watch the footage in of glute and pelvic weakness, which I can with top sports-medicine docs and physical October to visit RunSmart, a running ters around the country put participants real-time and slow motion as they scruti- resolve with physical therapy. That feed- MASSAGE & GRASTON TECHNIQUE therapists to provide injury prevention and clinic at New York University’s Langone through an assessment aimed at identify- nize your running mechanics. back renewed my motivation to correct The good it did These two forms of bodywork treatment advice for runners, you might Medical Center in Manhattan, shortly before ing areas of weaknesses with the goal of What are they looking for? Fifteen the mistakes I’ve made in the past and break up scar tissue and enhance circulation to aid assume said person would be a reflection of the clinic’s doors open to the public in preventing injury. (Find a list at runners different variables—everything from trunk recover—for good. The mistakes I’ve made, in the healing process. Both of these treatments her work: a happy, muscle-balanced, injury- March (yes, another perk of my job). While world.com/runningclinics.) One of the first rotation, arm swing, and forward lean to and the lessons I’ve learned, on the road made my hamstring feel loose and more flexible. free runner. Instead, I’ve been struggling I came in with a specific complaint—a was RunSafe, which launched in 2008 at footstrike, hip extension, and knee align- to recovery can help you overcome your Why it didn’t cure me These treatments were with the same strained hamstring for six chronically sore, achy hamstring with the University of California at San Fran- ment. As they dissect stride and form, own aches and pains, or better yet, help focused on my hamstring, which wasn’t the root years. I’ve tried every technique recom- limited range of motion—the clinic’s chief cisco and now has three locations through- they constantly refer to the strength, you avoid injury in the first place. of my problem. Neither addressed my inactive, mended in these pages: massages, Active goal is to help healthy, injury-free runners out the state and one in Boston. flexibility, foot, and ankle testing to find weak glutes, so the relief I felt after a session was Release Technique, Graston Technique, and stay that way. The sports-medicine physi- Whether you want to treat an existing commonalities and clues. THE MISTAKE short-lived. The hamstring pain always returned. chiropractic treatment. And everything cians and the sports-rehab physical thera- injury, as I did, or merely pre-emptively “Everyone’s station contributes a piece RUNNING AND RACING WITH has made me feel better—temporarily. My pists at Langone, who regularly team up nip one in the bud, NYU’s RunSmart of the puzzle,” says physical therapist James A SERIOUS WEAKNESS AcTIVE RELEASE TECHNIQUE (ART) improvements are always short-lived. to treat injured runners, recognized that schedules you for a two-hour-long appoint- Koo, P.T., D.P.T., who checked my feet and While my race times aren’t very impres- The good it did At a point in time, my body My cranky hamstring has limited my so many of their patients’ injuries— ment, during which you have a treadmill ankles. “It’s only when we all put our own sive, what is impressive is that I have was starting to fall like dominos. My left knee pace, my mileage, and my enjoyment of whether foot, knee, or hip complaints— analysis, foot and ankle evaluation, strength piece down that it creates a picture of been able to run half-marathons at all, started to hurt, likely due to compensation. My the sport. Yet when you’ve had an issue what’s really going on with a runner. If with no help from my glutes. My glutes— chiropractor used this method, which breaks up like this for this long, it becomes your new you come in with knee pain, we’re not specifically my gluteus medius and glu- scar tissue in a body part while moving it through norm. You figure out what makes it worse— looking just at the knee. We’re looking at teus maximus muscles—are asleep, even its natural range of motion, on my knee.