You Gotta Move! (In More Ways than Just Forward)

Cross training is key

As part of my cross training, trying very hard to engage my transverse abdominals, psoas, gluts, adductors, and lats all at the same time. Mostly failing.

Cross training

Last week, we talked about tactics for encouraging ourselves through our runs. This week, I'll share how to support your runs from the outside, because this week is all about cross training.

Every time I run with a club, I'm surprised by how many runners don't crosstrain or consider it an add-on. If you've been running for many years, or if you'd like to, cross training is key to sustainability. But even if you're at the height of your career, effective cross training can set you apart from your competitors. Here's an example from my practice, and a callback to my earlier posts about dance and running.

Dancers look strong b/c they ARE strong 

Uniquely, I started my running career as an already-serious dancer. When I was a competitive runner, I danced two hours per day, two to three times per week, after afternoon running practice (I was tired a lot in middle and high school.) I didn’t know it at the time, but that dance practice was one reason why my 5’1”, heavy-muscled body was able to move so quickly and avoid injuries, while the taller, thinner, faster-bodied girls around me kept getting hurt.

Under pressure from the running community, including college coaches, I quit dance my sophomore year to concentrate on mileage and guess what? I wasn’t as fast after that, and my training became more painful. I joined the dance company at my college after quitting the cross country team and continued running on my own. That’s when I connected the efficacy of the two practices; my solo runs got faster, my pain decreased, and over the two subsequent decades I’ve only had one major, non-fall-related injury, which is an amazing record. 

Most of us will never be as strong as Misty Copeland, seen here, but we can dream! And practice.

Why Dance?

Formal dance practice engages the adductors, transverse abdominals, and psoas as well as the obliques and triceps. You can’t balance or jump without using these muscles, so they are pretty much constantly engaged during a ballet barre. Unlike lifting weights, however, ballet does not use weights or resistance, meaning you must concentrate on engaging your muscles against gravity, which means ballet will train you to use these muscles even when not triggered by the presence of additional weight.

The drawback is that ballet can be hard to get into because the only feedback you get is from your body itself, and it requires a lot of mental engagement and discipline to maintain your form. But it also means that the workouts are one of the most effective ways to engage the small muscles that support your runs. 

To keep my practice up, I follow ballerina Kathryn Morgan on YouTube and do her barres. Her workouts are so tough! I can’t even get through some of them. Highly recommend Kathryn’s channel if you're at all interested in ballet.

I’m Not Into Dance; What Can I do? 

Ballet is just something I do, but the message here is to cross train in a way that is effective for you. One muscle group that ballet engages that can be really tough to get at is the adductors and pelvic floor. I, for one, was super surprised to learn that my weak adductors, or inner thigh muscles, were vastly affecting my runs as I aged. I learned this through getting what I thought was an IT band injury, but was actually me collapsing inward due to atrophied adductors. 

I’ve heard that jumping on trampolines is really good crosstraining…(video ~2013)

This is super common, as most of us don't really engage these muscles fully, especially if you tilt your pelvis forward when you stand, turn your feet out as you walk, or sit for many hours per day. The good news is that there are simple exercises to help you strengthen these muscles. These include: squats, split squat lungs, and wide leg squats.

I started going to fitness classes called “barre classes” that include postures from pilates and traditional ballet barre. Fair warning: these will wreck you the first time you go. Your legs will shake and jump and you will have no idea why. Keep going; the improvements will pile up quickly. 

Do you have other thoughts about or methods of cross training? Let me know in the comments or via email; I would love to hear. See you next week and for today, remember: go run.