Author: Elizabeth Towe

A perfect exercise to do with your summer relay teammates!

In any training plan, you want to increase strength and improve instability before you add volume (number of miles). The goal of this exercise, another variation of a lunge, is to improve your ability to rotate the torso, shoulders and arms while holding stability on one leg. Having adequate rotation in the upper torso is…

We reach into our toolbox this month for an exercise that does not mimic the movement in running, cycling or swimming. It does, however, dynamically work muscles in the front, inside and outside of the hip through a full range of motion while holding a stable core. These are important objectives when base building and…

With the Step Back Lunge and Row, we can work in all of the fundamental elements of running: balance and stability on one leg; pushing the body forward from the hip complex; and rotating around the stable central axis of the spine (with ribs and pelvis counter-rotating).

Winter is the time of year for planning, looking through the Event Guide and choosing your target events. This month’s core corner will review a simple movement pattern: the step up. This is a movement that can serve as a cornerstone for an overall lower extremity strength program.  This compound movement involving hip, knee and…

Do you ever have knee pain while running? It can often be caused by weak hip stabilizers.  When we do repetitive movement in the same plane of motion (sagittal movement like walking, running, cycling), we can get weak in the other planes of motion from neglect (frontal-sideways, transverse-rotation). This exercise increases strength and hip stability…

Is it off season? Maybe, but it IS time to work on your running gait! If you have had nagging knee pain or hip pain, it might be easily corrected with some hip strength and stability. In running gait, you plant your stance leg in order to use the ground forces to push your hips…

One of the most common weaknesses we see when evaluating gait is weak hips. We have the beautiful and powerful gluteus maximus and the ever supportive gluteus medius and minimus, yet we do not always hold them accountable for one of their roles in movement—stablizing the pelvis as we shift weight.  Picture someone walking in…

Objective:  The plank is a great basic exercise that we can do anywhere. In this static exercise, when we activate all of the appropriate muscles to support the perfect plank, the result will build great foundational core. But we are not static in life! We have to be able to translate (dynamic) motion from our…

The first thing we can do to reduce incident of injury is begin to be more mindful each day of achieving optimal posture.  Explore the position of your skeleton that will minimize the strain, especially on your spine.  The most common culprit that we can easily begin to shift is rounded shoulders, most likely from…