Running

[Gareth O Connor]

I definitely did push too hard,that probably comes from impatience...trying to rush progress.Is twice a week stretching sufficient?

[Kit_L]

Best not to try to go faster than the body wants.

Re. twice a week? Short answer: yes.

[Gareth O Connor]

@Kit_L Kit would stretching the piriformis help with pronation of the ankles?

[Gareth O Connor]

Will loosening the piriformis help with pronation of the ankles seeing as it is an external rotator of the hip?

[Kit_L]

Nowhere near as much as doing the arch strengthening exercise I recommended in an earlier response. Tibialis posterior activation and strengthening is the key. Please go back and re-read the article I recommended to you. The strengthening effect in T. posterior is much more powerful WRT properly forming the arch than piriformis' capacity to externally rotate the leg. The strengthening exercise also wakes up the proprioceptors in the feet which is the reasons why piriformis does not externally rotate the leg in your case. When you wake up the soles of your feet, then piriformis can act this way. It is not possible to put the cart before the horse and expect decent results. This is also the reason I recommend doing some of your running training in bare feet. There's more but I'm tired and I have to sleep.

[Gareth O Connor]

Thanks for the help

[Gareth O Connor]

I think the hip flexor stretch in the lunge position where you drag the back knee forward is better for my body than the quad wall hip flexor. Kit how do I start limbering?,and another I have problems feeling the outside of the foot in the anti-pronation exercise

[Kit_L]

3 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

I think the hip flexor stretch in the lunge position where you drag the back knee forward is better for my body than the quad wall hip flexor

You really need to do both. Which one is harder?

3 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

Kit how do I start limbering?

Look for any of the "unnumbered" lessons on our YouTube channel, and simply follow along, imitating and doing the best you can

3 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

I have problems feeling the outside of the foot in the anti-pronation exercise

Try the exercise in bare feet.

[Gareth O Connor]

I do both,I find the quad wall hip flexor stretch harder

[Kit_L]

Do the floor one first, then do the wall one—the floor one becomes a warm-up this way. I suggest doing each twice, in that order, twice a week. The wall version will definitely get easier, in time. We speculate that the wall one engages a huge amount more fascia than the floor one, and that's why it feels completely resistant to stretching in the beginning. Nothing will have as large and affect though on the alignment of your body and the ease of running than that one.

[Gareth O Connor]

So the strong sensation felt in the quad is the fascia?.I noticed the wall version puts meat on the quads....contractions are strength work.

Stretching the hip flexors improves knee flexion from my experience

 

[Gareth O Connor]

For limbering I'll do the elephant walk,I will work towards doing the cossack squat and the single leg version

[Kit_L]

On 7/14/2025 at 2:43 PM, Gareth O Connor said:

So the strong sensation felt in the quad is the fascia?

We believe so. This effect is magnified by the stretching of both ends of rectus femoris simultaneously; as already mentioned, experientially stretching both ends at the same time is a completely different sensation to stretching either end of the same muscle separately (floor lunge, for example, and the floor quad stretch).

[Gareth O Connor]

I'll need to brush up on my anatomy 

[Gareth O Connor]

Is there a name for anatomy that focuses on the relationships between muscles rather than them in isolation?

[Kit_L]

Yes, Stretch Therapy. We were the first to coin the term "functional anatomy" – that is the identification of anatomical differences that make a difference to movement; to the experience of living in the body; the relationship between one's physical state and one emotional state; and so on. Of course, all this ground had been ploughed in some form before (for example, Plato once said, "economical movement is a pleasure to the eye") but we were the first (as far as I know) to put it all together in this form. There is no anatomical sub-discipline that does what you're asking about, as far as I know. Great question.

[Gareth O Connor]

I have been doing the elephant walk the last couple of days,my hamstrings are sore after the exercise.I took three days off running have been walking on days I don't run....starting to get good with recovery

[Kit_L]

4 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

I have been doing the elephant walk the last couple of days

Recovery includes recovering from stretching/limbering too—if the muscle is still sore, a bit of limbering is fine, but no C–R stretching. Is it the elephant walk that is leaving you sore in the hamstrings, or the other exercise you do? It is not clear from what you write.

[Gareth O Connor]

No its probably that my hamstrings are weak.Sore is probably not the right word,what are the benefits of the exercise as you see them?

[Kit_L]

22 hours ago, Gareth O Connor said:

what are the benefits of the exercise as you see them?

If you are talking about the elephant walk, then it all depends how you do it – depending on how you hold parts of the body, all of the effects can be in the hamstrings; can be in the outer hamstring (the attachment under the glute); the lower back; and the hole of the posterior chain from the back of the neck down to the soul of the feet – I'm talking about fascia here. You have to play with it to find out how to do it the way that benefits you the most. All of our exercises are like recipes in that sense – you have to do the exploration and the seeking.

[Gareth O Connor]

I felt it in my hamstrings and calves

[Gareth O Connor]

@Kit_L.Do you know much about endurance training?

[Kit_L]

Yes, I do. 

[Gareth O Connor]

If one lacks endurance running what's a good way to develop it?

[Kit_L]

Research "Long slow distance". This is the cornerstone of any endurance training, and it doesn't matter what the sport. It takes much longer than you want. When I was a middle decent runner, specialising in 800 and 1500 m, I used to run 160 km a week in the winter training season, about three months long. This is completely standard and I have heard of people running over to 225 km a week in recent times.

The biggest downside of this kind of training, in my view, is the risk of injury, because the joints seem to take more of the forces than when you're running faster, and you tend to switch off a bit mentally when running well under best pace. Once my fundamental aerobic conditioning was at the point where my resting pulse rate was 42 beats a minute, I then changed my approach over to a method called fartlek which mixes slow and fast running. It is an easy thing to research and it was very popular in my area when the Finns were the best distance runners in the world.