Mat Pilates for RunnerS
Why? And what are the benefits?
Many runners, myself included in the early days, will spend hours upon hours during the week pounding the trails, pavement, road or whatever surface they choose to train on for that one event or goal they’ve set themselves.
We will often put in large amounts of kilometres and hours at varying paces with our focus only on the accumulation of these kilometres or time on feet required to make that race distance. Unfortunately, quite often, this never-ending cycle will result in injury or niggles which will thwart our attempts for success at our next event.
For runners, proper body alignment is critical. The most commonly reported injuries occur at the ankle, knee and pelvis/lumbar spine. These injuries are often caused by overuse rather than an acute episode. Therefore, runners need to be able to maintain an efficient gait pattern to minimise excess muscle use leading to increased risk of injury.
The questions raised from this are:
- Do we do the maintenance on our body like we would a car to continue this constant cycle of kilometres or time on feet?
- Is our body strong enough to withstand the pressure we place on it?
- Are we taking the time to slow down a little and give our body the tools to recover and be the efficient Ferrari that we want it to be?
As everyone reading this is aware, running is fantastic exercise that requires endurance, muscle strength, good posture and correct breathing techniques but are we working on improving these elements in our training to make us better runners?
Enter the room, Pilates.
There are many benefits of Pilates for runners most notably:
- Reduced pain and injuries
- Stronger muscles
- Increased flexibility
- Postural improvements
- Increased body awareness and mindfulness
- Improved breathing
Pilates is low impact exercise that will put minimum stress on your body and is a great break from the impacting nature of running. These exercises assist in creating a stronger, balanced, more flexible spine and core using only the resistance of your bodyweight – that same bodyweight that you use during your running. Nothing extra required.
Pilates gives a runner the opportunity to correct postural imbalances, which help in reducing the risk of injury. Every runners’ priority should be to achieve core stability. In other words, stability first and movement second. Since Pilates encourages proper movement patterns and teaches correct posture, you are less likely to injure or re-injure yourself due to compensation. Additionally, Pilates helps you identify your weaknesses that inhibit your gait. You learn muscular cues to help fire and strengthen muscles that assist you in maintaining a better running posture.
Most runners understand the importance of a strong core, but many do not understand what the core refers to precisely. Core strength is not just about the abdominals; your core encompasses the entire torso including your hips, abdominals, back, shoulders and neck. When all the muscles in the torso are strong and balanced, your core acts as a stabiliser and a centre for you to transfer forces when you are running. A strong, balanced body helps you maintain proper form as you fatigue. Pilates helps you loosen the hips, legs and back, all helping you keep a fluid stride. This not only enables you to produce more efficient force during running activity, but it helps you control and maximise those forces.
When practising Pilates, we ideally want to focus on the area of the body we are working on and from this we learn body awareness and mindfulness. Quite often, when we take on other forms of more intense cross training the body will work through the exercises but often, due to fatigue or lack of technique we will recruit any part of the body to get the job done. In Pilates, we slow it down, we breath and focus exactly on the part of the body we are working on, whether that be abdominals, glutes, legs, hips, arms, etc. This can be of great advantage to a runner who can, with practise start to identify areas of problem while running and correct these before they lead to injury.
An important part of Pilates exercise is breath control. Breathing patterns are essential to performing Pilates movements correctly, and as such this translates into running. Pilates teaches you to fill the lower lungs more and to engage your diaphragm more consciously and to use breath with increased awareness to assist your movement patterns.
All this level on concentration on the body and breathing during our running can be an excellent focus, and not only helps us prevent injury, but keep our mind focussed during those long, long, long runs.
It is important with Pilates to find the right place for you to be taught and practise these exercises. Time on the mat is a very personal experience and if in a group scenario, which a large percentage of Pilates is practised, it is important to feel comfortable. We see so many images over social media with the so called ‘beautiful people’ practising Pilates and as runners we will look at these and think, ‘wow, no chance my tight and fatigued hamstring and glutes are going to do that’. In a lot of cases, that assumption will deter people from finding a place to join a group and start their Pilates journey, however this does not need to be the case. Just remember that time when you began your running journey. We must start somewhere.
For more information on pilates for runners, or to contact Mike Cardiff, visit the following sites:
Website
be-eliterunning.com.au
Facebook/Instagram
@be.eliterunning
