Return to Running: Checklist

You’ve had a baby.  Maybe had surgery.  Or just a long hiatus from exercise.  And now you feel ready to get back out there and return to running.

But maybe it didn’t go as planned.  Maybe you leaked while you were running.  Maybe your hip or your back hurt.  Maybe you just didn’t feel like you had the oomph you thought you should. 

Getting back into exercise after a big life event is exciting and exhilarating.  We are here to help you make sure that you can get back into the running shoes or the gym without having an injury or feeling frustrated with pain or leaking.

When we are looking at helping someone get back into a good exercise routine, we want to make sure that they have good coordination between their deep core and pelvic floor and diaphragm for the best control in their hips, pelvis, and core.  This helps to decrease the risk of injury now and down the road.

Before you lace up those running shoes, take some time to make sure that your body is ready to get back into the exercise routine.  This is a checklist you can look at to see if you’re ready.

• Single leg calf raises
• Sit to stand with one leg
• Single leg squats
• Single leg bridges

If you have good control with these and don’t experience significant wobbling or pain, you will probably be ready to hit the trails.  If not, we would encourage you to continue to work on strengthening your core, hips, and pelvic floor. If you are unable to have good stability and coordination of your abdominal wall, hip, and pelvic floor when you return to exercise, it increases the risk of injury along either in the short term or over time. 

What is tricky about this is, often people don’t realize that they aren’t coordinating their core well. That is where a pelvic floor specialist can help. Getting in to see a therapist can help you get a baseline and understand where your deficits are, to understand how the core needs to work in conjunction with your spine, and LE musculature. To develop a plan that is individualized for you to create balance in your body. Check out this video to begin to connect with your core! But if you are struggling to get back to running, the very best option is to see a Pelvic PT.

We want to help all our clients to reach their full potential with whatever their goals are.  That’s what we love to do! We offer a free, 15 minute phone consultation with one of our specialists to help you answer any questions you may have! Click Here to schedule!