Your hips are critical to your running. Think about it! For example:
Your hips connect your legs to your torso.
Your hips rotate as you run.
Your hips tilt forward and backward as you run.
Your hips tilt side to side as you run.
Your hips allow your legs to lift and take steps forward as you run.
Your hips support the weight of your body in a standing posture, such as when you are listening to the head coach of a group training program before a group run.
Your hips support your body in a dynamic posture, such as when you are running.
Your hips let your hip muscles work in three dimensions through the heads of your femurs (your femoral heads) -- with flexion and extension, with lateral rotation and medial rotation, and with abduction and adduction.
Taking good care of your hips means:
You eat right, so that the calcium content of your hip bones remains sufficiently high to maintain the strength of those bones.
You stretch regularly, so that the muscles, tendons, and ligaments associated with your hips have the flexibility and range of motion to support your running.
You wear the right running shoes to compensate for any overpronation or underpronation that you may naturally have when running, so that you reduce or eliminate the opportunities for injuring your hips.
You run in a way that minimizes the impact of your steps on the wear and tear of your hips.
You favor running surfaces that are soft enough to reduce the pounding on your hips but are firm enough to prevent injuries that can arise from trying to compensate for a running surface that is too soft.
You strengthen your core and your leg muscles so that your hips are surrounded -- and thereby protected -- by strong muscles.
You complement your diet with joint-supporting nutritional supplements.
You make sure that you have sufficiently warmed your hips before exposing them to bursts of exercise.
You are more likely to take good care of your hips when you have an attitude of gratitude for them. And developing this attitude is as simple as 1-2-3:
Make a list of statements of gratitude for your hips.
Make a daily or weekly appointment on your personal calendar to read the list.
Diligently keep the appointment, taking a few seconds after reading each statement to feel the positive emotions linked to that statement.
Here is an example of a gratitude statement that you might write:
-I am truly grateful that my hips support my body in a dynamic posture when I am running.
Exercise: Complete step #1 by creating a list of gratitude statements based on the top two lists plus your own knowledge and reflections about how your hips serve your running.
Author Resource:-
Dr. Kirk Mahoney loves to walk and run, and his SpryFeet.com website provides practical research for runners and walkers. By going to the Books section of his website, you can learn more about the books that he has written for runners and walkers, including the book Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkersand the book 123 Cellphone Tips for Runners and Walkers.
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