Welcome back to behind the scenes of your puppet show. If you remember from last week’s blog post, the ‘puppet show’ is basically the muscles in your legs (A.K.A. the puppet strings) and your knee (the puppet itself). As promised, I’m going to explain what it means to have an imbalanced puppeteer act and I will give you some critical tips you won’t want to miss if you want to spare your knees for the next 40 years!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE PUPPET SHOW WHEN THINGS DON’T RUN SMOOTHLY?
The quadriceps muscle group in the front of your upper-leg is often dominant in runners. This is due to a compensation that results from inhibited muscles in the back of your upper legs (hamstrings & glutes). There should be equilibrium in strength in the muscles that make up the front of your body (anterior chain) and the back of your body (posterior chain). When one side of the body is more developed than the other, then this is the recipe for a disastrous puppet show. Not only are certain muscles doing more or less of their fair share, but the motor controls within the body may be functioning incorrectly by reacting to movements without recruiting the stabilization system (throughout your core and spine) properly. In other words, if the strings in the front (quads) are doing all the work and the strings in the back (hamstrings & glutes) aren’t responding adequately and are too tight, then imaginably so, the puppet (knee) is not going to perform very well!
Furthermore, if your core and spine act as the master puppeteer balancing the rest of the show, then they must be trained initially to navigate the show before one performs. How do you suppose you will put on a puppet show if you haven’t trained the puppeteer first? When the strings and the puppeteer of the show are not working in a balanced and properly trained fashion, it puts the knees and other joints of the lower body at risk for injury (hence swollen hips/knees/ankles after running), because of improper impact absorption.
HOW DO I FIX MY PUPPET SHOW?
Easier said than done, but all you have to do is even out the muscular imbalances that are causing you to rely heavily on certain muscle groups more than others. The tendencies of runners to have stronger quads than hamstrings and lower core muscles means that each individual needs to identify exactly what is going on in his or her body during impact exercises such as jogging/running. With that said, if any of this is familiar to you, it is in your best interest to develop a routine with a personal trainer to help you focus on any underdeveloped muscle groups. If you think you are experiencing these imbalances, talk to any of the personal trainers at Sgt. Peterson’s to help get you on a personalized plan that will develop your strength evenly in a safe manner. Even if you have a balanced system of strength, you might simply have tight muscles (most often the muscles around the calf and of the hamstrings in runners). If this is the case, our personal trainers can help you through certain mobility exercises and stretching/foam rolling routines that will enhance your flexibility and thus better your overall athletic performance.
Since each of you has such unique scenarios within your physical performance, I cannot guide you any more specifically than I already have. I do hope that reading this post has helped you understand what is going on in your body and how you can improve your physical and athletic efficiency. It’s truly for your benefit to see a trainer to find out if you are dealing with any muscular imbalances. The sooner you diagnose these issues, the faster you can fix them. Otherwise, they will likely continue to get worse. Thanks for joining us and I hope I have inspired you to join the movement so that the trainers at Sgt. Peterson’s can help get you on the path to getting the results you’ve always wanted and being the best athlete you can be!
