The Real Reason You Can’t Touch Your Toes When you turn off your alarm, lace up your shoes, and head out the door for your morning run what do you do first? A little stretching, a little active warm-up, maybe you reach down to try to touch your toes. For many of us this is a goal but, no matter how much we stretch, we can never quite reach those shiny new shoes. Have you ever thought there could be another reason for why this is? After all, touching your toes is not that abnormal, if we stretch enough we will surely reach our goal right? There are a surprising number of things that must occur in order to reach down and touch your toes. So what is your reason for being so “tight”? It could be that the rhythm of your lumbar spine and pelvis are out of sync (the hips and pelvis should be the first to flex, followed by your spine). Maybe you aren’t comfortable with the posterior weight shift that is required for this motion (your hips need to move back as your trunk comes forward). Perhaps you are uncomfortable flexing through your lumbar spine because of all the horror stories you have heard about disc injuries with spine flexion (flexion through an otherwise healthy spine is normally fine if you aren’t picking things up). How did you get this way? It could be the result of a number of things – a previous injury that never completely resolved, poor training habits, an imbalance of training (more anterior chain versus posterior chain strengthening, lack of full range of motion in your training, etc.). All or any of these can reduce your ability to have a functional toe touch. Why does it matter that you can’t touch your toes? Having a good toe touch is a fundamental movement and being able to perform that movement shows that you have good timing, stabilization and coordination with this particular pattern (all good things). By clearing up basic, fundamental movement patterns, you can help decrease your chance of experiencing injury when your activity level increases. Who hasn’t felt a few more aches and pains (or more) when your mileage increases to a range you aren’t used to? The best way to find out what your dysfunction is and how to fix it is to go through a Functional Movement Screen aka FMS (assuming you don’t have pain with this movement). The corrective strategies of the FMS can be a painless process that doesn’t take a lot of time when done properly. Go to functionalmovement to find an FMS provider near you and get started on the path to functional movement and pain free running! P.S. Here is a little taste of Gray Cook (the brain behind the Functional Movement Screen) and his explanation of the toe touch and its importance in functional movement - youtube/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n7l4iW5N41M -Evan Hagen, ATC/L, PTA, CPT The Running Injury Clinic @ South Sound Physical and Hand Therapy facebook/TheRunningInjuryClinic
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 04:07:01 +0000