Are You A Proactive or Reactive Runner?

Are You Pro-Active or Re-Active Runner?

How your answer determines your health choices.

Many folks (not all) are reactive when it comes to their health. For example, folks who run often will have aches and pains associated with many miles of road work training for a half or marathon race. Same can be said with Crossfitters, there are usually aches and pains associated with this type of wonderfully intense exercise.

So what do these folks do that makes them reactive?

For example, lets say a runner has hip pain - not uncommon by the way.
The reactive runner will do many things to help their hip pain, such as;

• rollers
• stretching
• heat/ice
• kinesotape - fancy tape to improve performance
• massage
• OTC's
• PT, 
• medications,
  
• conventional chiropractic, 
• ND, 
• acupuncture 

All of the above are re-active, the pain comes and you choose from the menu above to help with the pain, and I have no doubt that all of the above are outstanding in regards to pain relief.

What would be proactive?

Take the runner example, how about a good foot assesment with the selection of the proper running shoe and a running form analysis?

What about a structural assessment of the inner-frame work of your body that includes your hips, pelvis and spine?

These two suggestions would save people needless pain and improve your body's function for optimal performance. Better times, less pain, etc.

We had a patient who is an active runner that had gone thru the typical reactive approach to their hip pain with varying results for y-e-a-r-s.

We advised a structural evaluation, and to their surprise we found that they had an anatomical short leg by 1 inch. Just like a house foundation that has dropped a few inches and has casued secondary dry wall cracks - you can patch the dry wall over and over, but we both know that the cause is the un-level foundation. You can choose to spackle the cracks or correct the foundation, which approach would you choose?

The proactive appraoched we utlized with our running patient was to correct the leg length inequality and work on the secondary conditions caused by the structural shift in their pelvis. We used a non-invasive, gentle SCI and complementary recommendations to fortify their inner frame work (the pelvis and spine)

Now, the patient runs better with less pain and the use of the re-active approaches (stretches, massage, OTC) have been enhanced because our specific correction work.

Have a great day!

Dr. Chris