Pilates for runners

The Do’s and Don’ts for helping runners get the most from their Pilates

Running at its most basic is a fundamental skill we all develop as kids and generally maintain through most of our life span, if we want to. It has long been seen as an incredibly effective means of exercise for the masses, or a vital tool for many to complete their hobbies. It’s so effective, that entire industries have been built around helping us run better. We’ve got billion dollar sporting goods stores pumping out runners that are regularly refined (or perhaps just redecorated) in order to provide a more comfortable and sustainable run. And that’s just the shoes - let’s not forget about the clothing that helps hold everything in place, or the technology being developed to help provide a more detailed analysis of your specific running regime.

But if we strip all of that back, and just get back to the basics, running really is one of the absolute fundamentals of human movement. We spend our youth doing it without even giving it a second thought, running around chasing our friends, or playing sport with our peers. But as we get older, and often more sedentary, we find ourselves in less opportunities for this incidental running and play, and have to start creating opportunities to run. We start to get up at the crack of dawn to sneak in a few kilometers before heading to work, or signing up to the annual marathon in hope it will coax us in to finally committing to a regular running routine. And this is where most people that we work with start to also appear in the studio - looking for support to be able to either run more efficiently, or helping to reduce or recover from injuries.

Pilates for Runners

When it comes to running, not many people see the correlation between Pilates exercises and improving running straight away. Most people assume Pilates is just all about the ‘core’, and spend your time rolling around on the floor or stretching. And to an extent, they aren’t wrong - but there’s also a fair bit more to it than that. Ultimately Pilates is about conditioning the body to perform movement with the greatest efficiency it can - which can be incredibly helpful for distance runners for example. It’s also about being able to coordinate breathing and movement, and developing a sense of internal awareness - again incredibly helpful for all runners, but particularly good for sprint and power athletes who need to know how and where to squeeze that last little bit out of their body.

So how does Pilates actually do all of this? Below are a list of Do’s and Don’ts for runners to help give you perspective on how to approach your Pilates sessions, and what to watch out for if it starts going wrong!

DO - Movement Education

Realistically, the best way to train to be a runner is to run - there’s no way around it unfortunately! What Pilates will do for you, is show you where you can move the body from in order to get better movement. For example, helping you find the famed triple extension - extension of the hip, knee, and ankle indicating an efficient toe off in preparation for your next stride. Effective Pilates education will teach you how to extend one joint, and then combine it with two, and then with three. You then learn to apply load to those movements to exaggerate how it will feel with running. Once you have an internalised map of what this should feel like, you then have to learn how to apply that to the running model, which will involve a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic feed back - this is where working with someone like Rob who offers running assessments utilising video equipment and cues to improve running can be really helpful to find a more efficient technique.

DON’T - it’s not just about the Glutes!

Pretty much every running coach or PT I’ve ever worked with around running advocates that strong glutes are the most essential part of running. And I don’t entirely disagree, as strong hips are a key component of support pretty much every movement in life. But they aren’t the only factor, and often become obsessed over to the detriment of what actually connects you to the movement. Let’s get clear on what the Glutes do - they extend and rotate the thigh bone during a running stride. But the range of movement required will often be dictated by the kind of running you do. If you’re just a local street kind of runner, your range in the hips will likely be smaller than a hill runner or sprinter, so you should train as such. Doing endless deep squats, glute presses and deadlifts will give you big glute muscles, but they won’t actually translate to glutes that are well organise for transmitting force from the legs to the torso in a running pattern. Pilates is a classic for this too - side lying glute work on the reformer is dished out like candy at christmas, and it has zero function for runners!

do - get barefoot

Learning how to use your feet again is an absolute necessity for anyone who wants to be a consistent runner, regardless of their style. It’s the simplest way to learn to change your technique to one that minimises painful ground reaction forces being absorbed in your knees and hips, as well as helping to stimulate the muscles around the pelvis through the increase sensory feedback from the feet. Shoes have provided us with fantastic protection against the elements, but even the fancy shoe companies recognise that they block the ability for our body to do what it knows best - hence the birth of the likes of the Nike Free, a lightweight, minimalist shoe loved by the masses. It doesn’t take much to get the benefits either - I recommend everyone head to a local park, whip of their shoes for 5-10 minutes every day at least. If you’re running, you can just jog around your park in bare-feet but try to pay attention to how you move, and then replicate it when you’re back in your shoes and out on your run. This will ensure you’re still reducing ground reaction forces as much as possible, while maintaining a good pace. As you get more confident, start doing small periods of running on different terrains in bare-feet to keeping building the strength and robustness of your lower limbs, which will significantly improve your general strength and reduce your recovery time between runs. This is also where Pilates steps in - through the use of the equipment, we can start to gradually load up and build strength in the muscles of the feet and calves, without compromising the other major joints in the body.

Don’t - block out your environment

You’ll often see runners with head phones in, hat on, glasses on, and a classic ‘don’t get in my way’ tattooed across their forehead. They treat it as if they’re about to go in to battle, rather than enjoying the experience. It also limits the ability to actually focus in on your body, and start to notice how you’re moving and what feels good, or what feels bad. And if you’re numbing your awareness to your body, at some point you’re going to miss the warning bells and eventually something is going to give. So at least once a week, try running with as few distractions as possible, with the goal being to try and be in the moment with your body. It doesn’t have to be a major training run or anything, just a chance to connect in and pay attention. And this is the same in Pilates - at Movementality you won’t find background music, bright lights or fancy branding. We want you to keep your head in the game, so we wont distract you but instead encourage you to go ‘in’ and learn your own body - and the better you know it, the better feedback you can give the practitioners to give you better exercises.

Do - release regularly

Finding yourself a nice massage tool or too can be a game changer in terms of reducing points of accumulated stress from running. It’s also an important too for breaking up sticky points from just living a normal life that is made up of long periods sitting. Getting in to a habit of doing a full body massage every day may sound impossible, but if it’s done every day you quickly realise that it only takes 15-20 minutes to make your way through most of the body. It’s also a really important way to assess if the sore spots in your body are occurring regularly, or if they are moving around. If they are regular, it’s worth considering whether something needs to change. If they are moving around a bit, it’s a good sign that you are just adapting to the workload and progressing. A good introduction to the full body massage can be found here, but you can also learn the tricks of the trade through having regular Pilates sessions.

Don’t - over train

Not knowing when to take a break is the biggest reason most injuries occur in running. Unless you’re a high performance athlete who is pushing to make it to the olympics, pushing constantly isn’t actually going to be the best idea. How often you need to run is dependent on how intense your running is. If you’re running the same route, at the same pace consistently, your body will get used to that level of load within a few weeks and you won’t need as much rest. Alternatively, if you’re really pushing your limits with every run, giving yourself at least 48 hours to recover between runs is essential. You can do gentle training to help mobility or relaxing the body, but don’t strain it again until the stiffness has eased from the previous run. Pilates is an excellent recovery tool as we can moderate how much load to put on your body through the equipment, but also release and loosen areas of accumulated tension to provide a better experience for your next run.

do - breathing through your nose

Getting your breathing right is essential - not just for living, but also for exercise. Generally, our nose has the ability to take in and expel enough air to maintain us right up to about the 75-80% maximal effort. This means all running beyond 3 minutes (threshold for your lactate system) should be done through your nose. The temptation to breath through your mouth is easy because it takes in so much air, but it actually saturates the lungs and makes them lazy, reducing the efficiency and using exercise energy that could be better used for getting you through your run. Mouth breathing is best for sustained periods of challenging exercise, at 80% VO2max (your maximum heart rate) or above, and also for recovery immediately after running, but even still quickly translating to nasal breathing maintains efficiency in oxygen transfusion in the blood. Pilates, when taught well, should involve silent nasal breathing, focusing on working at a level of which this can be maintain, even if it is challenging. This sets the standard for breathing in more challenging environments such as walking up hills and running.