Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
Is your body falling apart or are you tapering?
|
Raise your hand if you're tapering now or will be in the soon future. And keep your hand raised if the taper "panic niggles of doom" have you in a choke hold. The wild thing to me as a physical therapist is just how "diverse" our bodies can complain. One of my runners I'm currently coaching says her forearms will get achy. I've had other runners comment that they've spam-texted their running coach about how their achilles is talking back, they're crashing out, and convinced their race is totaled. Other runners end up with almost full body aches, or unable to pin point what exactly hurts. They're just massively un-comfy. The point of this email: just breathe! You're not crazy; your nervous system is just talking. VERY LOUDLY. Because that's a lot of what taper niggles are: our body's effort to hold up a "stop" sign after a month of progressively harder and harder workouts, begging for a moment to stop and catch our breathe. However, sitting in the perpetual achiness isn't helpful physically or mentally. So want I wanted to do this week was give you the run down on how and why our body responds the way it does during taper time. We've already scratched the surface some taper niggles are nervous system response. But recently I've been reading about muscle tension and how we physically feel it and perceive it while running. It's the reason why some runs feel peppy and springy and others feel flat and heavy and why your coach may change a planned workout based on your feedback on how your legs feel. Because all through your taper time, your coach is looking to achieve this "optimal performance"; this state of muscle tension that feels as satisfying as a crispy diet coke. (granted, this often comes after the recovery slog.) So while that's all in your running coach's wheelhouse, I thought I'd give you some of my favorite "exercise hacks" to help "turn down the volume" on specific taper aches.
And no, I didn't forget the runner who can't quite put a finger on what hurts and where. I've put together a fast, 3 exercise, 7 minute taper niggle busting circuit (that I use a lot personally just for general training aches. or when I'm sitting too much at my desk lol). No, these are NOT meant to be a strength workout. And they're little more assertive than a yoga flow. They're based on utilizing proprioception, your body's way of understanding weight bearing and where it lives in space. They're all body weight exercises that invite your nervous system and musculoskeletal system to have a peace-treaty conversation. Or at least to turn down the volume on the pain-boom box. So head on over to check it out and...
until next time... Dare to Train Differently, Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit P.S. yes, I literally did all of these in my office before writing this email. I can say I 100% feel better after a short movement snack. go check them out, just for funsies ;) Looking for MORE ways to work together?
Did that blog post or YouTube video knock your compression socks off? Consider leaving a tip so I can keep delivering awesome-socks content! Never expected; always appreciated. © 2020- 2025 All Rights Reserved. You are receiving this message because you purchased a product from @dr.whitt.fit and/or signed up to receive content. This message is for informational purposes only and does not create a health care provider-patient relationship between you and Marie Whitt, and nothing you receive or view from Marie Whitt or @dr.whitt.fit, should be construed as medical advice. |
Dr. Marie Whitt / Strength Coach and Physical Therapist for Runners
Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
I was driving home from work that evening in the still-total-dark of early Michigan spring, crying, emotionally overwhelmed, and all my brain could throw at me was, "this has all the hallmarks of an early 2000's emo music video". I'd just lost my first physical therapy job. 7:10pm, March 13, 2020. A flat, rather uncompassionate phone call from the regional manager. The threat of a global pandemic with unknown repercussions. A Doctorate degree, 2 years of work completed, tens of thousands of...
I remember slogging through an 8 miler this summer and feeling the hip ache enter the chat around mile 5. *massive eye roll and groan* like seriously, my guy? Now realize: no, I didn’t stop mid run to work it out. Sometimes the long run just is what it is. But once I got home, I defaulted to “ugh it feels so tight, how do I stretch this?” Dear reader: stretching does NOT often work for my body. So please tell me why I proceeded to try and stretch anyway *facepalm* Did it “work”? No. As...
So I felt dumb because my engineer-husband figured out what was wrong with my calf before I did. Oops. You may remember a few weeks back from my Instagram stories I went to Michigan briefly to see family. And I was SO EXCITED to run up there because the mornings were a cool 50-60 degrees F compared to the current 80 degrees and 90% humidity in north Alabama. I was going to have a running-palooza! Until I realized...I forgot my running shoes. I might cried a little in the car. Luckily, REI had...