Posture - and another thing

This is a small addendum to my last post because I suddenly remembered a piece about the rehabilitation of Jonathan Woodgate, whose career has been plagued by muscle tears. The key to his improvement seems to be posture:

Woodgate was supervised one-on-one as he went through "core training". This is intended to condition the torso and improve posture so that the danger of injury is reduced. Phil Pask, as senior physio to the England rugby squad for 10 years that included the 2003 World Cup triumph, is well versed in an unrelenting sport and knows the value of core work. "We are looking," he said, "for a normal movement pattern. Physios now will have a grounding in yoga and Pilates."

later on in the article the physio used the made-up word of prehabilitation. Inspite of that it is the best idea; injury is just the worst thing and so everything possible must be done to try to prevent it. In running the most important thing is consistency and that can only happen when all work is done within the body's limits.

That is why I think core work and posture is important – it helps with those limits.

Posture

As I write this I am sitting on a new desk chair...

I cannot imagine a more boring sentence to open an post. It is of absolutely no interest to anybody else whether I am sitting on an orange crate or reclining on the sofa, but to me it is important. It is related to something I increasingly consider important – posture.

In the old twirly, leany-backy office chair, I used to be half reclining when using the computer; it was an illusory comfort. The new chair is plain, fairly firm, with no moving parts and it forces me to sit upright. My back is straighter and I feel more alert. To say I have been working towards this for a couple of months is not quite true. I haven't had a training programme of sitting a little better each day until I achieved a goal of sitting upright – that would be daft. But I have been working for a couple of months on strengthening my core muscles and trying to improve my posture.

It stems from a realisation that to run properly, with good economy whilst minimising the strain on my body, I need good posture. This cannot be switched on when I laced up my trainers and neglected for everything else, it has to be applied all the time. I have to be constantly aware of how I am holding myself because it is easy to slump, especially when feeling weary.

I have a book of yoga exercises for runners where the mountain pose is highlighted as a key pose. It looks really simple, as it does not involve any contortions or stretching, it is simply a matter of standing upright, balanced and relaxed. It is good to do at odd moments throughout the day as it makes you aware of how you are standing and it recalibrates your posture. A few moments of awareness of the body. It has changed the way I do some exercises. For example when doing lunges I stand in the mountain pose for a short while, do a few lunges on one leg, go back to the mountain pose and then do a few more lunges on the other leg. Yesterday, when walking down the street, became aware of being a little straighter, looking forward rather than slightly down. These are little things, small moments but they make you feel better balanced.

I am sure this is good for running . Everything I have read about good form says you should be erect but relaxed, but how you run is not merely a matter of what you do on a run it's a matter of what you do throughout the day.