Healthy happy you.
From pounding the pavement running to spending a day in fashionable shoes that lack proper support, feet take a beating. If you're training for a race this Spring and upping your mileage, it pays to show your peds some love. You can do some preventive prehab to avoid coming down with a case of plantar fasciitis. This painful condition, which can be common in new runners and affects women more Read more
Runners, walkers, bikers, and hikers rely heavily on their feet. Feet allow us to do the things we love, but all that stepping, jumping, and pounding can cause damage to the plantar fascia. It's a thick band of tissue that covers and protects the bones on the bottom of your feet. When put under too much stress, these tissues can tear, causing a painful condition called plantar fasciitis. The Read more
Quite simply put, plantar fasciitis is an enemy of fitness. Once this problem truly starts, the best remedy is to stop any high impact activity, and sometimes even biking. Talk about a bummer! It is an over use injury affecting the fascia, a type of connective tissue, on the bottom of your foot. Plantar fascia is a thick, fibrous band that runs from your heel bone to the base of your toes. When Read more
Quite simply put, plantar fasciitis is an enemy of fitness. Once this problem truly starts, you need to stay away from high impact activities and that can be a serious bummer. It is an over use injury affecting the fascia, a type of connective tissue, on the bottom of your foot. Plantar fascia is a thick, fibrous band that runs from your heel bone to the base of your toes. When the fascia is Read more
Running can take a toll on your feet, but I have found a simple prehab (you know, avoid the injury before it happens) exercise to keep your dogs strong so you can stay on the road. Amy Yoder Begley, training partner of my fave runner Kara Goucher, shared her healthy running secrets with Runner's World. In her arsenal of preventative tricks: the toe scrunch. This simple exercise strengthens the Read more
Has the sight of celebs traipsing around town in Vibram FiveFingers made you anxious to start barefoot running? Responding to the minimalist shoe craze, the American Council on Exercise decided to test out those barefoot running shoes to see how they fared for normal everyday runners. The council tested Vibram's Bilkia model on 16 recreational joggers and compared their performance running in Read more
If you've got a spring in your step because of the nice weather, you may want to enjoy the fresh air by starting a new running hobby. But being a runner isn't just about lacing up fancy new kicks and hitting the pavement. By incorporating a few exercises into your workout routine, you can help prevent some injuries that are common in the running world. Here are a few of them to start doing Read more
Even with the longer days of the Summer months, I sometimes feel like there is so much training to do and so little time to pack it in. Upping your mileage certainly brings increased stamina, so you can "bring it" at your races, but it can also mean increased injury risk. Overuse injuries are the bane of any runner's well-laid training plans. And that is where some prehab comes into play. You can Read more
When my feet are dog tired, I like to give them a Rubz down. This little ball, just under two inches in diameter, gives the perfect foot massage. While standing, place your foot on the ball and roll; the 172 "stimulating fingers" work the soles of your feet. If you want more pressure, you simply put more of your body weight onto the ball. My feet crave a little rub after a long hike or run. Read more
Tight calves can be an unwanted side effect of such opposite activities as running or wearing high heels. Many people neglect stretching their calves! Since you have two layers of calf muscles, you need to do two stretches to ensure you are reaching both. So try these stretches after your next run or after a night of dancing in your Jimmy Choos. Gastrocnemius Stretch Place your hands on a Read more
