My IDEA Fitness Convention Sessions (& how they’ll help your running)

I’m just back from the IDEA Fitness Convention and Shine event and, as always, I feel excited, motivated, educated, and thrilled to share the information about fitness and social influencing that I learned over the last four days. 

Unfortunately, in addition to new information, I also brought home a bad cold from the IDEA Fitness Convention. It has kept me from, well, basically doing anything. I’m tired, I’ve got a runny nose, I’m tired, I’ve got a bad cough, and I’m really tired. Did I mention that I’m tired? Generally, in the first days after a fitness convention, I like to take the time to sort through and review what I learned. That hasn’t happened yet. 

Still, I want to share some of the things that I learned at my IDEA Fitness Convention sessions because I know that they will help your running (and mine). Over the years that I’ve attended the convention, my choice of selections tends to have a theme. The last few years I’ve focused a lot on sessions that teach more about fascia and how it affects our fitness and our lives. I’ll tell you this.

Fascia is Everything!

In case you missed my posts in the past, fascia is the weblike material that surrounds the muscles and organs in our body. It is due to fascia that everything in our body is connected. Fascia is the reason that you can hurt your right hip and have pain in your left shoulder. If it is healthy we move better. If it is not, we don’t move as well. Exercise, hydration, surgeries, mobility, all have an effect on fascia.

Of course, there is a lot more to learn than fascia at the IDEA Fitness Convention (though, as I said, fascia is everything and comes into play with most other topics). I also learned about building glute strength and preventing back pain (two different sessions but two that go so well together). In any case, here is a little about each of my sessions plus how they can help your running.

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My IDEA Fitness Convention Sessions (and how they can help your running)

I'm back from the @ideafit IDEA Fitness Convention and I'm excited to share some of what I learned and how it can help your running! #IDEAWorld #runningClick To Tweet

Balance and Power Training

Balance is important for runners because, as you may have heard before, running is basically jumping from one leg to the other. Improve your balance and improve your running. 

Takeaways: While strength training will get you stronger, it will not get you more functional. Power, which is force x velocity (speed and strength combined), along with balance, is far more important than strength training for functional performance.

Instructor: Dan Ritchie

Functional Flexibility for the Active Aging

Don’t let the term “active aging” throw you. We are all aging, so developing functional flexibility is important right now.

Takeaways: While we talk a lot about chronic injuries, which are frequently from overuse, even acute injuries may stem from a lack of functional training. For example, a runner who only trains in one plane of motion (generally the sagittal plane) may suffer a lateral ankle sprain due to weakness in that link.

 

Simple exercises can help mobility, stability, and flexibility starting from the bottom, using tools as simple as a tennis ball, to release fascia in the feet and calves, then moving on to simple stretching, then adding exercises in multiple planes of motion. An example of this type of multi-plane exercise is a lunge with a twist, or while reach towards your knee or overhead. 

Instructor: Leslee Bender

Fascial Line Mobility

One of the qualities of fascia is to prevent or minimize localized stress in a joint, bone, or muscle. It helps harness momentum and protects the integrity of the body.  It also mitigates force and stress through the body depending on the direction and application of force.  Fascia can instantly and simultaneously communicate essential information necessary for survival and daily function to all the cells of the body.

Takeaways: Enhancing the mobility of our fascia can help prevent running injury by reducing stress and force to the body.  The most important thing to do to keep fascia healthy is to move! Other helpful modalities include stretching, self-myofascial release (my favorite tool is the Intelliroll), bodywork (such as massage or assisted stretch), yoga, and bouncy moves. 

Instructor: Helen Vandenberg

The 3D Fascial Core

A strong core is important for runners, but did you know that crunches are not the way to get one? 

Takeaways: Instead of crunches, work the core using exercises that work in all planes of motion. Yes, planks are great, but they are generally in just one plane of motion (unless you add rotational movements like plank to side plank). It’s still important to manipulate the fascia before core exercises for better results. Yes, exercises like lunges with twisting and reaching are also core exercises.

Using a small ball (like the Bender Ball) so support your low back allows you to both flex and extend the spine and work the transverse abdominis, the underlying muscle which is recruited during almost all limb movements (like running).  Unlike crunches which just shorten the rectus abdominis, and which can contribute to the forward flexion that many people already suffer from.

Instructor: Leslee Bender

Glute Training from Beginner to Advanced

So we know that strong glutes are important for runners, right? Heck, I’ve been writing about it forever! Sadly, with the first assessment we did (a glute bridge with a leg raise) I discovered that my glutes were not activated! Yikes!

Takeaways: Of course, before that assessment, I’d been doing a lot of sitting and hadn’t done anything to actively “wake up” my glutes, so there is hope. Between exercises that must be properly executed like bridges, side-lying movement complexes followed up by glute isolation exercises, plus strength and power exercises in all planes of motion like kettlebell swings and lateral bounds, it is possible to activate and strengthen the glutes.

Instructor: Greg Johnson

Understanding and Alleviating Back Pain

So you may say, “I don’t have back pain. How will this help my running?” Well, let me tell you.

Takeaways: Remember that many of the causes of back pain are related to posture, immobility, and inflexibility. With exercises starting at the bottom (yes, feet…remember everything is connected) and working up, it is possible to assess and improve posture, which will help running (and relieve or avoid many back pain issues.

Instructor: Justin Price

 

This is just a taste of what I learned at each of these IDEA Fitness Convention sessions. I plan to expand on these topics over the next few months because understanding fascia is so important to us as runners. The bottom line (hah) is, activate your muscles starting from the bottom up with self-myofascial release, move your body in multiple planes of motion, and remember that FASCIA is EVERYTHING!

 

 

 

 

And Now It’s Time for the Running Coaches’ Corner!

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