Daniel J. Frey - The Runner’s Guide to a Healthy Core How to Strengthen the Engine That Powers Your Running

Copyright 2016 by Daniel J. Frey

Foreword 2016 by Chris Solinsky

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

All photos by Steven Fairfield

All illustrations by Rebecca Frey

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photo credit: Steven Fairfield

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-1138-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1139-6

Printed in China

Contents

Foreword

I have been lucky enough to experience this great sport of running from a number of vantage points. I started out as a middle school and then a high school runner before continuing on at the University of Wisconsin, where I won five NCAA titles. I was then lucky enough to run professionally for Nike for nine years, during which time I became the first American to break 27:00 for 10,000 meters and made two world championship teams. I had hoped my professional career would last longer, but it was derailed by a severe hamstring injury. I have since gotten into collegiate coaching, first at the University of Portland and now at the College of William and Mary.

As a professional runner who had his career cut short and now as a coach wanting the best for my athletes, I know and appreciate the importance of having a strong and healthy core. I often sell this notion to my athletes as working on their beach body, but I know it is much more than that. A runners success is closely tied to the functional strength of his or her core.

I have been asked over and over what the secret to success in distance running is. My answer has always been, and will always be, consistency. There are no secrets or shortcuts in running; just pure day-in, day-out running. To improve as a runner you have to run, recover, repeat. There are many different levels of this, and you can have success at any degree of this model, but it will always boil down to run, recover, repeat.

When injuries occur, they disrupt this cycle, which then prevents improvement. Thats why every runner out there at any level is in pursuit of what will keep them healthythey try new shoes, fancy gadgets, specialists, and countless books. What ended my professional running career was not lack of desire, but being unable to keep myself healthy enough to run, recover, repeat at a world-class level of training. I kept getting interruptions that would not allow me to improve.

If only Dan Frey had written The Runners Guide to a Healthy Core earlier in my career. Here, Dan has given us as close to a secret or shortcut as we can possibly ask for as runners. I wish I had had this book at my disposal when I was at the peak of my running because this book is a how-to guide on keeping yourself healthy and staying on the run-recover-repeat cycle. Dan does an amazing job of speaking in easy-to-understand terms throughout the book and making sense of an otherwise confusing topic, the human body.

This book does a great job of not only laying out how the body functions during running, but diving into how to identify weaknesses before they can become an issue. The strength exercises contained in this book are the best you will find to address each respective issue. What took me years to assemble from other world-class athletes and coaches is available here at your fingertips.

Dan also gives great advice on optimal running form, teaching you the proper posture for breathing and efficient running. These little tips will help knock a lot of seconds off of your times and keep you healthier than you have ever been. I certainly plan to have a copy of this book on hand for my team, if not to make it mandatory reading at the beginning of the year.

Enjoy the book, and heres to many consistent days of training ahead!

Chris Solinsky,

former US record holder for 10,000 meters

Preface

Running is more popular than ever in the United States. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, more then nine million Americans run 110 or more days per year. Another nineteen million run between twenty-five and 109 days per year. These numbers have continued to climb annually in recent years, as more people recognize how convenient, effective, and rewarding a regular running program can be.

Unfortunately, many of these runners will get injured. Depending on what study you believe, every year anywhere from 25 percent to 80 percent of runners suffer an injury thats significant enough to cut into the quantity and/or quality of their training.

There are many reasons that runners get injured, but underlying almost all of them is asking the body to take on more repetitive strain than its currently capable of handling. This idea is perhaps easy to accept if you picture a new runner who is overweight and has been sedentary for years. Such a person, you might say, is running to get fit, but doesnt have a body thats yet fit to run. Their excess weight places more stress on their joints when they run, and their years of inactivity will likely mean they lack the general strength to hold good form when they run.

What might not be as easy to accept is that longtime runners, even the fittest and leanest, may be just as susceptible to injury, and for a similar reasonthey dont have the strength to maintain good mechanics throughout their runs. The faster and longer they run, the more likely it is that their form will falter, and the more likely it is that theyll eventually develop an injury.

The Core of the Matter

Most runners dont have adequate control of their core musculature. In my practice as a physical therapist, I see it again and again when working with runnersthere is weakness somewhere between the abs and hips that sets someone up for an injury in any number of places in the body.

The lack of a strong, healthy core is often made worse by two aspects of modern life. First, many runners spend most of their non-running hours sitting, whether in front of a computer or in a car. Doing so can lead to weakness and postural habits that affect how they run. Second, people feel ever busier. Its common to throw on our running shoes and head out the door without an adequate warm-up, and then after the run to almost instantly get back to the rest of our lives. We dont necessarily consider exercises that build a better running body to be an integral part of a running program.

The fact of the matter is simple: healthy running is deeply rooted in a strong, stable core. In this book, well dive deep into what your core truly is. (Its a lot more than having six-pack abs.) Well see how your core functions when you run. This understanding will show you how essential a healthy core is to your running.

After learning about the runners core in general, well focus on your core specifically. Youll learn how to assess your core for areas of both strength and, even more important, weakness. These weaknesses will become some of the highlights of your fundamental conditioning in the future.