Kathleen Lisson is a Board Certified Massage Therapist and Certified Lymphedema Therapist with oncology massage training, a trained Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator, MMI Certified Meditation Instructor and ACE certified Personal Trainer. She specializes in reducing swelling after plastic or orthopedic surgery.
Kathleen has worked as a Primary Instructor at the International Professional School of Bodywork in San Diego teaching Mindfulness and Meditation and lecturing on Massage for Special Populations. She teached Peggy Huddleston's 'Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster' workshop at OASIS and in various locations around San Diego.
Active Release Therapy at Fix Body Group in Hillcrest, San Diego
by Kathleen Lisson
I had the good fortune to be worked on by Sam Wagg from Fix Body Group in Hillcrest after my tough Half Marathon run at the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon / Half Marathon in May. Sam invited me back to his office for some treatment, including releasing my Psoas muscle. He used Active Release Therapy, which, according to the ART website, is a "movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves." As a massage therapy student, I was interested in how this type of massage could benefit me as an injured long distance runner.
Massaging my psoas was just one of the ART techniques that Sam performed. I found running easier after he addressed my psoas, pelvis rotation, adductors and hamstrings. I would recommend Fix Body group to a fellow athlete looking to improve his or her performance. I am now working with Brett Buckmaster at Fix Body group to improve my running form and biomechanics. I found myself using my quadriceps and external rotators, including my piriformis muscle, to run instead of my glutes and hamstrings, which was wearing down my body and causing injuries and soreness.
In the Triathlete's World article "Chrissie Wellington's Racing Tips," Julie-Anne Ryan shares Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington's mental strategies for winning a triathlon. A few of her tips are familiar - I try to chunk a half marathon course into sections in my mind in order to not feel overwhelmed. I liked her idea to listen to meaningful music as she previews the course to create a good memory she can draw upon during the race. Her second to last tip is to stay in the moment. I have found that meditation is great practice for strengthening my 'stay in the moment' mental muscle.
Do you use any of Chrissie Wellington's racing tips?
After struggling for years with injuries that stopped my ability to run for weeks and months at a time and last winter's ankle sprain, I am ready to put a stop to my running injuries and build a stronger body. I am running the La Jolla Half Marathon this weekend and want to strengthen my legs to be able to run the San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon in May 2015 and run the Triple Crown in 2016.
I have always been fascinated with the idea of getting a personal running analysis, so I made an appointment with physical therapist Nicole Miller at Movement Performance San Diego in Carlsbad. Nicole greeted me and asked about my running history, then put LED markers on my joints and used a high speed video camera and treadmill with pressure/force sensor to record video of my walking and running. The best part was when I could take a look at myself running and really see what my body is doing every step of the way. She then measured my hip strength.
My Running Analysis Video from Movement Performance San Diego
Actually seeing video of my running gave me new insight on how my body moves.
I turns out that my gluteus medius and gluteus maximus are weak and my hip flexors are tight. Nicole gave me a list of exercises I can do to strengthen my hips. I look forward to strengthening my hips and staying uninjured for the rest of the half marathon season.
I'm not a physical therapist, so don't take any of this as medical advice. I took one huge a-ha away from last weekend's Movement Performance Institute 'Evaluation and Treatment of the Injured Runner: A Biomechanical Approach' class taught by Christopher M. Powers from USC. Long distance runners absorb a lot of shock every time we take a step, and we absorb that shock in our joints and our shoes. Even the best shoes still leave a lot of shock absorbtion for our bodies to handle. How do we handle it? By using our ankles, knees and hips as shock absorbers. Many runners do NOT adequately use their hips to shock absorb, so the burden falls on the knees or ankles. From what I heard, we runners can use a 'hip strategy' - let our hips take some of the burden of shock absorption from potentially overburdened ankles and knees. How does this happen? I have been practicing strengthening my glutes with the following exercises. Instead of doing repetitions, I am holding the clamshell, fire hydrant and surfer squat for one minute. Clamshell Exercise - https://youtu.be/RNoFmvHkZW0 Fire Hydrant Exercise
Why do long distance runners keep on getting injured?
by Kathleen Lisson
As a long distance runner, I am learning so much at the Movement Performance Institute 'Evaluation and Treatment of the Injured Runner: A Biomechanical Approach' class taught by Christopher M. Powers from USC. The class is in Los Angeles, so I drove up from my home in San Diego for the weekend.
My top takeaways from day one include:
Runners are tough clients - we are Type A, focused on maintaining and improving our conditioning and VO2 Max more than our musculoskeletal system.
Runners injuries are based on the way we run and/or overuse a.k.a. how many steps we are taking.
Runners are all too often focused on the 'quick fix.' We want to keep on running. Just fix it! But - do we treat underlying causes of our running injuries or just want to mask the symptoms so we can keep lacing up our shoes?
Runners are always on the line between training and overtraining. When we overtrain too much, we risk injury and totally derailing our training schedule.
The four issues we face are:
Shock absorbtion, both passive and active- do we rely too much on passive shock absorption (bones, cartilage & shoes) and our quads to absorb the shock of pounding the pavement? This may lead to injuries like stress fractures, plantar fasciitis and joint pain.
Limb alignment and stability- do we have excessive hip adduction and internal rotation, how strong is our butt?
Pelvis and trunk stability- is our glute medius weak?
Foot alignment and stability- do we pronate?
We also learned about the top ten common running injuries, including patellofemoral pain, patella tendonitis, iliotibial band syndrome, trochanteric bursitis, low back pain, achilles tendonitis, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fracturies and hamstring injuries.
I want to use this information to become a better running coach and sports massage therapist for my clients, getting runners out of pain and back to participating in activities they love.
According to the class overview: "Altered lower quarter mechanics can frequently contribute to various musculoskeletal conditions. Understanding how abnormal limb function can contribute to the mechanisms of specific joint dysfunction is essential for the evaluation and treatment of common orthopaedic disorders. This evidence-based course will review the anatomy and mechanics of the lower kinetic chain, particularly in relation to specific pathologies of the ankle, knee and hip. Emphasis will be placed on current research findings in the areas of gait analysis, lower limb function, and joint biomechanics. Implications for the evaluation and treatment of various musculoskeletal conditions will be addressed."
Trying to avoid stress is what causes negative effects of stress in the body
Running is a way to 'get good at stress'
When stressed, help others to increase Dopamine in the body
According to an article in Outside Magazine, trying to avoid stress and letting fear and anxiety take over are the aspects of stress that cause negative reactions in our body. Author Bradley Stulberg states that "the more you push your physical limits, the more you improve your psychological ones." I have seen this in my running training. I become calmer and less reactionary when I run long distances. Stulberg quotes health psychologist Kelly McGonigal as saying that, “The most toxic thing about stress is not stress in and of itself, but rather, stress avoidance and the subsequent angst and rumination of always trying to avoid stress.” This was a big a-ha for me. There is truth to the idea that one can 'worry themselves sick' over something, creating more stress for themselves by trying to avoid a stressful situation. When my husband traveled to Nepal last year, the two weeks before he left were more painful for me than when he was actually gone. 'Don't Worry' is easier said than done, but what if a sizable amount of the negative effects of stress in our lives is inflicted upon ourselves in the form of the worrying and the plotting and the stories we make up about stressful events in the future? A good piece of running advice I try to follow is to only run one mile at a time. Don't focus on trying to run mile 11 if you're only on mile three. Just run mile three. Another way to lessen the negative aspects of stress? Helping others. McGonigal states that helping others elicits a dopamine secretion. Read 'Endurance Sports Will Make You a Better, Calmer Person' here: http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/bodywork/the-fit-list/Endurance-Athletes-are-Calmer-Than-You-Are.html
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