Saturday, December 4, 2010

Loosen your neck and run faster

My pal Colin from Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage sent me an interesting link to a post from Carson Boddicker:

Hamstrings, Suboccipitals, and Running Speed

in it Carson points out that releasing the suboccipitals - muscles at the top of your neck, base of your skull - increases hip mobility more that addressing the hamstrings directly.

Colin has posted about it too on his blog and all this ties in with the ideas of Tom Myers  on Anatomy trains that I have posted about before  -  all your muscles are connected.

This diagram shows how the hamstrings link to the skull in Myers' analysis.

Really useful stuff.

Looks like Carson Boddicker is another one to follow!

1 comment:

John Sifferman said...

Makes sense - release muscle restrictions and experience better movement that results in the ability to perform better. This is why I've made joint mobility exercises a part of my daily physical practice to address the body systemically.