Good for: Daily motivation and injury prevention.

Written by: San Francisco CrossFit guru, Kelly Starrett, DPT.

Let’s get the cons out of the way first. Almost without fail, Starrett, a CrossFit guru, signs his posts as K-Star. And he addresses his readers as MWodies or Leopards, which can get tiresome if you’re not a die-hard fan. That’s it. Starrett posts an almost-daily strength training move, stretch, or drill—a workout of the day (WOD)—to address musculoskeletal weaknesses or deficiencies and always includes a video explanation. Starrett’s energy and passion for his subject come through in his goofy posts and video appearances, inspiring a cult-like following.

Sample post: Starrett breaks down bad shoulder posture.

Today’s mission is about resolving one of the uglier aspects of running…yes, I’m talking about crappy shoulder positioning.  Look, your shoulders and thoracic/cervical spine create a mutually stabilizing system.  If you tilt your rib cage in a crazy way, you won’t be able to stabilize your shoulders effectively.  (Think rib cage down while pressing overhead for example.) Well, the reverse is also true.  If  you are unable to organize the the shoulder into effective external rotation whilst running because you are missing internal rotation at the shoulder, then you will tend to see some kind of compensatory (crappy) positioning at the neck at t-spine.  Crazy dooshiness at the shoulder (delta-bravo shoulder) weirdly always coexists with forward head on neck.  Who cares that your shoulders are freaking out every time you ‘heel strike’…. In order to to have a neutral and effective spinal running position, you’ve also got to go down stream and fix those crappy shoulders.  One of my running icon friends (TJ Murphy of Competitor) just sent me a photo of a brilliant marathoner in the middle of a race he had snapped.  Her head was 3 inches in front of her center of gravity and her shoulders were so internally rotated you couldn’t see her tank top straps.  Not only is she going to have to deal with the tissue compromises, (tight pecs, tight levator….) but she’s also giving away a ton of power.  A ton. Oh, and it didn’t look good either (BTW).

Mission: Take a look at your shoulder positioning in running. Have someone film you or watch you.  Can you stay stable.  What is your head doing?

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