Pliability
I’ve been reading Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry (Skyhorse Publishing, 2012). It’s conversationally written. You can picture yourself in a seminar setting with Jay presenting PowerPoints, cracking jokes, and noting anecdotal evidence. The book covers the entire gamut of running, with a focus on injury prevention. It’s pretty opinionated but includes an extensive reference list from which he draws. Dicharry is a seasoned clinician and has no doubt seen many versions of all the injuries about which he writes. He discusses in depth a concept worth expanding on — pliability, which Webster defines as “flexible, supple, yielding.” Dicharry uses it in the context of muscle function. We all know what it feels like to be tight and stiff. This, often in spite of regular stretching and taking it easy between hard efforts. As Dicharry explains, the tension in muscles is not the same up and down the line. And does not dissipate evenly. Let’s look at hamstrings, the oft strained muscle in runners. The biceps femoris attaches both at the hip and below the knee. With insertion points crossing two joints, the tension varies along the hamstring. For example, when running, one end of the biceps femoris contracts concentrically … Continue reading