From our local running trainer/coach/physical therapist Nicole Armbrust:
If the first thing you are saying to yourself is “I’m not an athlete” then we need to start with mindset training and a quote from the late and great running coach Bill Bowerman:
“If you have a body, you’re an athlete.”
Next, I wanted to explain the question in the subject line, regarding a “one-dimensional athlete”.
Dr. Peter Attia, author of “Outlive – The Science and Art of Longevity” speaks about this with regard to his personal exercise experience when he was focused on cycling.
“The truth was that I had become pretty useless at everything except pedaling my road bike as fast as possible for 20 kilometers. I possessed a high VO2 max (the maximum rate at which a person can utilize oxygen, and perhaps the single most powerful marker for longevity), and I could produce a lot of power through the pedals, but I was not truly strong or flexible, and I did not have great balance or stability.
I was a one-dimensional athlete, and if I had kept it up, I might have ended up with my spine fused into my time-trial tuck, still able to ride my bike but unable to do anything else useful, especially with my upper body.”
We are going to talk more about Dr. Attia in the next few weeks, but for today, I want to focus on his above comment and the perils of being a “one-dimensional athlete”.
As a physical therapist, my job is to not only figure out what is wrong with a patient or client, but WHY did it happen?
Most of the time, the PAIN IS NOT WHERE THE PROBLEM IS.
What I mean by that, is the person coming to see me may have pain in their knee, but the CAUSE can be elsewhere, such as the HIPS!!!
I saw four runners and one cyclist last week that ALL had problems with their hips, and it was due to the fact that they had done so much training, without moving in opposing directions with their bodies.
This doesn’t ONLY happen to runners and cyclists – sadly, it happens to ALL of us. To be human in this day and age, means that we SIT. When we sit, it is one-dimensional!
What about a standing desk you ask? That’s better than JUST standing, but our bodies are built for movement in multi-directions, so we need to take it there!
I made a special video this week for my poor “stuck” clients and wanted to share it with all of you as well. If you can’t get on the ground for this, you can do it in standing with one foot up on a chair/bench/fender of your car while you pump gas!