Part 3: Activating the lower back

By now you will be getting into the pattern of doing something aerobic everyday, which means that you are exercising at a steady pace and you are working hard enough to be puffing in a regular pattern that you can sustain for about 20 minutes.

You need to start building on this now. So one of your running sessions in the coming week should be for 30-40 minutes. This will lead into being able to run for the required distance of 10 km which will generally take a beginner runner approximately 45 minutes or more. Ensure that you stretch or use your muscles in a very different way to running for a couple of ten minute sessions in the hours following a longer run. A gentle swim can really help to loosen you up.

In this session, we are going to explore the muscles of the lower back and how they help you run. Place your hands at the back of you just above the pelvis and feel what happens here when you walk. If you bend both knees, can you now feel this area push into your hands? If not, you need to work on the following exercise as this movement is important.

Lie on the floor on a carpet or rug with your arms and legs long, and your head in a neutral position. You need to be on a firm surface so that you can feel what is happening in your body. You may need to put a folded towel under your head for this. Feel how much space is under your lower back, and how your spine is positioned on the floor.
You may be able to feel how the muscles here are holding your spine off the floor. When these muscles are tight, and constantly contracted ( which often happens when you work to strengthen your core muscles) they lose their capacity to work effectively. The muscles around your belly and lower back need to be wise, rather than strong, and they need to coordinate to contract and then lengthen to a long resting position. Try pushing this area down using your muscles. It is unlikely that such a direct effort is going to help lengthen and relax these muscles. So do the following.

Still lying on your back, draw up your knees so that your feet are standing flat, and a comfortable distance apart. Place your right hand behind your head and with your left hand, hold the right leg just below the knee. The right foot will be up off the floor. Very slowly, as you exhale, move the right elbow toward the right knee. Resist the temptation to make them touch as it is unnecessary, and you will be able to sense more with less movement. Instead use the levers of your arms and legs to lengthen the back slowly. Feel how the spine is being lengthened into a long curve. Do not contract the abdominals. Repeat this gently and slowly ten times. Swap over your hands so that the left hand is under the head and the right hand is holding under the right knee. Bring them toward each other, just enough to feel how the lower back presses in to the floor, and the spine lengthens. Repeat this ten times.
Let your legs lie long on the floor again and feel the difference between your right and left side.
Now do these two movement sequences on the other side.
Repeat all of the above, with your hand placed under the knee so that it is now between the upper and lower leg, at the back of the thigh near the knee. You should feel a different part of the spine flattening out. Lie long again and observe the difference in how the spine lies on the floor.
Get up slowly and walk around, and again place your hands around behind your lower back as you walk and see if you can observe a difference now. When this area of your lumbar spine can lengthen as it needs, you gain more shock absorbing capacity as well as more spring, and save a lot of wear and tear on other parts of the body.