QT: Don’t Forget to Take Care of Both Sides of Your Body

What do you do when you have a little issue somewhere in your body?

Maybe you feel a tight plantar fascia in one foot.

Or you have a knee that doesn’t quite seem right during or after a run.

Or you feel a little pain in your shin or your Achilles or your hamstring.

The location of the issue, for today’s quick tip, is irrelevant.

From time to time, most of us as runners will develop a bit of a niggle somewhere in our body that needs to be addressed.

And that is where we can get ourselves in trouble…

Remember, You Have Two Sides

Too often, we get focused on the problem in our attempt to fix it.

If our right foot is causing us trouble, we focus on solving the problem in our right foot.

If our left hamstring is tight, we stretch and roll that joker to death.

And while that makes perfect logical sense, the squeaky wheel gets the oil after all, it sets us up for further trouble down the road.

How so?

By focusing the majority of our attention on the body part that is causing us trouble, we neglect other parts of our body that could also use some TLC.

Almost inevitably, once the original issue is resolved something crops up on the opposite side!

Don’t Rob Peter to Pay Paul

If I’m being honest, I’ve absolutely been guilty of doing this to myself. On more than one occasion.

As humans, we are wired to avoid pain.

So when we have a foot or a knee or a muscle that is giving us grief, our focus naturally goes to resolving said issue.

You would do well to fight that urge.

It’s ok to spend a bit of extra time and attention to working on your trouble spot.

But don’t neglect your other side.

While we may not be perfectly symmetrical, and we most certainly are not, we tend to be pretty darn close.

The odds are that if your plantar fascia is a bit too tight on your right side, it’s probably almost as tight on your left.

So while you’ve got the golf ball out to massage your foot or while you’re on the step to stretch your calf, make sure to work on both sides.

Dealing with a little niggle to one side of your body? If you're not careful, you may end up dealing with it on your other side too! #runchat Click To Tweet

Have You Ever Had a Little Niggle Bounce from One Side to the Other?

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