Hey rebels, welcome to the first of many bonus episodes to come! I decided I’ve got too much information to share and lessons from so many experts that I realized a podcast one day a week just isn’t going to cut it anymore!
This week, I’m kicking the podcast off with Alex Ellis, the creator of AE Wellness and just an all-around cutie. Not only is she completely adorable, Alex is a self-professed body nerd and a self-care expert. Her mission in life is to understand how the body works and to help everyone feel better and move better every single day.
As runners, injuries are basically the worst thing ever. Alex explores the most common injuries we runners experience with tips on prevention, as well as treatment if you’re already in the deep end. Tune in to hear us spreading the word that self-care can be easy and fun. Alex provides some really simple ways we can look after our bodies better!
Alex dropped some seriously life-changing truth bombs on everything from small self-care tips to stretching and rest days. Her knowledge of the human body is truly jaw-dropping so get excited to try out some of her tips!
Alex is teaching a private class on July 16th where we’ll be diving deep into everything discussed today! If you want an opportunity to ask Alex any questions you might have, join now to catch her on the webinar!
What You’ll Learn From this Episode:
- Why being present is the key to self-care.
- How to pay attention to the whispers your body is signaling to you.
- Why “getting older” is not an excuse to stop whatever you’re doing.
- The number one excuse Alex sees runners making.
- Why variety is key to preventing injuries.
- How to prevent and treat plantar fasciitis.
- Alex’s free, no-tool required tip for stretching your body.
- What you can do while you’re in the throes of plantar fasciitis.
- How to roll smarter for your IT Band.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
If you have any questions you’d like answered on the show, email me at podcast@notyouraveragerunner.com
- Join the Not Your Average Runner Private Facebook Community
- Join the Run Your Best Life Coaching Group!
- Not Your Average Runner Instagram
- Alex Ellis: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
- Tao Porchon-Lynch
- Body Worlds exhibition
- Alex’s e-book: 3 Fixes for IT Band Tension
Full Episode Transcript:
Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who is midlife and plus sized and you want to start running but don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, you’re in the right place. Using proven strategies and real-life experience, certified running and life coach Jill Angie shares how you can learn to run in the body you have right now.
Hey rebel, you are listening to episode number 28 of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. I’m your host, Jill Angie, and no, you are not losing your mind. This is actually a bonus episode that I’m releasing on Saturday instead of Thursday. The reason why is I have so many experts that I want to bring to you, plus so many different lessons that I want to teach you myself that I realize, one day a week just wasn’t going to cut it anymore and I needed to do two.
So this is the first of the bonus episodes, and we’re kicking it all off with the fabulous and amazing, and completely adorable Alex Ellis, who is going to teach you all about how to keep your body in top shape for running.
Now, for those of you who don’t know Alex, she is the creator of AE Wellness. She is a self-professed body nerd, and I absolutely love that she describes herself that way, and she’s a self-care expert. Alex has made it her life’s mission to better understand how the body works, to help her clients DIY their self-care, their strength, and their injury recovery, and y’all know that’s exactly what we need as runners.
Now, her teaching and her studies focus on injury prevention, on rehabilitation, and on wellness. And this was all inspired by her studies at UC Davis where she actually earned a BS in Exercise Biology, so she knows her shit. And she totally nerds out on anatomy and physiology, and really strives to empower people to improve their health and their wellbeing through personal movement and enhanced body awareness.
And her programs have helped many people worldwide to be really an empowered part of their health rather than relying solely on their healthcare provider. Now, like I said, she’s amazing, she’s completely adorable, and when she’s not teaching or writing, she can be found eating, snapping, tweeting, and Instagramming her way through tasty restaurants and adventures with her husband and her two fur babies in Los Angeles.
So I’m going to have all the links to follow her on social media in the show notes. After you go ahead and listen to this podcast, you’re going to want to follow her everywhere because she’s super fun and she lives a great life. So basically, can’t say enough good things. She’s an amazing human and I’m so excited to have her on the show today.
—
Jill: Hey rebels, so I’m super excited to introduce you guys to my friend and fellow coach and general all round badass, Alex Ellis. Hey Alex. Thanks for joining me today, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, or a lot about yourself?
Alex: A lot about myself?
Jill: Yes, tell us everything.
Alex: Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me today. I’m super excited to chat all things wellness and self-care, which is what I do. I try to make self-care easy and to help women feel better and move better every single day. I should also probably start off with like, I’m a huge body nerd. Like, I was the kid who was excited for anatomy lab, like, that quarter at university was the best quarter of my life. Not my roommates because my clothes smelled the whole quarter, but huge body nerd and I love to help people get curious about their body and how it works because I really feel like we didn’t come with a manual. Like, a car comes with like, this very thick manual and even your iPhone comes with a few pages of a manual. People probably don’t read them, but like, there’s explanations for how things work, and when it comes to the body, there’s just so much information and even more misinformation, and then a lot of people, myself included, were just like, paralyzed. Well, this hurts, and I guess I’ll just go to the orthopedic surgeon but all they want to do is cut my open and I don’t necessarily want that to be the solution. So I’m on a quest to help people understand their body better so that they can move better and feel better every single day.
Jill: Oh my gosh, I love everything about this. I especially love that you call yourself a body nerd because like, that’s how I felt about a few subjects that I took in school and like, I just totally nerd out on it and I just – like the body is one of the greatest things to nerd out on for sure, especially if you’re an athlete or a runner or just somebody who works out a lot. So let’s talk about self-care a little bit because I know – you know, we’ve chatted about it sort of offline, but what does self-care mean to you, just in general?
Alex: To me, self-care is really nourishing your body, your soul, and your mind in whatever ways works for you. I think that’s really important. I’ve had a lot of clients say, you know, well I tried acupuncture and I really hated it but I keep going back because it’s supposed to be good for me, right? I’m like, no. It doesn’t really matter honestly, what it is, I think you know, getting some movement in there is really important and running is a fantastic way to like, distress, but I’m also a fan of like, the slower stuff. So even walking can be self-care. When I take my dog out on a walk, sometimes I’m listening to podcasts like yours, and audio books like Harry Potter, again, total huge nerd.
Jill: I’m all in for that.
Alex: But sometimes just being present with what I’m doing. So I think really, anything you do, even from doing the dishes could be considered self-care if you’re fully present in the moment with what you’re doing. Because I think there are so many opportunities for us to check out that tuning back in makes whatever is happening just that much more rich. So whether, again, it’s movement or food and how you nourish yourself, that’s a big one for me because I love eating, and I will eat all things. So when I can prepare food that really fuels me for the athletic endeavors that I’m off on, I just feel better. So thinking bigger about self-care, that it’s not just getting your nails done or having a glass of wine at the end of the day, that it can be other simple things like even I made a cup of tea before we hopped on today, and just sitting with your cup of tea for like, 30 seconds in the quiet. That can be self-care too. it can be so many more things that I think we really think about.
Jill: Yeah, I love that because I think there is this – a lot of people feel like self-care is bubble baths and massages and you know, doing things for yourself that feel like a luxury or something. But a lot of times, self-care is eating food – not eating the Cheetos but eating something that’s like, super nourishing for your body. Like, sometimes self-care is making hard choices that serve you in the long run rather than just making you feel good in the moment.
Alex: Yeah, like going to bed early instead of staying up and watching the last episode of Westworld and all the YouTube explanations about what the heck was happening.
Jill: Oh my god. I know, I’m all in for that.
Alex: I get up at six thirty the next morning and I was like, I should have gone to bed earlier.
Jill: Yeah, right. We’re like self-care is like, taking time out for me and watching Netflix, and it’s like yes, but it’s watching – or HBO – it’s like watching two episodes, not 10 episodes. Yeah, for sure.
Alex: Responsibility, and tuning in. Because I think there’s so many chances to tune out and apps for this and that and whatever that just checking in so that you have an idea of what’s going on in your body. I stumbled across – I don’t know who quoted it but I saw it on my Instagram feed. But learn to listen to your body’s whispers so that you don’t have to wait to hear it scream.
Jill: I love that.
Alex: So you know, not waiting for the IT Band syndrome, but paying attention when like, oh, my hips are kind of tight or my feet are sort of tired today, maybe I should check in on a physical level, and just like, checking in all the time.
Jill: So that’s a great segue to something I really wanted to ask you about is like, as a runner, a lot of times I think – and I know this happens to me is we want to put an audiobook on or we want to put music on when we’re running to keep us motivated and to keep us distracted from what we’re doing, which is sort of sometimes the opposite of tuning in. And like, what do you think about that? Is there value in just running without any distraction in your headphones or even just running on a treadmill with no distractions just so that you can be like, what’s going on in my body? What should somebody look for if they’re trying to tune into their body when they’re running?
Alex: Well, the thing about running, which I think a lot of us kind of discount is it’s a repetitive technical skill. And so refining how you run can make it easier, and so I mean, you can be tuned into that. How is each step hitting the ground, how is my – I don’t even know the proper terms, but how am I moving forward versus just totally checking out and just like, dragging yourself down the street kind of. So that would be a suggestion. And I think, you know, people go both ways. I know there’s a lot of people who love music. When I have done races in the past, like, I try everything once, so I did the half marathon, did a 5K, did a 10K, got roped into I think it was like a 14 – there was chocolate involved, but when you’re running – and then there’s chocolate – I’m so tired.
Jill: It was the hot chocolate run, right? Oh my gosh.
Alex: And my poor friend, she ran like a half marathon every year last year and then I was totally a dead weight because I was like, can we just walk a little bit more please? But I like those races, and actually just like hanging out with the people and hearing conversations, there’s so much to pay attention to outside of your music. But I understand also, when I work out, there’s something weird about listening to myself breathe, like the heavy breathing, so I understand also those who enjoy music. So I think you know, whatever floats your boat, but also variety. So maybe once a week you do run without headphones because there’s so much to pay attention to outside.
Jill: There really is, and I actually did that the other day. Because I run the same route at least two to three times a week and then you know, the other day that I run I’ll go to the park or just go someplace different. But most of the time I just run outside my apartment. One day, I just never turned my music on, which is weird. Like, I just never turned on a podcast, I never turned on the music, and I just heard like, the beeping of the intervals in my ear. And I got done with my run and realized I hadn’t listened to music or anything in my ear the whole time and I just remember feeling better after that run because I think I was so much more in tune with my body the whole time. It was just me and my body and my breathing for sure, and I love listening to my breathing actually because I feel like it’s a reminder I’m running and that I’m doing this on purpose. But yeah, it was super fun to realize like, mentally I think I felt better after running without anything in my ear. It was super fun.
Alex: I think too with music, or at least it was for me, because you know each song is like three and a half minutes, and I was like, super obsessing over how much time I had run, like oh, just three more minutes, just three more minutes, and without music you kind of lose track of exactly how much time is happening and you can be in the moment a little bit more, like you’re talking about.
Jill: So fun. Okay, so let’s say that you’re out there running, you’re trying to pay attention to your body, whether or not you have music in your ear, what kind of physical cues – what are the whispers when you say listen to the whispers before it starts to scream? What are some of the whispers that somebody might look for?
Alex: I think the whispers are also when you’re not running, you know, when you’re sitting in the car, and you’re like oh weird, I notice this like, tension in my neck a little bit or I’m a huge fan of sitting on the floor, and so paying attention to like, oh, when I cross my legs, this hip is tighter than the other one. Because we all have imbalances throughout our body. First of all, because we drive on one side of the road here, I think it would be fun if like every six months everybody switched sides but I think it can get really confusing. So you know, there’s like, a lot of things we do just with our right hip, just with our right foot, like you get in the car the same way every time, you get out of the car same way every time. Probably like, the way you cross your legs is the same way every time. And so the whispers to me are paying attention to where these imbalances are so that you can – oh, well then maybe next time I’ll just cross my legs the other way first. We can’t really switch up the car, and you can’t start driving your car standing, although I did read an article one time of a guy who spent, I think it was like 30 days without sitting down, which is nonsense. Don’t ever try that.
Jill: How did he sleep?
Alex: Well I mean, he would lay down to sleep but he would stand and eat, he would stand at work. I think – did he sit down to drive? Maybe he did like, public transit. But there is a photo in the article of somebody driving a Prius with like, their head out the sunroof. I was like, that is so dangerous. Don’t do that.
Jill: Not a good idea. That’s so interesting though. Like, those little – and so I know a lot of my listeners are, you know, 40s and 50s, and you know, one of the common things that I hear is, “Oh, I must just be getting old. Like, when I get out of bed in the morning my joints feel so stiff. I’m just getting old.” And maybe that’s actually not the case. Is it true that like – whispers that we’re not paying attention to.
Alex: Yes, that – the thing about, “Oh, I’m just getting old,” so I just turned 30, which I know is like, not old at all, and I acknowledge that it is different as you age. Like, the way the cells turnover is different and like, your collagen. Yes, it’s different, but like I can do more now than I could at 20. So this idea that like, oh, I’m just getting older so I’ll stop doing that, the reason why something becomes harder is because you stop doing it, not just because you’re getting older. And really like, the age of your connective tissue in your body is more a reflection of how you move it most. So if you are not getting down to sit on the floor, which is a great way to not only strengthen your hips because getting up off the floor is super hard, but it also helps to stretch your hips. If you don’t do that, it is harder. Not because you are older, but because you haven’t been doing it. So that goes for all the same thing. So I just wrote an article about this too. It’s like, you know, running around barefoot isn’t hard because you’re older, it’s because you stopped doing it. And we stopped doing the things that the kids are doing because it was frowned upon. Even for me, like, I literally went to a business meeting at my church and I sat on the floor, and they all looked at me and I was like, I don’t like sitting in chairs because I’m a weirdo. We let like, other people’s opinions really impact like, how we move our bodies, and so I think that’s a bigger issue than your actual age. There’s a woman – I think her name is like, Tao Porchon, she’s like, 98, and she does yoga.
Jill: I love her.
Alex: Yeah, she’s awesome. Do you think she’s worried about how old she is? No.
Jill: And she does some pretty badass yoga too. Like, there are poses, I’m like, damn.
Alex: I know, and like, I’m sure her practice has changed. But she’s still doing all the things. So that’s where I’m like, stop it, when people are like, “Well, I can’t do that because I’m older,” and my dear mother in law, I love her to death, and she says that to me all the time. I’m like, stop it, stop it, it’s not true.
Jill: Because the more you say, oh I’m just getting old, the older – it literally becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy.
Alex: Absolutely.
Jill: Oh my gosh, I love that so much. Like, and even this whole, like what you were saying before about just the driving thing. Like, we don’t even realize like the little, the repetitive motion like, of hitting the gas with your right foot, right? So I bet people’s right ankles are probably a little looser maybe than the left ankle because it gets more. It’s like, just pressing the brake pad will mean you’re moving that joint a little bit more than the left side.
Alex: Absolutely. Like, the left hip and that whole leg I see in my own body and in my students’ bodies, tends to be a little bit more tight because it’s just sitting there for however long you drive.
Jill: Just sitting there.
Alex: It is. I mean, it’s not doing anything.
Jill: It’s not contributing.
Alex: No, and like, I live in LA so no way am I ever going to drive a manual transmission because the traffic on the 405 is awful. So you know, everyone’s just like that left leg is just hanging out. It’s dead weight.
Jill: So I mean, this is almost like sort of a plug for self-driving cars because then at least both legs are dead weight.
Alex: I know, and then you just lay down in the back and like, what if it’s like – was it Wally, you know everybody’s just like, in that floating chair and you don’t even have to get out of your chair. What if it just floats out of the car and then we never have to stand again?
Jill: Oh my gosh, that would solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t it?
Alex: Totally. Just never move.
Jill: God, this is awesome. Okay, so let me ask you this then I guess, with their body wellness – like, what’s the number one mistake you see runners making with their body wellness and their self-care around their physical body?
Alex: Not doing anything until they’re injured. You know, waiting for the IT Band pain, waiting for the full blown plantar fasciitis before you do anything. So I’m a huge fan of like, preventative stuff, which for the feet honestly could be as simple as going barefoot and wearing shoes – I know this is like, so against – like, every running store is going to tell you like, you need a shoe that stops your pronation, and prevents this from happening, and they give you like, these giant thick shoes to go running in, which makes sense because yeah, we’re running on concrete, but your foot is an amazing structure. There’s over 33 joints in there that movement can happen in all of them, and then we wear these shoes whether those are running shoes or even just like, our regular day-to-day shoes or dress shoes or whatever that limit all of that movement. So then your ankles are having to work more and your knees are having to work more, and then so something as simple as going barefoot or doing stretching and things like that on just a regular basis, and maybe it’s not I’m going to lay down and stretch for 20 minutes, but like, oh, I’m standing in line, maybe I just reach down and touch my toes. You know, fitting it in to what you’re doing already so it’s not like, another task to do. Or doing some cross-training kind of thing. You know, something that’s different than running that’s still going to contribute to your strength so that you can run better, to your flexibility, rather than doing a lot of the same thing all the time. So I think variety really would be the key. It’s like don’t wait until you’re injured, like, do all the variety and the other stuff now so that you can pick up – like, these body whispers idea. You can pick up on like, hey, that calf is super tight, like, let me spend a little bit more time there. Because anybody who has been injured knows that it takes forever, forever to heal. So if you can be proactive and stop it before it progresses, you save yourself two, three weeks of not running or being on the couch in pain.
Jill: Or even months. I mean, especially with something like plantar fasciitis or hip fasciitis, which is another really common one in runners. Like, that can take you out for months. I mean, plantar fasciitis can take you out from even walking around. Like, and then – so then you’ve got like, not just the pain of the injury but then there’s that frustration of like, oh, I really want to be running and you know, we tend to just let everything like, fuck it.
Alex: All or nothing.
Jill: Yeah. So speaking of plantar fasciitis, and especially with the population of runners that listens to this podcast, it’s super, super common. Can you explain what plantar fasciitis is and why we get it? Like, what we can do to prevent it and then treat it?
Alex: So the plantar fascia is this thick band of connective tissue on the bottom of your foot. And in a perfect scenario, it works as almost like the spring in your step. So with each step you take, it gets a little bit of stretch, which helps you to like, rebound so that you don’t have to use muscular energy with every step you take. But then we do things like the shoes, which I was talking about, and even starting to turn the feet out a little bit affects how the plantar fascia is stretched and used as you’re walking. So I know that’s a big thing with all people. If you just look around, their feet are turned out a little bit. So when the plantar fascia – they’re finding it’s like, not so much an inflammation but more of like, a repetitive stress injury. So it’s getting loaded with some force. Basically, it’s being asked to do more than it really was designed for, and then it starts to like, break down a little bit and it can’t keep up with how much it’s breaking down. And so that’s when we get the pain and the stiffness and all of those things. So it also doesn’t live in a vacuum. So it’s on the bottom of your foot but connects to your heel bone, and what other big tendon comes down the back of the leg? The Achilles tendon, which is connected to the calf, which is connected to your hamstrings. Like, it’s all connected on the back of the leg. So a lot of times, you know, they say calves are super tights, just stretch the calves, or just roll the feet out. I think all of those things are super important, but also to strengthen your feet. So barefoot again, I’m like, go barefoot, get back in touch with the earth, but also strengthening the foot and the calf, doing something as simple as calf raises, so barefoot – I like to do it on a step so you have just like, the ball of your foot and your toes on the ledge of the step because then you can let your heels drop down below your toes and rise all the way up. And seriously, like, if you try that 20 times, your calves will be on fuego, they’re going to be on fire so much. And then you can do that single leg, one foot at a time, you can do both legs. So that will help the plantar fascia and the calf and the Achilles tendon, all of those tissues to get strong enough to be able to withstand the forces of when you’re running and when you’re walking, and all of those things.
Jill: Oh, that makes perfect sense. Now, so that’s preventative.
Alex: You can also do that as part of the rehab, for sure. Like, rehab wise, rolling and doing like, a massage for the foot is really good because it helps to stretch the feet, it helps to improve blood flow, which when we have an injury, you know, maintaining good blood flow to the area is important because it’ll help bring nutrients so that the tissue can heal. I know a lot of people like to roll on frozen cans and water bottles and things like that. But even a soft tool will be really good. And actually, because there are so many nerves and blood vessels like, a lot of intricate structures in the foot, a softer tool is going to be better for rolling than a hard tool like a lacrosse ball or a golf ball or something like that. When it comes to the body, more isn’t better, but better is better. So even when you feel like, oh, this is super intense, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s making the same changes that you want in the tissue. So I would say it’s okay if it doesn’t hurt. In fact, that’s even better. Like, a tennis ball or I use a squishy ball. It’s not foam but it’s like a runner squishy ball, a therapy ball that’s designed for the body. So something like that would be better than a hard tool. Even like those toe stretchers – have you ever seen those?
Jill: I have.
Alex: Well, good news, they’re super fun. You also have five toe stretchers on each hand where you can like stuff your fingers in between your toes and then to even get your foot up there, you’re stretching your hips. So it’s like, a triple whammy. You’re doing all of these things. And then that can help to create some space between the toe bones, just work the feet, just checking in with them. So that’s another thing. No tools required, you can factor in…
Jill: You can just use your fingers.
Alex: Yeah, just like hold hands, or hand foot with yourself.
Jill: Okay, so if somebody’s got plantar fasciitis and like, they’re right in the throes of it, like, it’s really flaring up, like, it’s super painful to walk barefoot anywhere. So how would you suggest somebody strengthen their feet – obviously do to barefoot walking they need to wait until the pain has subsided, which can take a few weeks, but is there something that people can do in the meantime to strengthen their feet while they’re healing?
Alex: Yes, now I just want to mention braces, you know, orthotics, I had custom orthotics in my shoes because I had plantar fasciitis. I’ve been there too, and orthotics are great when you are in the throes of pain, like you’re mentioning because they help you be pain-free, which is super important. But maybe as you’re healing, see how much you can do without having pain. So maybe like, the first couple weeks I can be rolling the bottoms of my feet for maybe two minutes, and that’s all I can stand before it starts hurting. That’s fine. Then just do that. Finding what you can tolerate pain-free is super important. So rather than just like, stuffing your feet in your shoes with your orthotics and being like, well I have plantar fasciitis, I can’t do anything, your body relies on movement and it needs to get movement to have the signals for healing to occur, and when you don’t use something, you lose the strength. Like, use it or lose it. You might have heard that. So it’s almost like you’re not – you’re kind of just like, standing in place, I imagine. Like, in a race, imagine the starting gun goes off. You just stand there because you don’t want to do anything more to aggravate the pain but you’re also not doing anything to get yourself out of it. So little by little, maybe it’s one step, that’s fine. But things that you can do pain-free are going to be helpful as you’re healing.
Jill: So good to hear, yeah. And I know that like – and I’m just coming off of a bout of plantar fasciitis, and I did spend a few weeks where I was like, just afraid to do anything. I was like, I don’t want to put any weight on this foot because I was so afraid that I was going to make it worse, but I think by not doing anything with it, like, yes it healed, but then when it came time to start running again, like, ugh, it was just – you know, like, it was hard for me to get used to that motion again. Okay, so plantar fasciitis is a big one. IT Band pain is another big thing that you know, runners deal with on a – very frequently. So like, what can you say about the IT Band? Why do we end up having pain there? What can we do about it?
Alex: So the IT Band is also fascia, just like the plantar fascia. They’re actually like the same type, which is kind of cool. I’m obsessed with fascia, it’s a really interesting tissue structure in the body, and for most people, like the plantar fascia and the IT Band are the only ones that we know. And even if you’ve ever been to the Body Worlds exhibit, those are the only fascias they leave behind. And I’m like, but there’s so much more, but they never leave that. So the IT Band for those of you who aren’t aware, if you haven’t been blessed with an injury there, it runs on the outside of your thighs, and it acts as a support structure for the hips and the knees. And IT Band syndrome, I’ve also been there, is awful, awful, awful. I wish I knew then what I knew now because laying in physical therapy and having the therapist just like, mash her forearm down my thigh was the most awful, awful thing in the world. Like, this is a place where for sure doing little things on a daily basis, or at least a weekly basis is so much better than waiting for an injury. So the IT Band, just like plantar fasciitis, if it’s doing more work than it really wants to be doing, it starts to get inflamed and irritated, and that’s when we have pain. So oftentimes, pain is a signal that there’s some dysfunction going on. I think of the body almost like a corporation and if you work in an office, if there’s one person who’s like, not doing their job and you have to pick up the slack, how annoyed do you get? Your body’s the same way. You’re like, “Gosh, Joan, could you just do your job already?”
Jill: I’m going to be naming all of my body parts just…
Alex: “Finnius, get back to work, come on, man.”
Jill: So good.
Alex: So the IT Band, same idea. If it’s doing more work than it wants to, then we get some irritation. And so strengthening is also important. I do want to say, please stop rolling your IT Band from hip to knee because it’s not really doing anything. And I do have an e-book that I’ll share with you guys, it’s three fixes for IT Band tension, where I share another way to roll it that’s not from end to end. Because when we roll from end to end, it’s almost like you’re trying to elongate it, you know, like when you roll our pie dough how it starts to spread?
Jill: Oh my god, yeah.
Alex: Right? But the IT Band, we don’t need it longer. What we need it to be able to do is to glide over the quads that are right underneath it. So a lot of the pain that you feel isn’t necessarily the IT Band, but that quadricep, that quad muscle that’s right beneath it. So a better way to go about it to do what’s called cross friction. So instead of going up and down, you go across. So almost like you’re going from the front of the thigh to back of the thigh. So if you imagine your leg as having like, multiple layers like a flaky croissant or pastry or something like that…
Jill: My legs are definitely flaky croissants.
Alex: But like, gooey flaky croissants.
Jill: I’m all in for this analogy.
Alex: But you know how they have all those layers, right? So your body’s the same way and we want the layers to be able to glide over one another. And so when you do that cross friction, it helps to encourage that glide because sometimes with the IT Band syndrome and stuff, it’s almost like your IT Band gets stuck to the quads underneath and their fascias. So if it’s not gliding as much, then it’s pulling in other places and that’s when we can oftentimes feel the tension. So instead of trying to make it longer, try to get it to slide better by rolling – that would be like, vertically on the side of your thigh. And you can do that with smaller tools, you can do it with a foam roller. I sometimes even just like, use tennis balls to just kind of dock them on the side of my thigh because even that long sustained pressure will help the muscles and the connective tissue to relax, which is what we’re looking for. I know right?
Jill: I’m just like, damn, I’ve been doing it all wrong.
Alex: Well no, it’s like, we didn’t understand. Like, I’ve rolled by IT Band that way too and the physical therapist was like, running up and down, and you know, you can feel all those ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk, like, trigger points that are there, but it’s not your IT Band. That’s the quad that we’re feeling.
Jill: That’s my poor muscles, oh my gosh.
Alex: I know. So rolling in a smarter way and then strengthening here as well, and an easy thing is if you just were to balance on one foot because that’s going to have – so right now I’m balancing on my left foot. My left hip has to be stable to keep my hips from dropping and like, wobbling all over the place. And that’s the muscle that is going to take the pressure off the IT Band. So in addition to rolling the IT Band, I would even say it would be better to roll up into the glutes because there’s the middle-sized glute, it’s called the gluteus medius, that’s the one that is sharing connective tissue and really responsible for stabilizing the pelvis. And when it’s on a break for like, five years, that’s when the IT Band starts to get pissed off. It’s because we just sit all the time. We sit in our car, we sit at our desk, we sit on the couch, just sit, sit, sit, sit. And so that muscle starts to get weak, it kind of forgets, it’s like, “What am I here for again?” And so retraining the glutes and the hips to support you can really help with IT Band and knee stuff.
Jill: Wow, that is amazing. Like, that is just kind of a life-changing realization. It’s like, oh, just a little bit of work on the glutes, targeted work on the glutes. And I love – like, anybody can just stand on one foot.
Alex: Totally.
Jill: Like, that doesn’t require any special equipment. Like, when you’re making dinner, just stand on one foot.
Alex: And then bonus points if you do it barefoot because then you’re also strengthening the foot and ankle.
Jill: Yes, I love this.
Alex: Like, cooking dinner, strengthen your feet, strengthen your ankle, strengthen your butt, it’s like, good to go.
Jill: Oh my god, so good. So see right, and it’s so funny because I often tell my runners like, you don’t need a fancy gym membership to do strength training. Like, we have all the tools. Like, our bodies are already like, the perfect strength training machine.
Alex: Absolutely. And also, as far as running goes, and if you’re like, well I’m not able to run, jump roping is another good – it mimics the mechanics of running because if you think of it, jump roping and then you start falling forward and you catch yourself, like, that is running, right?
Jill: Yeah. Running is literally just like, leaping forward…
Alex: Falling forward and catching yourself again and again. Even like, jumping and practicing that action because then your fascia gets this like, springy quality to it is another great way to just play around and I’m sure your kids will love it. My dog just looks at me like, what are you doing?
Jill: But that’s a good way like, to incorporate your kids into your fitness too and like – because it feels like play to them because of course, they haven’t had it like, taught out of them that they can sit all day long.
Alex: That fitness cannot be fun. They haven’t learned that yet.
Jill: They haven’t learned that lesson yet.
Alex: Good.
Jill: I hope I never learn that lesson.
Alex: Oh, I know.
Jill: Okay, so in general, foam rolling, is that something that you recommend or do you think there are other things people can do besides foam rolling? Done the right way to be helpful.
Alex: Yeah, so a foam roll is great, or foam roller, but think of it like a paint roller. So it’s big and broad and kind of imprecise about where it can get into, so the smaller your tool is, the more specific you can be about where you place it, but then it can get into the nooks and crannies in a better way. So smaller tools are really, really awesome, so that’s where like, a tennis ball, it’s cheap and easy to come by. But softer because I know then people go, “Oh, lacrosse ball.” I’m like, no, no, no, no. Because any time we place something on the body, we’re having a conversation with the nervous system, right? Because there are nerves all throughout your body, you can feel touch and pressure and all of those things. And so when we use a hard tool, the body – the reason why you feel it so much is because your body’s freaking out like, oh my god, what is this, there’s like a rock in my hip. And so some of that reaction is your body tightening up to protect itself, and what you really want is your body to relax into it. It does not have to hurt to be effective. So it doesn’t have to hurt to work a soft tool because people will tell me that too, like, I don’t feel anything with this tennis ball or a therapy ball or something like that. That’s okay. You’re still creating that tissue slide and that tissue change and it doesn’t have to feel like torture for it to be effective.
Jill: That’s good to know. I love that.
Alex: Self-care can be fun.
Jill: Self-care can be fun. Yay. Yet another lesson that we all need to learn. So alright, the last thing I wanted to ask you about and I know that one of the most common questions I get from people is how many days of – is it okay for me to take a day or two off from running every week and am I going to lose my fitness on my rest days and so like, tell me everything about rest days. Like, what are they? Why are they so important? You know, what does that look like for you? Everything.
Alex: I think – here’s another food thought. You know, variety is super important because running, again, is such a repetitive thing, right? It’s the same mechanics of your body again and again and again. And so even if you’re step tracking, you know, I’m getting 10,000 steps a day, which means 10,000 repetitions of the same movement. So think of rest days as opportunities to do something different for variety. And if we made it a nutrition analogy, if you had like, a roast beef sandwich every single day of the week, wouldn’t you be sick of it? You know, you’re like, “God, can I have something different?” So same idea. Like, what can I do that’s a little bit different? Maybe on my rest day – and resting doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sit on the couch and just catch up on Westworld like we talked about. Movements – like, everything adds up. Everything counts. So we’ve already talked to you about standing in the kitchen. Like, that can count on a rest day too as doing something. And different types of movement. So maybe it’s something that’s in a different plane, so side to side, because running is very front to back, or you go on a walk, or you go do something else, because rest is super important because you have to give your tissues and your body a chance to repair. So we talked about plantar fasciitis and IT Band syndrome. If these areas are getting over-taxed and they don’t have the opportunity to recover, then you’re breaking it down faster than it can rebuild itself. So that is a super important part of having a rest day is giving your body a chance to recover from what you do. Which means don’t go to like, a CrossFit class on your recovery day. That’s not recovery. That’s not recovery at all.
Jill: Definitely not recovery.
Alex: And also, I mean, it’s okay to have more than one day a week of recovery. Like, you’re not going to fall behind because you didn’t run six days this week. It’s totally fine.
Jill: Yeah, because we don’t actually lose fitness on our rest days, do we? Is it that our bodies – that repair work actually makes us stronger a few days later?
Alex: Yeah. And here’s another plug for self-massage. They did a study at McMaster University – I don’t know the exact year – but within the last, we’ll say, 15 years, and they looked at deep tissue massage following a workout or exertion, and they found that the muscles then had an increase in the number of mitochondria. Mitochondria are like the powerhouses of your cells, and so not only are you getting the recovery of relaxation, improved blood flow, so that that healing can occur, but then the next time you go out to do your thing, your muscles have more power already. But you know, so feel tissue massage or like, that self-massage or whatever you’re doing on your rest days can then let you go out and do your run and be even more effective than you were two days ago.
Jill: So good to hear. Alright, I’m upping my massage schedule now.
Alex: And that’s why I love at home stuff, like using the tennis ball and using the foal roller, using the tools you have around the house so that you don’t have to drop 50, 60, whatever it is to get naked and have body oil by some massage person.
Jill: Unless that’s what you like, in which case…
Alex: Unless that’s what you like, then by all means. And actually, from time to time, like, I do like having somebody work on my body because they will go places that subconsciously I’ve been avoiding. Like, oh, I didn’t know that was very tight there. I’ll go home and address it.
Jill: Yeah, sometimes you need somebody else to point out the whispers to you.
Alex: Absolutely.
Jill: Yeah, so I have one last question then about like, the self-massage with the ball or whatever tool it is, or even probably with your own hands, right? When is the best time to do that? Should you do it right after you go for a run or should you do it on non-running days? Like, when should you fit that in or is it more like whenever you’re able to do it just do it?
Alex: All of the above. Well, think of it as stretching, which is really what it is. So if you’re doing it before you run, you probably don’t want to spend 30 to 45 minutes like, stretching and then go out on a run because it actually decreases how responsive your muscles are. So for someone who is suffering from some type of injury, perhaps you do roll your feet out for two minutes before you go out on your run or you roll your hip out before you go on your run, and then when you come back, that’s when you spend the time looking at the other areas that might be contributing to it and spending more time rolling them out. And as far as how long at each spot, you can feel – like, when you first get in, it hurts a lot, or hurts so good. So as you start to feel things relax, that’s an indication that change is happening, so when you stop feeling change happening, you can switch sides. And some body areas, that’s like five minutes, and others, you know, in two minutes. But you do want to spend equal amount of time on both sides so that you’re not lopsided.
Jill: That’s good to know because I think our tendency is to spend more time on the side that’s causing pain or you know, we think it needs extra attention, but really, that’s how imbalances happen, right?
Alex: Right. Well, and the compensation patterns because even if there’s – let’s say your right foot is hurting, so then you start to spend more time standing on your left leg, well now, left foot, left calf, you know, left thigh, hip, back, they all need more attention because of the compensation pattern to avoid the pain on the right side. So you have an endless number of areas to roll out if you’re like, oh no, what do I do, it’s like, roll everything.
Jill: Just roll everything. Just don’t stop rolling.
Alex: No, do stop rolling and then go do some strengthening and jump roping.
Jill: All the things. I love it. Okay, so I want to just – for anybody who’s listening, if you’re in the Not Your Average Runner Podcast Facebook group, which if you’re not, just, you should be because it’s the best.
Alex: It’s so awesome in there.
Jill: I want you to know that Alex is in that group and if you have questions about injuries, Alex will answer them for you.
Alex: I would love to answer them for you.
Jill: Just put #injury before your question and she’s going to go in, maybe once a week or whatever, check to see what the questions are and answer them. But she also has her own Facebook group, which she’s going to tell you about in a minute. So Alex, can you tell everyone where they can find you, how they can interact with you just outside of the Not Your Average Runner Podcast community, there’s a million other ways that they can get in touch with you and I know you have a YouTube channel and so much good stuff. So tell us everything.
Alex: Everything. Yeah, I do have a Facebook group. It’s called the AE Wellness Body Nerds, so you can find that on Facebook, and we just nerd out about how to make self-care easy and just this weekend I asked them what their favorite massage tools are, and learned about all kinds of things that I didn’t even know about. So there’s a lot of good stuff happening in there. And then my website is aewellness, like Alexandra Ellis Wellness, and on Instagram, I’m hollaformala, which is a whole other story in itself.
Jill: I love your Instagram name.
Alex: Which is hollaformala. That’s what it is. But you can get to the YouTube channel and all the social media stuff from my website. Aewellness.com. but I also want to share the guide I made, the three fixes for IT Band tension, which has a lot of the stuff that we talked about plus some videos on what to do, specifically of that rolling video that we talked about for the IT Band. And you guys can grab that at aewellness.com/itband.
Jill: Fabulous. That’s so good. I will be grabbing that as well. Alright, so one other thing I want to let everyone know is that Alex is actually going to be teaching a private class on – we’re going to go deep on a lot of the topics that we talked about today. She’s going to be teaching a private class to my Run Your Best Life community, and if you want to get in on that class, I think – I want to say it’s like, July 2nd or something. Do you know what day it is?
Alex: That sounds about right-ish. It’s July 16th.
Jill: Oh, July 16th, alright, wow, okay. So July 16th is this private class that Alex is going to teach for my community. So you can actually like, get on a live webinar with her and ask her a bunch of questions, but you have to be in Run Your Best Life to be a part of that goodness. So you can join at runyourbestlife.com and then – just go do that.
Alex: Go right now, just go.
Jill: Don’t even ask questions. But also please go to Alex’s website and check out all her stuff because she really – she knows her shit. I’ve checked out her YouTube channel and I’m just like, damn, everybody needs to know this stuff. So I just want everybody to go there. If you are a runner, if you’re not a runner, I don’t know why you’re listening to this podcast unless it’s – you’re like, my brother or my sister and you’re just like really awesome, but even if you’re not a runner, if you’re somebody who exercises, or somebody who has aches and pains or injuries, or if you have plantar fasciitis and you’re like, what the fuck is wrong with my foot, right? Just go check out her site because she’s got so much good stuff there.
Alex: Welcome all if you have a body. You’re welcome.
Jill: If you have a body, I love this. Because like, we’re all body nerds, like, even if you don’t know it, we’re still all body nerds. So I love that you just – I’m still in love with your name. Okay, so I think that’s all we have for today. Alex, is there anything else that you wanted to say, to like, tell anybody?
Alex: Just, self-care can be fun and it can be easy and you can do it in your pajamas. You don’t need the fancy pants or the yoga mat or like, whatever. Just do it.
Jill: I love that. I do so many things in my pajamas so that makes me really happy. Pajama wellness. I love it. #pajamawellness. Alright, well thank you so much for joining me today. This has been amazingly fun as I knew it would be and yeah, I can’t wait to sit in on the class you’re going to teach to everyone. And don’t forget #injury if you’re in the Not Your Average Runner Podcast community as well. That’s it.
Alex: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Jill: Bye, rebels, have a good week. Bye.
Hey rebels, I hope you enjoyed my chat with Alex, and if you want to get more of her magic, you can find it all at aewellness.com or you can just go to the show notes at notyouraveragerunner.com/28 where you can get the IT Band guide we talked about, you can get links to all of her social media and you can get a link to her site, and her YouTube channel as well. Please check out her YouTube channel because it’s amazing.
And don’t forget, Alex is actually going to be teaching a private class to my Run Your Best Life clients on July 16th as a matter of fact, so if you want in on that, run on over to runyourbestlife.com and join so that you can be a part of that class and interact with Alex and get guidance and instruction on your own issues.
That’s it for this week. I’ll talk to you in just six days, I think. I can’t believe it’s going to be less than a week until we see each other again. I hope you have a great week and I’ll talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you liked what you heard and want more, head over to www.notyouraveragerunner.com to download your free one-week jumpstart plan and get started running today.
Enjoy The Show?
- Don’t miss an episode, subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher or RSS.
- Leave us a review in iTunes.
- Join the conversation by leaving a comment below!