Working as a Chiropractic assistant here at Complete Health Chiropractic for the last 4 or so years I have been lucky and grateful to be surrounded by people who also value living an active and healthier lifestyle naturally. This positive work environment in turn has lead me to set fitness goals, which truly challenged my boundaries. This has put me on the path to achieving things that I didn’t actually think were possible.
I have always had a passion for fitness, keeping active and staying healthy naturally, but I would NEVER have called myself a runner! It was only at the beginning of this year that I summoned the courage to set myself a massive goal and began training towards my first half marathon.
Preparing for my first half marathon I knew there were some things that I definitely had to do from the get go. I started stretching and foam rolling daily. I continued to fuel my body correctly, stayed well hydrated & got checked by one of the friendly chiros at work on a regular basis.
As the race day drew closer I was increasing my running time and distance each week and found I was needing to be checked more frequently. Getting checked ensured my body was managing this additional physical stress as best it could.
Even being really vigilant with my chiropractic care, around a month out from the run date I started to experience a lot of pain in my feet which caused my calves to tighten. I knew this was a sign my body wasn’t handling the added physical stress as I continued to up the anti with my training as well as it could. I made sure to let my chiropractors know this on my next check up. For those that don’t know…Chiropractors also check feet! I started to get my feet checked up until the run date and was also given a couple of home exercises to do right after my runs.
I found combining my checkups and home exercises allowed my body to recover faster & in turn trained better. Here is an article I found online which perfectly explains why I think it’s really important to get checked by a Chiropractor especially leading up to your running event (click here).
Looking back at this journey my one piece of advice would be if you love to run or plan on getting into running, consider getting checked by a Chiropractor and find out how it can bring out the best runner in you. To date I have now completed my second half marathon at the Blackmores Sydney running Festival and with the encouragement and care of my Chiropractors have set my next goal to complete a full marathon in 2017. Wish me luck.
