Running Hot and Cold before your Marathon. The power of a contrast bath.

I get asked a lot by athletes 'What can I do to recover faster' or 'What can I do before a race if I am sore'. I almost always bring up contrasts baths. And that almost always that leads them to say 'What is that?'

If I think back to the time of where I first knew of contrast baths, it really brings up images of 80's sports movies where athletes are dunked in big steel tubs of ice, or institutional baths. They are ugly steel contraptions set awkwardly in corners of locker rooms. In today's utterly perfect, slick, performance world I can't remember seeing them anywhere. Instead, we eat a vitamin-filled gummy, or wear cool colored tape for our recoveries; however, the contrast bath should not be over looked. It is a huge tool in recovery, and if you are running with an injury you should not be running with, it might be a game changer.

A contrast bath is a simple rehab tool anyone can use that helps decrease inflammation, decrease pain, decrease swelling, and potentially increase mobility. The bather, moves from a tub of warm water, to a tub of cold water and back for a cycle of 30 minutes. The back and fourth temperature changes from warm to cold, cause your circulatory system to repeatedly vaso-constrict and vaso-dilate. That "squeeze - release" action moves the fluid through your body at an expedited rate....as IF you were exercising but without the actual risk of exercising. 

We all know our blood moves through our body by the hearts pumping mechanism, but it does not move the blood by its power alone. Your muscle movement provides a very strong secondary pump that facilitates fluid movement throughout your body. For example, some of you might have noticed that your legs swell up a bit from lack of  movement when you are on an airplane. 

Plunging your whole body from hot to cold, or part of your body, can mimic the normal muscle movement, and be a very effective way of moving things along, especially if you are too close to race time to risk a massage, or cannot access treatment. In most cities there are bathhouses that have alternating cold hot dips that athletes can utilize for full-body plunges. You can also put one together at home with the use of buckets and thermometers. The bucket version is best for ankles and arms, or you can do a hot/cold compress for harder to reach areas. 

Before we get to the nitty-gritty of the recipe, I should like to add that it‘s very important to check with your doctor if you have any questions about if this is right for you. Anyone with circulatory problems, Reynaud’s, decreased feelings in their limbs or compromised skin should not be doing a contrast bath because it puts you at risk.

Here is the recipe for your contrast bath (if you are at home you will need a thermometer)

30 minute cycle repeating hot/cold and always ending on the hot

3-4 min hot water (100F)

1 min cold water (60F)

Have fun running hot and cold! For more information http://www.bodymechanicsnyc.com/
by Beret Kirkeby

Running a marathon can be a pain in the Butt. What a strain.

So many of us in the athletic world are preparing for marathons 

right now or at least gearing up our runs. It is a good time to remember that many running problems can be insidious.  I hear from runners all the time that they NEVER had a knee, glute or hamstring problem before, and that this problem just showed up. It's really important from a rehab point of view and a running point of view to understand that injury is often cumulative. When you are doing something like running a marathon, where you are constantly stressing the SAME muscles over and over, that much like your training, small increments can lead to larger ones.  Take for instance a hamstring irritation.  Every day you run, and you are in your arc before your taper. Things are great! But you are running after work and you're pretty tired. Now you never had pain exactly--however, every day you did a longer run, you noticed your hamstrings were super tight and even tighter in the morning.  Like a good runner who is invested in their home care, you made sure to stretch them out.

Now--I would never tell someone not to stretch at all.  However, if the hamstring tightening is the result of micro-tearing from overuse, muscle imbalance,and fatigue, it is a signal that your hamstring is saying “hey, back off! I am trying to grow new hamstring here!!’. So when you stretch that site, you are pulling the fibers away. What happens is the micro trama from friction and repeated overloading causes inflammation at the site of the ishial tuberosity (usually just under the butt).  That inflammation is a direct chemical signal to your body to build new tissue in order to support the damaged ones.  So now each time you run, it gets tighter and tighter…Ouch! What a pain in the butt! Now its hard to run at all and you are nervous about a long run.

So what went wrong? Well, maybe nothing.  Or, maybe a little of everything.  Don’t take the injury personally. You can't predict the future and there are many races coming down the line. So much can go into a hamstring strain--fatigue, overuse, muscle imbalances, the wrong shoes….the list goes on. It could be you did not warm up properly. It could be that you tripped and pulled it without realizing. It could be that the evening runs were not ideal for your healing because your circulation slowed down at night. Or it could be that there was no reason whatsoever other than that your body reached a point where it could not recover. The problem is, there is a tipping point for all people and many small ignored problems can add up to a larger one.  You can help yourself by following a few guidelines.

Recovery is a pre-game event.  Stretching and foam rolling really help, but it's best to use them preventively before you are scrambling. You should also really understand RICE protocol. That’s Rest (which runners hate) Ice, Compress, and Elevate….and they all have to be done together.  You can’t just stick an ice cube in your sock and hope for the best.

So now what? Your hurt, but you want to run. My first suggestion is to see a physical therapist and find out what they say. Strains are categorized by severity and you really need to see if you're doing permanent damage to yourself. If they give you the all-clear, there are some things you can do for yourself after you run it past them.

 Injury treatments that are not acute often include contrast baths. You submerge the offending limb in warm water and then cold, and then repeat. The ongoing cycle causes vasodilatation and contraction, which aids in recovery and flushes out the area.  This technique can also be used for general recovery. This is old school, serious recovery.

No one advises running on an injury, but if you do, you might use a compression sleeve to limit the inflammation.  Runners often use this sort of device for injuries that are older and come back with a vengeance.  You can also use KT tape or Rock Tape to help support and  increase circulation to the area. These two treatments are slightly different in approach, as KT tape lifts the skin a bit to increase lymph and blood flow to the area, while compression does the exact opposite.  So how do you choose? With compression, you are saying, “I know this is going to swell up, I am going to minimize this."  When you choose tape, you are saying,  "This might swell a little but not too much and I am am taping preventatively". The tape can also be used in places no compression garment can go.

Above all, listen to your body and bear in mind that the number one thing you can do for yourself is rest. No runner likes to hear it. Even if you make it through your big race on your injury, afterwards you will still have to take that break (and by then you will really deserve it).  Boy, what a pain in the butt. For more information on recovery please see For more information see our sports massage program in NYC

or http://www.bodymechanicsnyc.com/#!athletes-corner-strains/c1541