What Do You Mean “Listen To Your Body?”

[Stoplookinatme]

If I was going to do this barefoot thing, I was going to do it right! I read everything that I could and all the blogs that I could find. I read everything that the docs said and I especially looked at any running form talk. I must have watched that Kenyon video 100 times. I am an engineer and I totally over think things!
This mentality cost me about 12 months of not being able to improve much, trying to do it right and every time I had a setback I reasoned that I was doing something wrong which led me back to reading more and trying to do what “the experts” said.
If only I had listened to my body instead of what everyone was saying. The thing that finally cured me was when Bare Lee sent me that link to the article that said what, NOT TO TRY AND CONTROL. After that point I ONLY thought about pulling my arms back as rapidly as I could and let everything else just happen naturally and easily.
Shortly after that I completed my first 5K road race finishing 15th overall, I now enjoy my runs again, feel good, and am making steady progress on miles run per week. I have lofty goals of besting my 5K time this year that I ran 15 years ago.
Jim

 

[ThomDavid]

Not to get too "out there" on this topic, but it is one that has always fascinated me as well. LTYB is all well and good, but when you're in the deep end of the pool and what your body is saying to you is, "Hey, dude, I'm drowning," then all the body understanding in the world isn't going to help you much.

My savior in this regard has been my yoga practice. I've yet to encounter anything that has put me more in touch with the physical cues that my body is giving me than this activity, and it carries over well into my running and other physical (and mental) activities. If yoga teaches anything at all, it is the awareness of the importance of the breath, and breath is something you just can't trick. Within that breath is the sum total of most of the body knowledge you need at any given moment: working too hard, not working hard enough, forcing something that doesn't want to happen, being lazy, etc. Understanding how to "breathe into" a particular area of the body, especially during running, tends to focus the mind on what is really going on there, and helps me to distinguish between the lazy urge to stop and the genuine need to stop before an injury takes place. Of course, I don't always practice this with perfection, but just the activity of recognizing the connection between my breathing and my other physical efforts and then trying to unite them into a well-functioning unit helps me to gain a sense of "conscious running." I'm still quite a newbie at both barefoot running and yoga, but I have learned enough to know that without conscious engagement in either, I'm more likely to end up at least dissatisfied with the effort, and, at worst, injured.

 

[rbondi]

When I was first getting back into shape, my body told me to stop running after a block or two.

Mine says on the couch even though I am in shape.

Seriously though, if you are used to ignoring your body, listening to it is a skill that needs to be re-developed.

 

[Bare Lee]

Mine says on the couch even though I am in shape.

Yah, that's what mine says after just a few days off.

Seriously though, if you are used to ignoring your body, listening to it is a skill that needs to be re-developed.

Good point! Although in my return to exercise, the problem wasn't so much redeveloping a skill, as developing one in the first place. In the five years it took to go from being in decent shape, exercising six days a week, to being out-of-shape (and eating a lot of fried foods) while doing fieldwork, my body had also begun to experience the effects of aging. So there were two variables at play, but I was only treating one.

Up into my early forties, I had never done any warming up before running, cycling, hiking, etc., and could always push through mild fatigue. Now I'm concluding that I need to: 1), pay more attention to properly prepping the body before and after a run; and 2), stop to stretch, massage, or walk at the first sign of fatigue/strain during a run. It's kind of annoying to be this meticulous/fragile, but hopefully all this massaging and dynamic and static stretching will keep me running, and I'm already enjoying the side-benefit of feeling more limber and youthful.

 

[barefootn]

"LTYB". Thats why I don't wear head phones when running. You can zone out on the music and miss those "cues" or suttle warnings until it's too late. I enjoy listening to the body machine as it interacts with the surrondings, even on marathon runs.

 

[DayRunner]

Not to get too "out there" on this topic...
My savior in this regard has been my yoga practice. I've yet to encounter anything that has put me more in touch with the physical cues that my body is giving me than this activity

+1 here, I've been doing yoga for about 10 years now, not a high volume but enough to have instilled an improved capacity to "scan" my body and be more aware of what is happening, as well as being concious of my breath and how it relates to what I am trying to do. When starting barefoot I went against the consensus of advice and ramped up my Kms quickly... There were niggles along the way but I was able to recognize and react to them in a way which has kept me injury free so I am an advocate of LTYB for those that can "tune in".

For those not "getting" LTYB, the best way I can describe it is learning to interpret the physical cues that you can act upon to avoid injury, inflammation, excessive discomfort etc. It's an ongoing endeavor and one that requires you both to be conscious of the here and now, but also to look backwards if a cramp, soreness, inflammation or injury occurs, to try and recognize any physical sensations that might have preceded the cramp etc, so that you can recognise and react earlier next time. For example, your calves might need to lock up like bricks before you go and get a strong massage and recognise that soemthing had been bulding up, but afterards you are better placed to recognize the build up to that state of tension before it gets so bad, and be able to do something about it (stretch, roll etc).

"LTYB". Thats why I don't wear head phones when running.

+1 again, even in the 24 hr track race I did last year I avoided music/headphones. I want to be conscious of what I am doing, not just to be more sensitive to pre-injury cues but also because of the the attitude it represents to what you are doing. Music is a distraction, so habitually listening to it instead of your running self in my mind would be like admitting I am doing an activity i am not intrinsically enjoying. By leaving the headphones behind you are affirming the fact that you are choosing to run because you love it, and the longer you can run for, the more you are getting to be immersed in what you love.

As I am upping my training this year, and pushing it harder with sprint work as well as long distance then like Bare Lee I am paying more attention to things like stretching, rolling and self massage. My body has given me feedback over my past few major races that it needs these things to avoid accumulation of tensions that will put me at risk of injury, to ignore this would be at my peril!

 

[skedaddle]

Thanks Jason, I really enjoyed the article

To me listening to your body means paying attention to the whole package, not just the physical part, I think emotional well being is just as important but is often overlooked.

 

[Tracy davenport]

I have to say, yes it is annoying hearing this phrase, until you get it. I've been barefoot for two years now, most of the time thinking that I had got it, but with a recurring issue 6miles in with hip pain. But only recently have I realised that it was when I started to tire my form started to slip which then led to the pain. The pain was reminding me to focus on my form more.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Brilliant, Tracy!

 

[JosephTree]

When I was first getting back into shape, my body told me to stop running after a block or two.

I'm late into this conversation, but here goes...

Somewhere I heard or read that distance running is just a long conversation between the body and the part of the brain that wants to go back to bed...or something like that.

Apropos, I still don't know how people can listen to music while they run. Ye gods, phones are even worse!