If you've been running long enough, it's likely you've experienced a fall …or eighteen. It happens! Most of the time, these types of falls produce minor injuries and simply shake us up. These can still be consequential.

At the moment of the fall, we’ll often brace for impact by tightening the diaphragm (think: 'hold your breath') to help provide extra stability to our spine. This a great thing! But, the diaphragm can get 'stuck' in this state. This is a problem because with a tense diaphragm, we can’t breathe efficiently. Structurally, this means we can’t stabilize our spine efficiently by building proper amounts of intra-abdominal pressure. If we can’t build intra-abdominal pressure well, the rest of our body must compensate for this by tightening up.

The feedback I’ll get from clients before a session sounds like this: "My body feels like crap. This hurts and that hurts. I feel like I aged 30 years. I’m not sure why!"

Invariably, I learn that they’ve either experienced a very stressful event or were shaken up (physically or emotionally).

Here’s a short sequence that will calm the nervous system, improve the efficiency of your breathing, and help you feel better more quickly

Let’s do a before and after assessment so you can feel an immediate difference.

1. Lie on your back with your legs up in the air, knees bent 90º. Now move your feet just a few inches farther out away from the body. How effortful, on a scale of 1-10 (1 is extremely easy), is it to hold your legs in that position?

2. Remain lying on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Using your fingers like little mallets, tap your breastbone for 30-45sec, then breathe and expand 360° for 3+ minutes. Think, "In-2-3-Out-2-3-4-5-6.” Slower on the exhale than the inhale.

3. Do Floor Cog w Arm Reaches for 8 slow, mindful reps

- Pelvis rolls toward head, arms spiral internally and reach through ceiling. Skull contact point naturally slides toward body / head tilts back. Notice this shape correlates with exhaling?

- Pelvis rolls toward feet, arms spiral externally and reach through wall. Skull contact point slides away from body. (Neck feels flatter, chin and chest move closer together). Notice this shape correlates with inhaling?

Note: there are other useful movements to explore here, but we’re keeping it simple and effective. One idea is to gently, but progressively, as tolerated, load the injured area which will help remind the body it’s safe to, say, bear weight again.

4. REPEAT step 1. Re-assess. Lie on your back with your legs up in the air, knees bent 90º. Now move your feet just a few inches farther out away from the body. How effortful, on a scale of 1-10 (1 is extremely easy), is it to hold your legs in that position? Did the number change?

Do the sequence (breastbone taps --> breathing --> floor cogs) a couple of times per day for several days, ideally prior to walking or running.

If you try this, I'd love to know about your experience in the comments below. Of course, I also hope you don't experience a fall any time soon!