Treating and Training the Female Runner (or Any Female Athlete)

Overview

The female runner presents practitioners with unique challenges.

A few important statistics/considerations to be aware of:

• Women are 2x more likely to sustain a running injury than men.
• Women who run experience a higher rate of incontinence than age-matched women in the general population.
• Women must navigate the changes brought by pregnancy and postpartum to continue to participate in their sport of choice.

It is critical that both male and female orthopedic, sports medicine, and pelvic health professionals recognize and have the skills to address the inter-relationship of musculoskeletal, performance, and pelvic/abdominal health needs of female runners (and all female athletes) in their care.

These issues are intertwined within the brains and bodies of athletic females, we can no longer separate them in our clinical and fitness programming.

This online course, Treating and Training the Female Runner (or any Female Athlete), provides a robust, and interactive learning experience that bridges the gap between our understanding of musculoskeletal, and sports performance with pelvic, abdominal, and pregnancy/postpartum health considerations for female athletes.

The online course is intended to be an entry-level and all external/functional opportunity.

Musculoskeletal and sports medicine practitioners unfamiliar with pelvic health AND pelvic health providers unsure of how to prepare a patient for a return to fitness and sport to gain the foundational knowledge, clinical reasoning, and relevant skills to integratively assess and address the full clinical picture for their female runners.

The goal is to build strategies that free runners and all athletes from rehab edicts and provide a path back to automatic, efficient, and powerful movement, function, and fitness without pain or pelvic/abdominal health considerations.

The strategies for assessment and treatment are very adaptable to telehealth. In addition to practicing the concepts in collaborative conversations throughout and labs, the online course now includes a home study case as an opportunity to practice course concepts and prepare you for engaging patients via telehealth. The information, reasoning, and strategies can be applied to other types of female athletes.

Bonus Included in this Course

The online course Diaphragm Pelvic Floor Piston for Adult Populations Module 1 is included as a part of this course. It provides the concepts, evidence, and building blocks to rethink central control strategies that are inclusive of breath mechanics and pelvic floor.

It is the critical first step, and middle-ground for the pelvic health and ortho/sports medicine communities to have a common starting point and language to step into the conversation for female athletes. Module One is the minimum requirement.

Modules 2-7 of the Diaphragm Pelvic Floor Piston course are optional but highly recommended to broaden your understanding of the material. These modules will help prepare you to apply the ideas across a continuum of needs, in different populations-from basic first steps, to building targeted interventions for any type of female athlete and clinical reasoning with Julie in two-live cases in real-time. 

You can also follow up with Piston Science Part Two: Bridge the Gap Between Rehab and Fitness. This online course is designed to equip rehabilitation professionals with a clinical reasoning framework, empowering clinicians to think through the varied needs of fit women to help them make the leap from basic exercise to fitness at any level.

Learning Objectives:

The overarching learning objective of this course is to equip and empower all professionals that treat female runners (or any female athlete) with the ability to understand at depth, reason through, and build programs that simultaneously address musculoskeletal, pelvic, and performance needs.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to address clinical questions including:

• How can we use running and fitness programs to return women simultaneously to optimal musculoskeletal, pelvic, and performance health, instead of eliminating it until they are “better”?
• How does impact control, or lack thereof, simultaneously contribute to common musculoskeletal and pelvic health presentations in female runners?
• How do we create dynamic control for a runner versus stiff stability offered by abdominal hollowing, bracing, or “core” stabilizing ideas?
• Why are young women who have never had children leaking during running and how does that affect running efficiency and performance? (Hint: Their pelvic floors aren’t weak).
• How do we harness optimal intra-abdominal pressure for trunk control without contributing to pelvic and abdominal health issues?
• How do you build a program to prepare a new mom to return to running postpartum?
• How are painful hips/low back while running and painful sex intertwined?
• What is the path back to running for women with pelvic organ prolapse?
• How does diastasis recti impact trunk and pelvic control in running?
• What running form considerations can be modified to address musculoskeletal, pelvic/abdominal, and performance needs?
• How do we recreate automaticity and carryover to remove the need for runners and athletes to be over-cued and to overthink about breathing, alignment/form and rehab strategies? (Hint: It’s not with strengthening programs)
• How do we build resilience in our female runners to prevent future injuries? **

Pre-Course and Lab Requirements:

1. Collect a video of yourself and one other person running* (*female runner/athlete is ideal for all videos). Videos should be from the front, side, and behind.
2. Collect pictures of yourself and one other person* from the front and side.
3. Collect video of yourself, and one other person* performing bilateral single-leg stance, squats, bilateral single-leg squats, a squat jump, and bilateral hops all from side and front views.
4. Collect video from head to pelvis of yourself and one other person* taking a deep breath and then speaking or singing the ABC’s. Catching them laughing is a bonus! The view should be from the side.
5. Have a full-length mirror on hand, room to move, and some type of resistance equipment on hand (bands, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, etc.).
6. Sign and return the course Terms and Conditions.

Audience:

This course is intended to equip and empower professionals with the current evidence, theoretical constructs, clinical reasoning, and practical tools to help treat and train female runners (or any female athlete). The information bridges the gap between musculoskeletal, and sports performance and pelvic, abdominal, and pregnancy/postpartum health considerations for female athletes. All participants should apply the information within their State/jurisdictional scope of practice.

The PT/DC (medical pros) The course is intended to be an entry-level (and all external/functional) opportunity for musculoskeletal and sports medicine practitioners unfamiliar with pelvic health AND pelvic health providers unsure of how to prepare a patient for a return to fitness and sport to gain the foundational knowledge, clinical reasoning and relevant skills to integratively assess and address the full clinical picture for their female runners (or any female athlete).

The PTA will gain insight into the theoretical basis for the assessment process and clinical reasoning behind the POC designed by the therapist. Course participation and self-reflective learning experiences with specific cueing, exercise guidelines, monitoring for signs of intolerance, program modifications, progression parameters, and treatment methods will ensure continuity of care.

The Athletic Trainer/Kinesiologist (AT/Kin) will gain insight into theory, evidence, reasoning, and practical tools for integration of the POC into an athlete's training program. Observation, and participation through self-reflection, will assist with monitoring and modifying an athlete's program to keep pelvic, musculoskeletal, and performance health in mind.

Intended Audience: This course is intended for rehabilitation professionals. The course focus on clinical assessment, clinical reasoning, and treatment strategy falls under the scope of rehabilitative intervention. Other professionals enter into this for informational purposes only to be understood and applied within their state/jurisdictional scope of practice.

Course Schedule:

• Module One: Foundational Concepts Applied to Running
• Module Two: Clinical Reasoning for the Female Athlete
• Module Three: Alignment/Form Assessment (Thoracic Cage in Pregnant and Postpartum Women)
• Module Four: Detailed Assessments with Small Group, Self-Labs, and Self-Reflection

1. Central Control System (Breath Mechanics, Pelvic Floor, and Abdominals)
2. Movement and Rotational Patterns
3. Gait and Running Form Assessments

• Module Five: Pelvic and Abdominal Health Integration and Case Applications
• Module Six: Treatment Strategies: Impact
• Module Seven: Treatment Strategies: Intra-abdominal Pressure
• Module Eight: Rotation and Muscular Relationships that Support Reciprocation
• Module Nine: Return to Run Reasoning (Running as Intervention)
• Bonus: Home Study Case

Is The Course Eligible For CEUs?

Each single viewer purchase allows for unlimited access: review, re-watch, rewind as often as you need to for as long as you like. The online course is essentially identical to the live version but has boosted content (more mini-case studies, videos, cues, self-labs, evidence, etc.) to facilitate independent learning.

This course is subcontracted to Redefine Health Education and has been approved for 16 CEUs for American physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. RHE is a registered CE approval agency of 42 states and counting. Find your state here: www.redefinehealthed.com/ceuinfo. If you have a specific question about CE credit for this course in your state, please direct your inquiry including the course title in which you are interested, to info@redefinehealthed.com. Please check with your state board for their retroactive approval process if you are not apart of the 42 covered states.