It’s a Saturday morning ritual: leisurely breakfast with the fam, followed by a jog through the park to the Pilates studio. An hour later, my core strengthened and stretched, I emerge relaxed and in a 200% better mood than when I went in. I’ve been doing Pilates weekly since last Christmas, and I give it a lot of credit for reviving my running at a time when it seemed to be in crisis: I’d somehow managed to become a total weakling while running 40 miles per week. The details are for another post, but the tl;dr version is that last year, I spent a lot of time running and zero time doing any other exercise. No yoga, no strength training, no core work. Not good.

What does a 40-mile-per-week weakling look like? Mostly, I just looked pregnant. My core abdominal muscles were so weak that my lower stomach bulged. My lower back had to compensate for the weak abs, and was stiff and sore after my runs. It became impossible to relax into a comfortable running form; my shoulders were often up around my ears and I had to consciously force them down every few minutes. When I was tired, I’d catch myself poking out my stomach and slouching. I knew something wasn’t right, but lacked the mental energy to deal with it.

In hindsight, though I luckily didn’t get injured, my running form and general appearance looked very much like the lower-crossed syndrome Salty describes here. It’s an armchair diagnosis, but it fits. Lower-crossed syndrome is characterized by weak deep abdominal muscles and weak glutes. People with lower-crossed syndrome tend to stick out their stomachs and butts (which causes a severe curve in the lower back). Upon my realization, I took a break from running to concentrate on fixing these obvious weaknesses.

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