marrie condo

Does this spark joy? ( I know you know what this means.)

Think back to the beginning of the pandemic when Marie Condo was super popular, many of us got caught up in this question. 

The idea was if you pulled out every last thing and placed it in a big pile in the middle of your room, then you’d be forced to deal with it. And I almost feel like this is where we are going with postpartum return to running. 

Let’s be honest, until 2019, we weren’t even having these conversations! But this is how the pendulum swings, isn’t it?

The pendulum swing is inevitable, because without it, how do we find out what we don’t know? But through this process, unfortunately, some people will get pulled down. 

We’ve gone from no screens at all to full gait screens, screen for pelvic health, screen for impact readiness, and comprehensive musculoskeletal screen. 

Yikes. 

I’m going to predict that some physical therapist will see these recommendations and revert back to their initial training and get lost in the minutiae of a less-than-optimal foot swing (or whatever).

THEN they will spend precious time trying to rehab something that 1) isn’t that big of a deal and 2) they aren’t really qualified to treat in the first place. 

We’re going to have some therapists straight up Marie Condo-ing postpartum return to running. 

What things really matter and what things don’t? 

Mom just wants to run. But now we’ve given her a huge pile of crap to deal with, most of which may not even matter.

We need to figure out better systems to gather information, figure out what’s relevant, and put the other stuff off to the side. 

We don’t have the time or patience to pick up every little thing and ask if it sparks joy. 

This isn’t a criticism of the research. The research is important for guidance! But we CANNOT let it pull us into the minutiae.