Forming ideas on form

When I was young, I played the violin for a number of years. I don't mind admitting, I had terrible form - what's known as a collapsed wrist, or a sunken wrist, I was the bane of my tutor's life. However, as much as she told me to pull the heel of my palm away from the violin, and as often as I tried, it didn't 'stick' and I returned into the wrong position near permanently.
 Don't get me wrong, I could still play in the school orchestra with the best of them but I was never going to be a star, or make a career out of it. I didn't put enough practice in, and I never corrected my form - which meant that I could sometimes struggle to move my fingers quickly enough to the higher notes, and I guess - over time - I would have ended up with carpal tunnel or some other such pain.

Fast forward many years, and last week when I was bench pressing, my trainer and I talked about my form on the bar - collapsed wrists again. Good pressing form is almost like you're "punching" upwards, the knuckles face upwards. I, however, push the bar from my palms, wrists back, knuckles pointed downwards. It isn't good, and it causes me a dull wrist aches as the sets go on or the weight on the bar increases, so I'm working hard to try and correct my issue. I find it difficult, because it's kind of inbuilt in me now, it's just 'how I bench press'... It will take a lot of focus to get it right, but I feel like once I crack it, and focus every time, it'll eventually become second nature. So that's a goal.

Of course, the main reason I raise this subject is because I've slowly started running again, with plantar fasciitis still kicking about quietly in the background. The various specialists I've seen in the last 12 months have helped identify the root cause of my PF - it's down to weak glutes not firing properly when I run, leading to increased use of my calves etc, which in turn creates the pull on the plantar fasciia. Add to that, the increase in volume of training last year. I was basically running with imperfect form, and doing more and more of it, until something had to give.

So, in knowing what I know about myself (that even having poor form pointed out, I rarely actually put the work in to change what I'm doing, despite knowing I 'should' - story of my life, yes?), the key now is to address my running form to utilise my glutes better and take pressure of my calves - and do it every single time I go for a run. That means consciously pushing my hips/pelvis forward a bit, when I run, and consciously pulling my shoulder back. It creates the right flow through my body that means all parts of my muscles can do what they're suppose to. It feels uncomfortable when I do it, but that's because it's different - and so it's all the more vital to get it nailed down.

The positive news from this - I ran (very slowly) on a lunchbreak last week, for about half an hour of mixed run/walk, and when I finished I realised two things; one, I couldn't remember any of the songs I'd just listened to, because even though my headphones had been blaring upbeat tunes into my ears, my attention had been entirely on my form, and two, my bum was feeling a wee bit achey. :-) My glutes are starting to wake up. I don't think they have the faintest CLUE how much work I'm going to be expecting them to do from now on, bless 'em. They're in for a surprise. And a LOT of this exercise.... (picture off the internet, it's not me, haha.)