The goal in May was to complete the ElliptiGO Everyday in May Challenge. You could ride every day for 5, 10, or 20 miles per day. I chose the 20 miles per day challenge and successfully met the goal with no day offs. I rode through rain, cold, wind, and one early morning ride to make sure I didn't miss a day. It wasn't bad at all. I actually averaged over 30 miles per day while hitting the minimum 20 every day and finished with 1004 miles for the month! My longest ride was May 31 when I went 63 miles. I rode my ElliptiGO for a total of 66 hours and did 24,537 ft of climbing. The biggest challenge was keeping my ElliptiGO GOing. It now has over 5500 miles on it and it needs a tune-up and some new parts. My gears were off the last week and my riding was not as smooth or as fast as it could be due to the gears grinding and skipping. I kept trying to fix them, but never got it right. I am close to being an expert at assembling the rear wheel and components now. That is not an easy thing on the ElliptiGO. The best part of the Challenge, besides just getting out there and having a challenge, was the support and enthusiasm of the ElliptiGO community around the world. We were all cheering each other on and barriers kept being broken as people did things they never thought possible or challenged themselves to ride farther than they ever thought they could.
I have now had the ElliptiGO for 11 months and have been thrilled with what it has allowed me to do. It provides an intense workout, but it is truly fun and pain-free to use. I actually enjoy it more than running, because even after a couple of hours of pushing as hard as I can in a workout, my body does not break down at all. I can feel fit and fast without feeling hobbled. When I got the ElliptiGO, I said I would give it a year to see if I could revive my running. I have run about 100 miles in the months I have had the ElliptiGO and most of those came in the snowshoe races I did this winter. It is time to see if I can get back to running! This weekend I am going to do a low key obstacle type race called the Reviver Challenge in Rhode Island. My sister worked the race last year with her boyfriend helping kids climb over the final wall on the course. A couple days later Mike died on his 50th birthday. We are going to support my sister as she work's Mike's Wall, but my daughters and I will also do the race. I am also looking forward to running the Falmouth Road Race again this August. I also realize that while I am pain-free these days, my tight weak glutes and hip stabilizing muscles get sore if I run and cause me to limp, I don't want to run with that pain so I have to get that fixed if I can.
I decided to go in for a Functional Movement Screen at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning here in Nashua. Today I had my first workout based on what they found. It took a lot of time to get through the workout and learn how to do the movements, but it was helpful to have a trainer watching me and showing me how to do things correctly. I like that they use some Postural Restoration stuff as part of their therapy. I have some experience with PRI a few years ago with a local physical therapist and I have written about PRI a few times in the past. Together with the strength drills targeted for me, I hope that this is the final piece that will get me back running. If not I hear there is July ElliptiGO Challenge being announced soon!
After a bit of a hiatus from training, I am back on the roads this week. I was getting good running success with the Postural Restoration therapy that ended in February, but as I continued to run (and faithfully do the exercises) things started to slowly fall apart again. I was back to a point in my training where the left side of my body and the right side of my body were doing two different things. I noticed my mileage going down from 50 a week to 40. Then it was down to 30 and then 20. Each run was taking longer to recover from as I got more and more imbalanced and as my hip hurt more and more after most runs and there was not much fun in it at all. The racing was even worse! Finally last week, I only ran twice: two 5k races. At the end of both races I was limping on my left hip. The last race was the Hollis Fast 5K. As I limped back to the awards ceremony, I had the feeling that something "more" was wrong with my hip. It hurt. I seemed to be "protecting" it more as I ran and I had such a terrible stride as I tried to run faster that it was no fun to even race. I thought to myself that "something" must be more wrong with that hip then I could figure out and I felt that the next step must be to go to a doctor and get it looked at. Maybe it was a labral tear that wouldn't let the femur fit properly in the pelvis. I did not feel like running any more as each training run was leading to a day or two of problems and I was uncomfortable running at any speed.
Before calling up a doctor, I also was thinking that no matter how hard I worked on my exercises and strength work I was just strengthening a dysfunction and not correcting it. I had already gone back to the postural restoration therapist last Monday (on my own dime), hoping to see if she could see what I was doing wrong with my exercises. I was shown the ones that should work best for me, but there were no new revelations. The only thing that was confirmed is that when I run my left stride is slower that my right. I was wondering about this and that is probably why that my legs get worse as I try to run fast. I still believe that the Postural Restoration work is very valuable for me, but until I can figure out and straighten out the root cause of my imbalances that nothing will get fixed. It does give me good strength work and can help with working on positioning and muscle balance, but it seems to help me more for basic walking and standing and I haven't got it to work yet for running (fast running in particular). That left me again frustrated at the end of the Hollis race and asking myself, "What is wrong with my body causing it to work so incorrectly."
I started thinking that before I call a doctor to check for an injured hip and socket, I might want to try one more time at seeing if there are restrictions in my hip that may be causing the failure after all the exercises I have been doing. Maybe it was time to call an ART (Active Release Technique)doctor. I was very high on ART back about 10 years ago when I first went to Boston to have treatment done. The doctor started fixed my psoas muscle that had been giving me back pains for years (due to triathlons). He got rid of the scar tissue and the results were pretty dramatic (the first thing that worked on me in over 15 years). However when I went back to see this doctor a few more times to see if he could help with my hips, he did little and seemed real disinterested in the whole process and in even helping me (I believe he no longer practices). I had wanted to try ART with someone else, but I could not find anyone local who took insurance. Maybe it was worth another shot, so I called Dr. Steve Barooby of Artful Chiropractic in Manchester. I had talked to him on the phone a few years ago, but never went in to see him (I did Rolfing instead). Dr. Barooby has lots of certifications in ART and I had heard good things about him. I gave him a call and was even more happy to find he takes insurance now. I have gone in three times this week. I told Dr. Baroody that my body was a puzzle and there had to be a way to figure it out. He has discovered some missing puzzle pieces that I have been trying to get answers on from so many other people I have seen and there is even names for these things that are wrong with my feet.
He did a lot of listening and asking questions and then he got tolooking at my feet. I have been trying to figure out why my left foot does so many strange things during my stride and I have tried all sorts of remedies on my own to figure it out and fix it. In fact, that is how I got the referral from my doctor last fall. I simply wanted to ask a PT about my foot and ankle. He asked if I have ever damaged my left foot with a severe sprain. He said my left heel was "inverted". I have asked many other therapists about this heel that seemed "out of position" before and could not get an answer. I think that what he means by inverted is that it is rotated inwards. Maybe this is why my forefoot also everts out. I don't know. He said this inverted heel causes my heel to suppinate. He also said that I have something wrong with my front toes. It is called "functional hallux limitus". Basically on the left side, the toe and its metatarsal does not work. That is why that foot rolls over onto the inside trying to connect to the ground. In other words, it pronates heavily. So, my left foot suppinates at the heel and pronates from the forefoot. It is trying to do two opposite things at once! Is that it? I have been thinking my imbalances stem from the left side of my body being different from the right and not equaling a whole. However it might simply be the back part of my left foot not playing nicely together with the front part and creating havoc on the left side of my body and messing up my running and alignment throughout my body.
Dr. Baroody has been softening up my feet by mobilizing my stuck joints as well as using ART on my heel area to work on the "fixing" of my heel. All of a sudden my running is easier again (not perfect) but I ran 8 miles on Tuesday, did the track workout on Wednesday (800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800 first laps in 90 sec. each lap after that in 91 sec. Mike Ward started pushing the pace on the last 1200 and we did that in under 6:00 mile pace, and then I ran the last 800 in 2:52- certainly a decent workout). My hip didn't hurt at all during or after the track work, and I ran 8 miles each of the next two days. Still no hip soreness (I have been getting ART treatment on the Psoas muscle along with the foot work). So far that is good progress.
The interesting thing that I now recall is that during the two months of Postural Restoration work, the PT twice mobilized the bones in my left foot. The PR exercises helped, but it was after the mobilizations that my mileage started going up in the winter. I could get the left toe metatarsal on the ground after those mobilizations and I could run so much more easily. I think it lasted for awhile, but the joints got stuck again and that is why my running got worse and worse each week. I felt the same "working" of that first metatarsal after the mobilization work this week. When I ran yesterday, I tried to "listen" to my feet (after learning more about this "functional hallux limitus"). On both of my feet, the first metatarsals are now touching the ground as I run. However on the left foot, the big toe does not even touch the ground at all during my stride. As I run it goes "heel-first metatarsal" and that is how I push-off the ground. There is no involvement of my toes. On the right foot it is the same thing, except the big toe does touch the ground, but it doesn't exert much force. This also gives me a scary reason for my having a "pins and needle" toe joint pain on my right big toe knuckle for the past 3-4 months after my runs. That toe joint is very stiff and I notice that there is a further condition that many runners develop where that toe joint becomes rigid. Oh, No! I don't want to go there!
Anyhow that is more than anyone needs to know about my feet. I am again getting closer to figuring out my stride problems and I think this doctor has some interesting solutions. Today, I ran with Dr. Scholls insoles that Dr. Baroody advised me to try. He showed my how to cut out the area under the first metatarsal so that it "dropped" the toe joint down and "hopefully" cause it to function correctly. I didn't like the bouncy feel of the arch on the insole, and I am not used to it yet at all (basically I used it as soon as I cut up the insole), but it really shook things up in the way my stride and muscles worked today. I don't know if this will help in the end, but it is certainly worth a shot! The next few weeks should be very interesting!
Long before Chris MacDougal wrote the "Born to Run" book, I was a minimalistic runner. I have always felt more comfortable in a lightweight pair of racing shoes than any trainer that I have tried. That has been true for my 35+ years of running. For quite a few years, I have been living out the philosophy of the "less shoe, the better." It seems to work for me. I always said that I like the lightweight shoes without all the doodads because they let my feet do what my feet want to do (which in reality is very strange things). So I have been running with lightweight racers (Asics HyperSpeeds) as my training shoes and Puma H Streets and K Streets as my racing and track shoes.
Despite the minimalistic shoes, my hips have remained imbalanced and unstable. However when I have tried training shoes, I have felt even worse. I have also forsaken traditional shoes and for over a year now, I have worn the Vivo Barefoot shoes at all other non-running times. They are extremely comfortable and also let my feet do "what they want to do." The problem that I have been thinking about is that even after all this minimalism, my hips are no better when running and my stability problems seem to be getting worse. A few weeks ago, I bought a more built up racing shoe, but it didn't seem to help my running and at times made it worse. It was more like running on a big sponge. I have improved my hips throught the Postural Restoration work this winter, but despite working on my hips and doing exercises all the time, once I start running things fall apart again. The previous three weeks have not been good. I get things balanced, go for a run and they fall apart for a couple of days, and if I try to run through it, things turn worse. I was back to having the problem where my whole left side was "stuck". Something was not right in my feet (I'd keep trying to mobilize the bones) and my hip. I was also back to the pressure under my kneecap that I get when things are out of alilgnment. My running was horrible as was my racing attempts. On Monday, I somehow got rid of the knee pressure and felt better alignment wise. I went up to race in Lowell Tuesday night for the 5K. I felt great despite for the 90 degree heat. When I started running though, I had no control of my legs and hips. Everything was going at wrong angles and it wasn't a fun run (results and I did win in my age-graded weight category). I went to the Gate City Striders workout the next evening in more 90 degree heat and did the 10 X 400m workout (81-86 secs). Again, my hips and alignment were throwing me all over the track and I was fighting my body to try to keep straight. Despite all the work I have been doing, I still can't run correctly! and there is nothing much left to find out there that I can try to improve things- or so I thought.
Then I saw Lori Thomson's newest video for running. I follow all her videos for runners, as she is a Postural Restoration therapist and Postural Restoration work has improved my hips (no longer am I tight at the front of the hip) and if I don't run at all my hips feel better than in years, but I am a runner and I have to find the solution that keeps me running. The new video is called "Instability of the Feet in Runners" and it took me awhile to let the video sink in because of the "shoe" issue. First off, she talks about "calcaneal instability" or heel bone instability. Now this was interesting to me, because when I got sent to a physical therapist this winter (who fortunately practiced "postural restoration") it was only because I asked my primary care doctor for a visit. I had pretty much given up on physical therapy due to previous attempts, but I wanted to ask a therapist about ankle mobility and issues with my heel not seeming to be lined up correctly. I was hoping I could just get a couple of questions answered and maybe learn a "trick" or two to fix things. I ended up getting 2 months of twice weekly Postural Restoration work with some traditional physical therapy techniques that helped my hips greatly, but with more running I seemed to be at an impasse. I was back to thinking the same question that plagued me for years, "Are my hips causing my problems or are my feet causing the problems?"
In this video, Lori says that if your heel bone is unstable and not in the correct position for running, then your pelvis may not be in the correct position for running (she does say it can be the other way around too). She also then explains a major part of the postural restoration philosophy: most people have a forwardly rotated pelvis on the left side. That is me. My left shoulder and pelvis are way in front of my right pelvis and shoulder. She also shows how this affects the way the foot apporaches and lands on the ground.This also desribes how my feet land and got me thinking that maybe this is why my stride is all over the place lately. My feet are landing at weird angles (and quite differently on both sides) and maybe as they hit the ground and try to roll, it send my legs in different directions and through different rotations.
Lori shows another exercise to learn how to shift into the left hip (my difficult move) and how to feel the bottom of the feet. This is all good stuff, but I wasn't willing to listen to the last part of the video, because this tells about how to choose a good running shoe. I thought I knew everything about shoes and minimalism was the way to go. Well, I thought it through and decided to give Lori's ideas a try. I printed out a list of PRI approved shoe options and headed over to Runner's Alley to see if they had any in stock and then to see how they might feel on my feet, but that was all. It was funny when I got there because there were a couple of other runners trying out Vibram 5 Fingers and Nike Free shoes as they were contemplating minimalism and there was I, a true minimalist believer, trying on what seemed to me to be boats!
I tried on about 5 pair of shoes. What I noticed in the brief moments in the shoes was how tight the heel counter was, how flat and solid the footboards were, and how I could get my big toe down in all of the shoes (something I have been working on pre- postural restorartion and even during with my PT). They felt good for such beastly things. I think whenever I have tried training shoes in the past, I always gravitated towards more lightweight trainers that ended up being a bit soft and spongy with little foot control. This type of shoe often made my hips worse! I wasn't sure which one to try, so I ran just a bit on the treadmill with each pair. One pair left my left hip feeling unstable, one pair was a bit too tight in the heel, and one pair had my hip feeling real good on the treadmill. This was all so unscientific, but I decided to but the pair that left my hip feeling best. I bought real training shoes for the first time in years! I ended up with a pair of Brooks Defyance 3 shoes. I wasn't planning on running that day, as my left glute medius had been sore since the track workout the night before, but I felt good in the shoes and took them out for a run. It was interesting. Yes, they were big shoes, but they felt better than other trainers I had tried in the past. My feet felt very comfortable and I was getting a smooth transition from heel to toe (and I wasn't landing heel first as I thought would automatically happen). I ran Friday with not major problems again. The only thing is I am running slower than I normally would, but this could be because I am using different muscles. This morning I woke up and the first thing I thought was that I wanted to go for a morning run (I don't do morning runs- I hate morning runs- it usually takes all day to get my body to a place where I can even think about running) so off I went for a successfull morning run. I am still running slower, but my stride and the way my hips are hinging is feeling better. This is only three days in to my experiment, and it could be that I am feeling good for other reasons or the shoes may eventually throw my body off in other directions and create additional problems, but I am very intrigued with the results so far. I love my Vivo Barefoot shoes, but something else funny has happened. I wore the Brooks to school yesterday, because I liked the way my feet walked in them. I am also wearing them today. I feel much more stable wearing these things. If this keeps up I will have to buy another pair: one for daily use and one for walking.
Does anyone know of a lost tribe of long distance running people that uses supportive running shoes to achieve thier mystical running abilities? If you do, let me know, because we may be able to turn the idea into a best-selling book. And I know that all my running friends who have laughed at my lightweiight running shoes through the years are probably getting a good chuckle from this post.
Here is a previous video where Lori explains PRI approved running shoe options.
Here is the newest video from Lori Thomsen where she explains the three planes of motion and offers Postural Restoration exercises to improve functioning in each plane. Previous videos showed how to do a squat to work on bending or flexing forward in the saggital plane and how to shift side-to-side to improve movement in the frontal plane. All her videos can be found here. The new video adds the transverse plane with movements that rotate the trunk or move the shoulders and hips in and out. Lori shows a couple of activites for runners that utilize movements in all three planes. It should help with asymmetries in the body. I know when I went to a Postural Restoration therapist, I was told I had a tough time shifting into my left hip. The second activity she demonstrates is exactly like one I was taught. One difference is that I used an elastic band right above both knees to add resistance. I also wasn't taught the arm movements and side bend, so this video adds some new ideas for me.
I have also been learning more on the three planes of motion through a DVD called Core Conversion from Gary Gray's Gray Insitute. I have used it twice so far this week. Here is the blurb about the DVD:
The Core Conversion workout is an efficient and effective way to train the body’s true “core” – the nose to the toes – in all three planes of motion, utilizing a strategic sequencing of lifts, lunges, squats, squat thrusts, and push-ups. This workout is the perfect blend of strength training, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance that trains the body to not only feel better, but to function better. The Core Conversion is a necessity to any workout program – either as a standalone or as a compliment – that can be tweaked accordingly for different ages and abilities in order to maximize and expand one’s functional threshold.
It is an interesting and informative DVD, although after going through the tutorial the workout seems a bit fast paced. That can lead to imperfect movements as you try to keep up. Maybe I will get faster as I get used to the workout. This video show Gary Gray showing an athlete an abdominal workout based on the three planes of motion. This is very similar to part of the Core Conversion DVD.
Here is a previous post I made on the three planes of motion.
I have been recently learning about the importance of movement through the three planes of motion. Thankfully, the experts are writing and making videos to help me in my understanding and guiding me towards corrective and strengthening exercises that can help me move and run better. Here is a good overview for runners on the three planes of motion by Lori Thomsen found at the Postural Restoration Institute (I have linked to this before but it needs a bit of study and review). Lori works at the Huskra Clinic and has been putting out some very helpful videos on running using Postural Resoration principles. Here is her newest video. It includes Lori's recommendations for "Dynamic and Functional Warm-up Activities for Runners."
If you have imbalances or asymmetries this may be a great place to start correcting your mechanics.
If you are a mechanically-balanced runner (all those smooth striding athletes that are ahead of me in races!) then you might want to maintain that perfect body balance by incorporating the Lunge Matrix into your warm-up routine. Coach Jay Johnson says this is the warm-up he uses before running. Jay also explains how the lunge matrix as devised by Gary Gray exercises you through the three planes of motion.
The three planes of motion are the frontal plane, the saggital plane, and the transverse plane. Runners are used to activity in the saggital plane and we tend to be weak in movements in the other two planes. Lori has a couple of videos showing how to strengthen the frontal and saggital planes. She promises to do the transverse plane soon.
Here is Gary Gray (mentioned above) addressing the issue of Hip Tightness. He completely explains all motions of the Hip Joint and how the different motions interact. He talks about how tightness of the hip capsules can restrict motion in all three planes of motion and begins mentioning how to address restrictions of the femur in the hip capsule which can create body disfunctions and bad motions throughout the body.
Carson Boddicker of Boddicker Performance has also been writing on the importance of multi-directional training. He recent post recommends runners should work all through planes of motion to avoid stress fractures. Here he recommends slideboard training (I think I have one of those somewhere) for runners to work on movements in the the frontal plane..
Jay Johnston did a similar video to the one above for Nike and RunnerSpace a year ago. It provides more information on the lunge matrix.
And thanks to Jay, Lori, Carson, and all the other teachers out there who are helping myself and others to move better.
This year is off to a super start. This week I made it to 60 miles (Mon. = 8 miles, Tues. = 0, Wed. = 12 miles, Thurs. =8 miles, Fri. = 8 miles, Sat. =16 miles, Sun. = 8 miles). I am looking forward to racing the 10K in the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter race next Sunday and trying to find some racing and speed muscles.
Today is Easter as well as the start of another season for the Boston Red Sox. Tomorrow, I read "Casey, at the Bat" for my fifth grade class. Every year, a new season of baseball brings me back to that phrase, "Hope springs eternal.". Each year as I start another season of running, I hope that it will be the year that I am done with imbalances and can run like I did when I was younger. Hope springs eternal!
Here is another Postural Restoration video showing a dynamic hamstring stretch to replace the traditional hamstring stretch.
This week's running miles totaled 52 miles (Mon.=0miles, Tues.-Sat.= 8 miles per day, Sun. 12 miles)
In my fifth grade class we have started a unit on the human body. The first lessons were on the bones and joints that make up the skeletal system.
Did you realize that when humans are born, that they have over 300 bones, but as bones in the skull, sacrum and hips fuse together by the time we are adults we end up with 206 bones. There are also more than 200 joints in the human body
Thursday morning, I decided to make the lesson more fun and active by having the class practice movements related to the many different joints in the body. I had my class practice some of the Z-Health joint mobility routines that I use to move the joints in their feet, ankles, knees, hips, and torso, as well as the joints in their fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and face. Through the fun and discussions, one of the girls in my class asked about cracking knuckles. She wanted to know makes the popping sound. I explained that it is just a release of gas in the joint as it is twisted. At which point one of the boys asked, " Is that why my dad always asks me to pull on his finger?" And that is why I enjoy teaching fifth grade!
Lately I have been reading through a most wonderful book called Advances in Functional Training: Training Techniques for Coaches, Personal Trainers and Athletes by Michael Boyle. It is a book full of the latest thinking, practice, and opinions in the field of functional training. It explains how the body works and gives reasons for doing certain exercises to improve function. I find it up-to-date with the newest ideas and that makes it a great book to read. Instead of rehashing old ideas, it presents new thinking and practice. I find the field of sport medicine and practice increasingly interesting, but you have to be on the cutting-edge to find the new ideas and this book provides them. I will note that often this book doesn't provide clear instructions on "how" to do some of the exercises that are mentioned. It assumes you are a trainer and know what the author is talking about, but it is a gold-mine of pertinent thinking and applications.
I remember when I starting running in the 1970's, the best sports medicine you could find would be an article by Dr. George Sheehan and his magic-6 stretches. A lot of running books still precribe the standard static stretches as the means to stay injury-free. That stuff never worked for me, so I am glad to see some much growth in sports related medicine focused on biomechanics and muscular imbalances. I was reading in Michael Boyle's book last night on the joint-by-joint theory and the implications of learning to distinguish between issues of mobility and stability. Based on Gray Cook's Functional Movement Screen (FMS), the idea is that the body is just a stack of joints. Each joint has a specific function. Sometimes it is to provide mobility and sometimes stability. Dysfunction happens predictably and so rather than training body parts, therapists and trainers are learning to train movement patterns. Interestingly enough, the joints move between mobility and stability. Look at this chart:
The ankle joints primary need is mobility.
The knee joints primary need is stability.
The hip joints primary need is mobility (over multiple planes-my problems originate here)
The lumbar spine needs stability.
The thoracic spine needs mobility (most misunderstood)
The scapula needs stability.
The gleno-humeral needs mobility.
A most interesting idea is that problems in one joint usually show up as pain in the joint above and below. For example, a loss of ankle mobility can give knee pain, a loss of hip mobility can give back pain, and a loss of thoracic mobility can give neck, shoulder, or low back pain. I find all of this fascinating. The book, though, is going to take many reads to figure out. Fortunately I found a PT who works with Postural Restoration. I am finally restoring lost function to my body and I feel so much better because of it.
This week I noticed that two very distinquished trainers both commented on their interest in Postural Restoration. Eric Cressey author Maximum Strength: Get Your Strongest Body in 16 Weeks with the Ultimate Weight-Training Program along with Matt Fitzgerald as well as the DVD "Magnificent Mobility" mentions going to a Postural Restoration workshop in his blog post, Stuff You Should Read. Carson Boddicker in his blog which is listed over to the left, mentions Postural Restoration in the artictle, Regaining the Frontal Plane, and tells how it works with the multi-planer movements and resulting dysfunction in the hips.
A good week of weather and running. I ran a total of 50 miles (M=0, T=9, W=9, T=0, F=8, S=16, S=8 miles). I have nothing to complain about, just tweaking things and getting stronger.
On my last post, I linked to two Postural Restoration videos by Becky Fisher of the Huskra Clinic that show how to strengthen the glutes and hamstrings to push yourself forward. Becky has a new video up for runners. This one is on the importance of hip shifting to help you lengthen your stride and run less stiffly. When I had physical therapy through a Postural Restoration therapist, one major thing she noticed is that I could not shift my weight onto the left hip. When I started doing the retro-stairs exercises during therapy, I found could barely support weight on my left side. I could float up the stairs on my right. If you find that you have muscular imbalances, you might want to look for a postural restoration therapist. Here is an Postural Restoration article that describes more on hip shifting in sports.
It should never be assumed that hip shifting ability is symmetrical on the left and right hips. Athletes positioned in a Left AIC pattern are remaining in a shifted state on the right hip. They never shift into the left hip despite transferring weight to the left lower extremity. How do athletes accomplish this? They are compensating with excessive ball (femur) rotation which often results in extreme overuse of the hip flexors and lateral quadriceps. The left glutes and left inner thighs, the primary hip shifting muscles, adaptively become very weak because they are used less and less as the athlete continues to compensate around their right leg dominance. As left hip shifting (AF IR) ability is lost, the compensating muscles can pull the ball away from the socket until they are no longer congruently aligned. With hip stability compromised, the athlete is predisposed to abnormal joint forces and pain through the feet, knees, hips, and back.
That pretty much could be the best summary of my past 25+ years trying to run out of pain and imbalances and the frustrations often expressed on this blog because I could never find a therapy that would help me recover my stride.
Postural Restoration seems to be doing it for me and I just keep hoping things will get better and better. I feel I have gone from about 30% efficieny to about 80% efficiency since I found Postural Restoration and I keep adding a bit of efficiency each week as I tweak and manage things on my own.
You have to love the tribute to Abebe Bikila at the Rome Marathon today.
Siraj Gena of Ethiopia paid tribute to an Olympic hero in winning the Rome marathon on Sunday, running barefoot while outsprinting two Kenyan rivals to the finish.
Gena took off his shoes with about 500 yards left and then outkicked Benson Barus and Nixon Machichim to finish the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 39 seconds.
Gena was paying homage to Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, who won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome after running the entire course without shoes.
"I felt I had to do something to honor Bikila," Gena told the ANSA news agency. "For me he will always be an enormous inspiration and today I wanted to see what it would be like to cross the line in Rome barefooted like he once did."
Of course it seems that the Rome Marathon was offering a 5000 euro bonus to both the men's and women's winners if they would take off their shoes and socks and run the last 300 m of the race barefoot in honor of the 50th anniversary of Abebe Bikila's Olympic win in 1960. Who cares? It was a cool tribute and the right country won the race!
Here are two Postural Restoration videos for runners that show how to strengthen your glutes and hamstrings to better push yourself forward when you run. If you are a runner who has lost your butt, the videos may help to strengthen those muscles in the unique Postural Restoration style. The video comes from Becky Fisher of the Huskra Clinic. Ron Huskra is the founder of Postural Restoration. I have had over 25 years of muscular imbalances and I have tried every therapy possible to get my stride back. I had two months of twice-weekly physical therapy at the beginning of this year. Postural Restoration is the therapy that is finally working for me. I don't understand all of how it works. I do know that the therapist who worked on me figured out the correct exercises and strengthening moves to put me back on the right path. I did not do these specific exercises, but I have already added them to my routine and I will test them to see how they work for me, but they blend a few exercises that I was previously taught, so I see them as an extension of the work I am already doing. The exercises may look like simple bridges, but pay attention to the tweaks that help activate the glutes and strengthen the corresponding muscles.
I had my best victory of the year last night at the Gate City Strider's indoor track workout. I was curious as to how my achilles would handle some speed-work. It was a bit tight on either side above the heel during the warm-up so I wasn't sure what would happen if I tried the workout. Once I started running intervals, the achilles did not hurt. I did 5 800 meter intervals at about a 3:00-3:05 pace. The middle one was supposed to be a mile, but I stopped at 3/4 of a mile because I couldn't fake the lack of mileage at the pace. The last 800 felt the best because my hips had the best alignment. Unfortunately my left glute medius tightened right up from overuse (probably why it was best one) and I couldn't run any more. All last year at track workouts I would get the same thing and would be sore for a day or more. It mostly went away after a couple of hours last night and the best thing is there was no achilles pain today and it feels the best it has in over a month.
Today I had another postural restoration physical therapy session and it went great as I am learning which moves affect which muscles and which muscles need activation. Twice the therapist has done some joint mobility work on my left foot. The inner half has no mobility and the outside of that foot has too much. That helped pull my left toe's metatarsal down and has given me more stability (what I was after here). That big toe however is now learning to connect with the ground. I then have to stop relying on my constantly activated TRL and learn to activate my left psoas muscle instead. I also have a lot of work to do in order to keep strengthening my very weak left glute medius. Furthermore my right shoulder is behind my left shoulder so I have to learn to strengthen and use my left upper obliques and right lower obliques. I have only three more sessions of postural restoration and I trying to learn all I can to continue strengthening and activating the correct muscles to bring me back into alignment. I can only say that this is great stuff!
I saw a new book on running, so I ordered it from Amazon tonight. It is called Running Anatomy and looks like a good source to really see these muscles that I am working on.
I was over on Coach Jay Johnson's site checking out a video and I saw a link to a post of his on coach Dan Pfaff. It is a good post, but it also has a video on a book I have been hesitant to buy for over a year. I keep hearing good reviews on Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists
from multiple sources, but I keep thinking that it would be way over my head. However I saw a link to a view on that page that is an introduction to the book. Here it is:
One of the fascial "trains" is shown in a model at about 30 second in. It shows how distant parts of the body are linked together. If you follow the yellow line from the toe, up the hip, across the obliques and to the opposite shoulder you will see it pass every single muscle that I mentioned above that I am working on through postural restoration (except this shows it on the opposite side of the body). Everything is connected. One of these days I will get brave and buy this book to see if I can figure it out.
Here is the Jay Johnson video I was originally looking at. It is for using medicine ball routines to strengthen your running. It goes along with an article in this month's Running Times magazine. Here is the page on Jay's site.
I am doing a "single leg haybales" without the medicine ball for my therapy, but will be adding the medicine ball later. I am also doing rotational lunges with a medicine ball (not in this video) so it was interesting seeing some other routines.
I still have a sore achilles and so only mananged 20 miles of slow treadmill running this week. That is 8 more than last week, but I had to miss a few days after tweaking the achilles just by making a short dash to my car through a parking lot to beat my daughter.
Maybe it is good I am not running so much as I continue the Postural Restoration exercises and twice weekly visits to the physical therapist. My hip is getting stronger and as I do my exercises and strengthening moves there are many little shifts going on in my body. I am accomplishing many new movements and notice great improvements in my balance. When running on the treadmill I feel so much better, but not perfect yet. It is going to take the muscles a couple months to catch up with what my brain wants them to do. As I feel shifts in my feet, hips, or torso they send signals to other parts to re-balance and it is hard to recognize which is the proper movement and which is an old pattern trying to hold on. It is fascinating stuff.
I do about 4 Postural Restoration exercises and then many traditional strengthening and balancing exercises: like full squats on a Bosu Ball (round side down) or one legged squats (round side up). I am doing a move that starts off like a turkish getup and ends like a side plank (for my obliques), and lunges (the secret I learned to clean up my wobbly lunges was to engage the hamstrings. Now I am doing medicine ball rotation lunges (hands out straight holding the ball and move the arms side to side as you lunge over the extended knee. I started off doing all of these real poorly but have learned the balance and stability needed to execute them correctly. Here is a variation of the lunge with a medicine ball twist. It took me a while to get my hip, knee, and ankle in alignment and then all of a sudden my body "got it".
One of the four Postural Restoration exercises that I do first is called the "Retro Stairs". This is one that is supposed to "reset" my hips as well as strengthen my gluteus medius. I have been doing this daily for a few weeks. At first I started on only my left leg and hip. I push my left hip back and to the side, bend forward, and lift my right leg slowly off the ground before stepping back up to the next step. In the beginning I had zero strength to pull off this move. When I lifted my right leg up, my left leg and torso would sink together and it was hard to step back without feeling like a million pounds was on my back. When I did this on the opposite side, I could easily float right up the stairs without any problems. I complete the maneuver now with much more ease on the left side than previously, but it is still not as strong as my right side. You can see a version of the retro stairs here. It is a great hip strengthener and rebalancer. While I have done some of the other exercises in that document and moved beyond them, the second PRI exercise in my list of four that I do daily is also in the document. It is the "Single Leg Wall Left AFIR with Right Glute Max". The third PRI exercise I do is on this document. It is called the Figure 6: "Sidelying Resisted Right Serratus Punch with Right
Trunk Rotation" (OK so the rest of these names are not that catchy!). This is for my hips and twisted torso. The fourth of the exercises I am currently doing is the "Seated Alternating Reciprocal Quad Sets with IR" (found here). Of course I am doing these based on the feedback the physical therapist sees as I progress through different exercises. So far, I give my therapist and Postural Restoration the highest praise. These are exercises that I have seen no where else and they are perfectly suited and geared towards my imbalances. Now I just can't wait until my achilles feels better so that I can get back to running full-time again.
If you are in the southern New Hampshire (Nashua) area and are looking for an excellent physical therapist, Jackie is definitely the person you want to get referred to by your doctor. If you are interested in the Postural Restoration therapy, I think she is the only person doing this in the area. Here is her business card:
My brain is running around with all sorts of new information and there is just not enough time to assimilate it all. As 2009 draws to a close, I am happy that it is ending as it has not been a successful year for running from my vantage point, however it is a year where I encountered tons of new learnings about how the human body works and how I might get my body to work better for me as a runner. I have come to the realization that there is no easy fix for the multiple number of imbalance problems that I have, but I have not given up and there are some promising solutions on the horizon. I just have to be patient and continue working and learning until I get there.
I have not been able to get much running in during the past month or two which I don't like, but a break is good to get things back in order and working a bit more properly. I intended to get going after Christmas as I get ready to run the Boston Marathon this April. The Postural Restoration physical therapy I have been receiving seems spot on for me. I don't get it all technically just yet, but I notice the differences and changes in how I hold my body and move.
Running requires the capability of muscles to work together in three biomechanical planes in the back, pelvis and hip. When these three planes are functional, the runner has the ability for muscles to turn "on" and "off." This allows for reciprocal alternating activity to occur in the back, pelvis, and hip. If control of all three planes is lost compensation, fatigue, strain, and injuries will occur.
One thing that PRI focuses in on is the "inability to shift into the left hip" and this seems to be one of the major things that the therapist is working on with me. The exercises are to strengthen certain muscles and "turn off" other muscles to restore functioning and to use the muscles to shift the bones back into their normal postitioning. I guess my whole left side does not do much work and I am learning to strengthen and use it more properly.
"...a common pattern that exists in all humans that contributes to postural asymmetry. How people compensate for this pattern can vary, however, the underlying dominant pattern exists in everyone. We all have a tendency to stand on our right leg more than the left. Whether right or left handed our right leg is our dominant leg. We have a liver on the right side that weighs approximately three to four pounds and on the opposite side we have a spleen that weighs less than a pound. We have three lobes of lung on the right and only two on the left. In our upper trunk, we have a heart that lies more to the left. This organ asymmetry coupled with gravity, environmental factors, primitive reflexes and vestibular imbalances results in a tendency to stand on our right leg and rotate our upper body to the left."
Part 1 of the article looks at malalignment of the pelvis and its assymetry. Part 2 of the article looks at faulty breathing patterns and assymetry. Part 3 of the article looks at ways to treat this assymetry. Some of my exercises are similar to those displayed in the article. There are not many videos that I have found on the internet, but this one shows a simple way to sit and stand up. One thing that many of my exercises have me doing is pulling back on my left hip and pushing my right hip forward while sitting or doing the exercises. This seems to target, my contiuously chronically tight inner thigh muscle.
So how is it going. On Monday, during my second PT visit, I ran before and after doing my exercises. There was a very easy to feel difference in my movement patterns. After the exercises, I had more movement through my left hip and I felt like I was running and rotating over my knee rather than skewing up my whole left leg. I did my exercises before heading out for the Tuesday night track workout. I hadn't done any speedwork or fast running since October and I almost turned around while traffic slowed me down and I knew I'd be late for the workout. I arrived after the second of six 800 meter runs. I whipped off my sweats and jumped into the third interval without any warmup. I finished in under 3:00, but was heavily winded. I did the next three in under 2:55. My left leg did not bother me, although I was stumbling on my right leg around the corners. It was nice to be slowed down in a workout by my conditioning and not by imbalances (although things are far from perfect). It was probably not a wise decision to run without any warmup. My right achilles felt a bit tweaked a couple of days later. Yesterday I got outside for a change and ran a nice 8 miler. I feel a bit more balance and stability in my left hip so I am happy. I did run knowing my achilles did not feel right so of course there was no running today as it was a bit hard to even walk properly as I was really tight in that achilles.
So I took out the Muscle Medicine book I had been looking through and decided to apply its principles. This book is easy to read and explains how the body works together around various joints in the body. As part of the solution, there are ways to self-treat the muscles through a method similar to ART (active release technique). The author calls it Facilitated Active Stretch Technique (F.A.S.T.). Basically you apply pressure, usually with your fingers, around a restricted or damaged area, or in a series of points running up and down the muscle and at the same time you put the muscle through a range of motion. It is easy to do and well explained. I checked out the section on the achilles tendon and did the work, not on my achilles, but on my calf and soleus (where the restrictions led to stress on the achilles). Lo and behold, I had a much fuller range of motion when I was done and could walk normally again. I did not try running as I would rather heal than create more damage. It will be interesting to see if I can run tomorrow.
Here is a preview of what the book says about achilles tendonitis in runners:
Here is how to remove restrictions in the gastrocnemus and soleus muscles.
The book is chock full of good useful knowlege like this for muscles throughout the body. I highly recommend it. I was talking to a Strider at the indoor track workout Tuesday after the workout. He was doing similar stuff on his muscles based on copying the ART techniques that he had experienced. He was close, but he wasn't getting it completely right as the book shows. He was just pressing down on a muscle rather than using angled pressure. Anyhow I was intererested in seeinig how it loosened up my stiff achilles and I was surprised at the improvement after only a few minutes of targeted work.
Other things I am doing this holiday season is working on my diet which stinks with all the food that my wife keeps cooking. Even though I have severely limited the junk: whoopie pies, cakes, cookies that she keeps baking, I have to eat "some" of it. Without the usual running that I do, I have to cut back somewhere. I have been trying something called "intermittent fasting." I haven't done much studying on it, but I was basically doing this in the summer with my Paleo diet. Basically I don't eat anything until afternoon. By skipping breakfast I don't get that insulin rush and I actually feel better without the food during the morning hours.
Finally I have decided to keep working on trying to build up my stregnth. I work with kettlebells, but I am now trying to work on my great weakness: full body strength. I have decided to do body weight exercises and am using the progressions in a book called Convict Conditioning from DragonDoor. It is heavily hyped like most of the DragonDoor material and I had to get over my leeriness over the title, but it seems to present a sound approach to progressively building your strength throught 6 basic body weight moves. I guess you have to decide if it is worth it to support an ex-con (in prison for what?) with your money and to decide even if the author is a real person: discussion here. I thought it was worth a shot and the book is well written, does not support a "thug" 'lifestyle, and the progressions are reasonable, well planned, and worthy of my energy.
See I told you I had a lot to think about and try, but I would rather be moving forward than stagnating or giving up!
I have been busy taking care of medical business the past couple of weeks. After cracking a rib last summer, I went to visit the doctor's office to get it checked out. I was reassigned a primary care doctor and told I needed to make an appointment since I had been avoiding doctors for too many years. So I had a checkup a couple months ago and the doctor got me signed up for all sorts of fun stuff. While getting me all these appointments I asked if I could see a physical therapist (about every five years I try to go in and see if there is someone that can help me out with my stride and mechanics). I haven't got much running in due to a minor surgery that left me with 2 inches of stitches on my hip and a week later the so very fun colonoscopy. I finally also got started with a physical therapist. I was hoping just to get a couple of questions answered on my ankle and hips and to see if a therapist could offer me some good information.
I ended up at Select Physical Therapy in Nashua. The therapist started looking at how my body worked and measured all sorts of angles and rotations. She spent some time looking at how my ankle did not work properly, but it was not the only thing she noticed. Hips, shoulders, back; there was something out of whack everywhere. She took lots of notes and I couldn't keep up, but it was nice I recognized every muscle, bone, and body part she mentioned. The hips were something she spent a lot of time on and I was hoping to get a diagnosis of what is wrong with my so I could get a better idea of what to do with the information in The Malalignment Syndrome book and DVDs I had studied last winter and spring. She noticed all sorts of weaknesses, tightness’s, and improper rotations, but the main thing is that my left hip is much higher than my right hip. This was a good confirmation if I got nothing else out of the visit.
Then she started teaching me some exercises. I received four that I practiced and then was sent home to do twice a day: before running and after. She said I could start up the therapy and that I could still run as part of the process! What I liked was that these exercises where not the standard exercises for hips or low back that I have been given by other therapists. These were targeted for my specific needs and problem areas. What I did on one side was completely different from what I did on the other. The exercises "made sense" to me too. My body could feel exactly what they were trying to do and if felt just right.
I was told that these exercises where "postural restoration" exercises and I recall bumping into this before on the internet. Of course, I went home to find out more about postural restoration and I think it is a perfect opportunity for me to have an expert work with me on trying to bring my body back into balance. I think that I lucked into the perfect physical therapy situation. So I am getting work on my feet, my adductors and abductors, my hips, and my thoracic spine and shoulders. I think it is the first time I have had someone work on all the misalignments in my body as well as seeing how my body works together as a unit. Most therapists just worked on my hips or my back and never the whole.
Many therapies I have encountered treat the body as if it should work perfectly except for one little problem area. Then a stretch or a strength move is supposed to fix that problem leading to a successful resolution. It doesn't happen that way with me and this therapy looks at the body as asymmetrical when in dysfunction. It also has reasons for those dysfunctions. So let's see if I can be fixed or brought into a better functional ability.
Of the four stretches I was initially given, I could not get one to work. It was an obturator stretch (next to the piriformis) so we are dropping that one. Then I had a 90/90 hip shift (like this without the stool and balloon). The hip shift down on my left side is the real key. This strengthens the hamstring and the inside of the thigh, but the shift into the hip teaches me a new position and works one of my most chronically stiff muscles.
I have another exercise that also promotes the hip shift on the left hip and one that works the outside of the right hip. After one day of doing the exercises I had a much better than average 8 mile run on my treadmill. When I do the exercises before I run, I find that I get a better hip position where I actually use the left hip (the left usually does not do the work that the right does) and feel a better foot placement and movement over my knee.
Today I had my second appointment and we are continuing the exercises and adding some new moves. I found that one is their exercise of the week here. It is called the PRI Supine Weighted Punch with Right Apical Expansion and it I am doing it because the right side of my chest and ribs is very tight and rotated behind my fight side. It does not move forward as I run as it is stuck. This should help to strengthen and restore the movement as well as to help me with my breathing. The left side of my chest always seems rotated forward ahead of my right side, so it is nice to find an exercise that works on this problem area. It reminded me of the first move in a kettlebell turkish getup, so I can practice that part of a getup with more meaning. I also have a bridge type exercise and a clamshell type exercise to work on. As for now, I am going in twice a week and I am very positive that I will gain some new insight and direction for fixing my stride.
by Michael Boyle. It is a book full of the latest thinking, practice, and opinions in the field of functional training. It explains how the body works and gives reasons for doing certain exercises to improve function. I find it up-to-date with the newest ideas and that makes it a great book to read. Instead of rehashing old ideas, it presents new thinking and practice. I find the field of sport medicine and practice increasingly interesting, but you have to be on the cutting-edge to find the new ideas and this book provides them. I will note that often this book doesn't provide clear instructions on "how" to do some of the exercises that are mentioned. It assumes you are a trainer and know what the author is talking about, but it is a gold-mine of pertinent thinking and applications. 
along with Matt Fitzgerald as well as the DVD "Magnificent Mobility" mentions going to a Postural Restoration workshop in his 
and looks like a good source to really see these muscles that I am working on. 
.jpg)
