Feeling the growl again
Glad to hear that you got some answers, and damn a good chunk of that sounds familiar, especially throwing the leg forward. I really feel like I do that with my right leg. Any chance that you could share the exercises that he gave you?
Glad to hear that you got some answers, and damn a good chunk of that sounds familiar, especially throwing the leg forward. I really feel like I do that with my right leg.
Any chance that you could share the exercises that he gave you?
I can't get the file open at home on this computer (WTH his a .rtr file??). I am going to try at work in the AM or call the office...when I get it I will send it to you.
Two I can remember...
1) Lay on your back and arch your pelvis into the air until your belly and thighs are basically a straight line. Keeping your pelvis square to the ground, extend one leg straight in the line with your thigh and hold for 30sec. Rest 30sec, repeat with the other leg. Obviously this works the hip flexors.
2) Standing straight with your feet together, raise a knee to a 90 degree angle so your thigh is parallel to the ground. extend the lower leg out and "reach" with the toe until you touch the ground, and then reverse the motion. Repeat with the other leg. The purpose appears to be that you are teaching your hip flexor to work correctly again. The first time he had me do this without telling me what was going on, I clearly did rotate my hip out as I went to extend the "bad" leg.
There was a third important one that he said "do this, not crunches, to work on the abdomen", but I did not actually do it in the office so I asked him to send details by email and that is the file I can't open.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I had my chiro appointment today. I got some answers, I think. I'm an admitted skeptic when it comes to chiros, so the fact that he totally won me over says something. I am sure he got tired of all my questions! I could write a small novel but to try to be brief... - When I lay on my back and lift my right leg, when he pushed down the hip flexor would lock and provide firm resistance before the leg would go down. WIth me left, the hip flexor did not lock and gave weaker resistance overall. Diagnosis: Both hip flexors weak, but left is also not firing correctly. - X-rays showed no structural basis for this...bones all look fine. Spine good. Contrary to what everyone tells me, years of high mileage running is NOT going to lead to a hip transplant in my 40s, in fact I have zero arthritis in my spine and less than would even be expected for my age in my hips. - The only abnormality was that my weak hip flexors allow my spine to curve a bit too much. - Overall assessment...when I run my left hip flexor does not bring my leg up correctly so I have adapted by slightly rotating the hip to "throw" it forward. Using several non-running exercises he was able to show me this. This causes me to land with my leg slightly turned inward, aggravating a specific glute muscle running from the base of my spine around the outside of the femur head. Over time this has led the muscle to be very irritated and sensitive. Using his electric therapy machine, he was able to put an electrode right on that muscle. When he turned it up a certain level, it instantly reproduced exactly the pain I have been having. This explains why cycling doesn't hurt it; leaning forward removes the hip flexor from the equation, and clipping into the pedals prevents any non-linear hip movement. - Treatment - A regimen of specific exercises and he says it should go away in "a relatively short timeframe". And I am supposed to start running every other day starting Friday...none of this "you need to stop running" stuff.
I had my chiro appointment today. I got some answers, I think. I'm an admitted skeptic when it comes to chiros, so the fact that he totally won me over says something. I am sure he got tired of all my questions! I could write a small novel but to try to be brief...
- When I lay on my back and lift my right leg, when he pushed down the hip flexor would lock and provide firm resistance before the leg would go down. WIth me left, the hip flexor did not lock and gave weaker resistance overall. Diagnosis: Both hip flexors weak, but left is also not firing correctly.
- X-rays showed no structural basis for this...bones all look fine. Spine good. Contrary to what everyone tells me, years of high mileage running is NOT going to lead to a hip transplant in my 40s, in fact I have zero arthritis in my spine and less than would even be expected for my age in my hips.
- The only abnormality was that my weak hip flexors allow my spine to curve a bit too much.
- Overall assessment...when I run my left hip flexor does not bring my leg up correctly so I have adapted by slightly rotating the hip to "throw" it forward. Using several non-running exercises he was able to show me this. This causes me to land with my leg slightly turned inward, aggravating a specific glute muscle running from the base of my spine around the outside of the femur head. Over time this has led the muscle to be very irritated and sensitive. Using his electric therapy machine, he was able to put an electrode right on that muscle. When he turned it up a certain level, it instantly reproduced exactly the pain I have been having. This explains why cycling doesn't hurt it; leaning forward removes the hip flexor from the equation, and clipping into the pedals prevents any non-linear hip movement.
- Treatment - A regimen of specific exercises and he says it should go away in "a relatively short timeframe". And I am supposed to start running every other day starting Friday...none of this "you need to stop running" stuff.
So glad you got some answers and a treatment plan!
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
old woman w/hobby
Yes. Hope that it works out!
steph
spaniel,
So glad you got some answers and treatment stuff. Heal up quickly.
spaniel, So glad you got some answers and treatment stuff. Heal up quickly.
+1.
Great news - all paths seem to lead back to hip flexors - fingers and flexors crossed for you.
Real good news. Was kind of getting worried if we'd lose you to triathlonahead.com.
Could that file be a RTF file, if so it should open with any word processor, once you make a copy and change the extension to .rtf or just pick wordpad/notepad/word to open the file when prompted.
MTA Professor Google says "RTR files are Uncommon Files primarily associated with IBM Voice Type Language Vocabels File."
In regards to your original questions, this is good too...Do Weak Hips Cause Pronation?
Glad to hear the sports chiro helped out. Some of the more decent runners around here go to a sports chiro for a lot of things. It seems that weak hips/glutes tend to be the root cause of many running related injuries. We tend to focus too much on symptoms (IT band, runner's knee, etc.) when the real issue is further up the leg. Everything is connected and when it starts pulling things, a lot of different things can happen.
The article above was from Running Times' Dec 2009 issue. It's a good article with some good exercises to strengthen the hips. Mr. Finn, it's worth taking a look.
Ostrich runner
It sounds like you're talking about psoas, which would make sense. Diet wise, eating substances containing the materials you need to rebuild is key. In cows and pigs, the psoas is called the tenderloin. Eat lots of that.
http://www.runningahead.com/groups/Indy/forum
Prince of Fatness
Thanks. I will look at that article.
I have already come to the conclusion that the problem is in my hips (muscle tightness, weakness, generally not in balance), and have been doing core work religiously to combat this. Haven't done much for the psoas, however (focus has been mainly on strengthening glutes and hamstrings.
I did a search for hip flexor strengthening exercises and found one that incorporates a stability ball. Since I already use one for bridges and hamstring curls I thought that I would give this one a try. I will try it this evening as I have core work on the schedule.
Ball Tucks
Place a stability ball on the floor in front of you. Lie face down on the ball. Position the ball underneath your stomach.Place your hands on the floor at shoulder-distance apart. Walk your hands away from the ball and move forward until the ball is underneath your knees.
Look down to protect your neck. Tighten your stomach. Exhale and bend your knees as you roll the ball toward your chest and raise your
hips. Roll the ball until your knees are directly underneath your hips.Inhale and straighten your legs. Return to the start position and maintain a straight spine.
Complete eight to 10 ball tucks. Rest for 60 seconds and repeat.
Not at it at all.
It took me a few to get the hang of these. They are challenging. I managed 3 sets of 7 reps and could definitely feel it working on the hip flexors.
So the ball starts under your knees, you pull your knees forward which rolls it back under your shins? Then reverse?
How tall is your ball (diameter)?
So the ball starts under your knees, you pull your knees forward which rolls it back under your shins? Then reverse? How tall is your ball (diameter)?
Very similar to this example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYPxOaI6nAE
When my legs were straight the ball was at the top of my shins, higher up the leg than the example. But yeah, the ball will roll toward your feet as you tuck. Do not let the hips sag.
The ball I have is about the same size as the one in the video.
I think I saw that in Silence of the Lambs ... or was it The Crying Game?
"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."
-- Dick LeBeau
I'm just catching up on this convo. Are you guys talking about this?
thread should probably end on that pic.
but I need a place to complain.
a nagging calf pain became too sore to go on running last week. it feels high up the calf and very deep in the muscle (too deep to pinpoint or even ice). it responded well to naproxen, and after a couple days rest its barely noticeable and doesn't hurt to walk or climb stairs. but 2 miles on Tuesday didnt bode well, pain came right back. I'm ~7 weeks out from my marathon, I'm thinking about taking 4 weeks off and reverse tapering to still run it (if pain free). I'm certain that sub-3 is out the window (sucks as I was tracking nicely), but maybe with luck I can still get a BQ (3:15).