October 26, 2010

Exercises to strengthen glutes, hips and IT Band

I saw Bob Cranny over at Altitude Physical Therapy last week regarding my sore right IT Band and achy left knee.  He pushed, pulled, prodded and pronounced me fit; there’s nothing structurally wrong.  That being said, the culprits of the pain are weak gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and iliosoas tendons.

He was more concerned about the IT Band than the other knee, as the knee issue seemed to be a secondary symptom that was triggered when the right leg and IT Band got tired.  The stronger hip and quad on the left side compensated for the weaker right side by firing more, which tightened the tendons around the right knee and led to the pain that caused me to stop running last week.

Runners are notorious for weak hips and glutes, which make IT Band issues and knee pain so common.  Bob gave me a series of five exercises to do on a daily basis to strengthen the muscles.  I can strengthen the muscles and get back into Marathon Training without losing much time or speed.

Here are the exercises he prescribed, along with a description.  Seeing as how I’m not the only one to have weak hips and glutes, I thought I’d share the knowledge.  I do these daily now, and after only a week I can tell a difference in my right hip.  Also, all IT Band pain is gone!

Butt Crunches: Do 2×15 each leg.

Lay on your stomach with your knee bent at 90 degrees. Raise the leg to the ceiling, tightening the glute. Release and repeat.

Side leg lifts: Do 2×10 each leg.

Lay on one side with hips rotated slightly forward. Rotate foot out and lift leg up and down.

Clams: Do 2×15 each leg

Lay on one side, start with left leg straight on the ground. Bend right leg, place right arch of the foot on left knee.

Lift knee until rotated open, then bring back down to beginning position.

Fire Hydrants: Do 2×15 each side

Imagine you are a dog. Get down on all fours. Lift one knee upwards as though you are peeing on a hydrant. Release. Repeat. It’s as good as all that.

Bill Special: My husband Bill lives for this exercise!  Do 2×15 each side

Lay down on your stomach.  Have your partner place his/her RIGHT hand on your left hip.  Bend your RIGHT knee to 90°.  Have your partner put his/her LEFT hand on your foot and provide resistance.

Draw the right foot across to the left side of your body with controlled motion, then back to starting position.  Do 2×15 each side.

Doing these exercises daily will really improve the strength of the glutes, which is where runners get the majority of their strength and power.  I’ve been doing these daily for a week and can feel a difference already.  Thanks, Bob!

Filed Under: Fall 2010, Training Tagged: , ,
October 20, 2010

Mind-Body Disconnect

“I want out of this body.”

“My body betrayed me.”

“This body’s limitations are not ME.”

“My will is stronger than this body… I can push myself farther and faster because I WANT IT.”

I say these things.  And I shouldn’t.  Because like it or not, my body is a part of me.  I don’t always like it.  And therein lies the problem.

My soul is healthy, passionate, curious and intuitive.  My body hurts, twinges, aches and at times, has pain.  It is mortal.  I want to disassociate from my body.  My mind wants to fly far, far away.  Often times, I don’t want to be in the present, and I especially don’t want to FEEL.

How sad.  There are so many opportunities in this life to FEEL.  Pain is real, but so are emotions.  Sometimes my face literally hurts from the perma-grin when I am ecstatically, wondrously happy or content.  I can’t and wouldn’t ever want to disassociate from the physical reminder of my happiness, just as I never want to forget those exquisite moments when my emotions and body work in perfect harmony to create that feeling of JOY.

Pain is different.  As a culture we’ve worked so very hard to stop any feeling of pain.  Having a baby?  Here’s an epidural.  Headache?  Pop an aspirin.  Feel sad?  Prescribe an antidepressant.  Break up with your boyfriend?  Drinks are on me.  Not only do we want to erase the feeling of pain, we actually want to erase all feeling.  Numbness is the only solution.  And then we mistake numbness for happiness.  Only when there is an absence of feeling can we relax.  We have completely separated from our bodies.

I wrote “Training Pause” a few days ago, and several wise people have written comments or emailed me personally about the forced break.  The words are varied, but the message is the same.  Take time.  Rest.  Recover.  Be good to your body.  Let your mind relax.  This happens to endurance runners. Feel the pain.  Feel the unsettled feeling that comes from waking up at 5am and NOT going out to run.  Sit with the stir of energy that wants to whirl you around like a hummingbird.  Be in your body.  Connect.

It’s the last word that’s the hardest.  Connect with a body that has aches and pains and its own needs?  My soul has needs and desires, but my body too?  How do I reconcile those things?  What if we’re not compatible?  Can I get a divorce and find a body that’s more in line with my soul?

No.  This isn’t dating.  This is what a true partnership is, and the old marriage vow comes to mind; “…through thick and thin, for better or worse, til death do us part…”

I can either choose to have a better relationship with my body, to work on understanding its needs, to nourish it, to baby and shower it with love and compassion, or I can punish it with every ounce of loathing and neglect my pathetic soul can dish.

If I’m capable of loving my own body, then it seems reasonable that I will be better able to have compassion for another person’s body and soul as well.  Love and compassion start here, with this one person.  When I’ve managed that one, then I can branch out.  Only then.

Marathon training has taken me into uncharted territory.  I’m trying new things, running farther and longer than I’ve ever run before, learning about rest, nutrition and balance, and discovering and feeling things that have probably been sitting dormant in the dark recesses of my psyche and soul for lifetimes.  I’ve struggled with trust over the years, and I’m coming to see that my reticence to trust others goes deeper… I’m scared to trust myself.  My body has wisdom that I’ve tried to ignore for much of my life, telling me truths about my capabilities and relationships that I didn’t want to believe.

I’m being told to Connect.  Connect to my body.  Let my mind and body come into balance.  Feel the pain of the body with the mind, and notice where the minds’ pain resides in the body.  Only then will I go further. I felt betrayed on Sunday when I was forced to stop running because I disassociated from my body.  My mind had an agenda my body couldn’t manage.

I rest so that I may run again.  When I take those first steps after this recovery period, I hope I’m a wiser person, a person who runs because the mind and body have consciously agreed that it’s a worthwhile activity.

Filed Under: Fall 2010, Sick or Injured, Training Tagged: , , , ,
October 18, 2010

Training Pause

At some point in their lives, all athletes will have to stop in the middle of a training session due to injury, fatigue or a combination of both.

During Sunday’s planned 20 miler, the second 20 miler on my training schedule for CIM, I had to quit running after 13 miles.  My left knee was killing me and my right IT Band wasn’t far behind.   I couldn’t hold pace, bonked every 30-35 minutes and had to refuel with Hammer Gel when low blood sugar gave me a headache and dizziness due to zapped glycogen stores.  If that wasn’t enough, severe GI troubles sent me into the tall weeds twice, even though I had taken care of business before starting the run.  This was the epitome of a crap-tastic run that wasn’t in the cards.

I hit the two-hour mark at mile 13 and finally stopped, something I should have done four miles prior when the pain exploded.  Not knowing if this was a “push through it and finish” or “stop before you tear something” sort of situation, I dug out my cell phone and got advice from an athlete friend who is rehabbing a serious case of patellar tendonitis in her own knee.  I was told in no uncertain terms to stop running before I do any more damage and create more micro-tears in the muscle.

The 1.5 mile walk back to the car was wrought with emotion.  I was an hour away from my planned finish time and a full seven miles shy of the total mileage I was supposed to complete.  Both legs hurt in various places and my tummy was in an uproar.  I felt like the lamest piece of cake to walk around the Boulder Reservoir, especially since there was an adventure race happening that very day; 24 Hours…the Run.  People had been looping around Boulder Rez for 21 hours when I quit my piddly 13-mile run.  Talk about feeling like a lightweight.

All comparisons aside, I could feel that things were spiraling out of control.  Friday’s run of 12 miles was a walk in the park with zero pain, because I had rested for two days prior.  My muscles were fresh and glycogen stores weren’t tapped.  Saturday’s 5-mile recovery run was fine, with just a little patellar achiness that was easy to ignore once my muscles were warm.  But Sunday’s run, taken after the cumulative effects of the previous two days, was a disaster.  My muscles were shot and the low glycogen stores in my body contributed to the winning combination of slamming me against The Wall time and time again.  Eventually, I stopped bouncing.

I woke up this morning with one word in my head; BETRAYED.  I feel totally betrayed by my body.  My will power can’t get me through this one.  I have a goal, desire, support systems, the time and the tenacity to accomplish a training plan and get me to the Finish Line of CIM, but my body is rebelling.  And that, my friends, is a betrayal.  I thought we were in this together.

Coach Gwen wants me to lay off running for a full week at the very minimum, and all exercise for at least four days.  I’m seeing Bob Cranny of Altitude Physical Therapy on Thursday for a full evaluation of my issues, and will have a better idea of my current challenges after that.  Gwen said that after the appointment she’ll rework my training plan to take into consideration whatever program he wants me to implement to get my strength back.

I’m seeing Jennifer of Dragonfly Acupuncture on Tuesday, and we’ll discuss my diet, Leaky Gut issues, and how my low-carb (read: NO CARB) diet is affecting my glycogen stores.  She told me at the beginning of marathon training that because of the intensity of the exercise and how much I would need to refuel on a daily basis, we could really only hope to maintain my current level of digestion.  We could not hope to improve the situation until after the marathon, when my activity level could be curtailed and true healing could begin.

The body is a miraculous machine, but it has its limits.  Athletes regularly push to find those limits, and then work quietly each and every day to expand the limits.  Today, I’m seeing what my physical limits are.  My body has reached its capacity to endure more training and work, and my spirit is being forced to honor the limitations.  I’m not happy about it; truth be told, I’m pretty cranked.  I’m being forced to rest, forced to be quiet, forced into inactivity.   Gwen talked to Bill yesterday when I was in the shower, and apologized to him for forcing me to rest; “It’s going to be like living with a caged animal,” she told him.

The only thing I can hope for is that this period of quiet will lay the groundwork for healing my body.  Maybe the inflammation in my muscles at intestines will diminish.  I might actually gain a pound or two back, which would be a good thing.  The stress on my body will cease and I might actually be able to come back stronger.

I don’t know what Jennifer and Bob will tell me, but by the end of the week I’ll have a plan of action.  That being said, I still feel betrayed.  I’m not a hypochondriac.  I’m not a quitter.  I have goals, dreams and a serious passion for living that doesn’t like being reminded of the limits of the human body, specifically mine.

Filed Under: Fall 2010, Sick or Injured, Training Tagged: , , , , ,
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