you've seen the difference and it's getting better
Last year, after the half marathon, I wrote down some physical things I decided I wanted to work on. I've learned a lot in a year.
Knees. Last year I thought of my knee problems as mostly being general post-injury weakness. Over the summer, though, I realized that the specific problem I needed to fix in my running form was excessive external hip rotation, which puts lot of stress on my knees, and is likely a contributor to the patellarfemoral pain I've had problems with. And the likely root of -that- is poor internal hip rotation, from tight hip flexors, which (among other things) comes from.... sitting. Come to think of it, I knew hips were an issue from back when I did physiotherapy 1.5 years ago -- during my initial ROM tests, the therapist put my legs in a few positions and had to repeat the test because she didn't believe I'd scored that poorly. I've got good flexibility in many other areas. But apparently not ... somewhere in there. And that's the main problem with my knees.
My work here mostly has been to watch my running form and do plenty of yoga, focusing on the poses I am worst at (like warrior). Results: My running times dropped significantly, my knees hurt much less (almost none!) after running, and my yoga got better. In fact, except for the patellarfemoral pain after this year's half, I'd almost thought it licked. Probably pushed too hard somewhere in there, though. But a week of being gentle and regular stretching got it back down to normal, and now I have specific things to work on. Progress!
Abs. Last year I thought of my ab problems as mostly being general post-injury (childbirth) weakness. Progress was frustrating, though, because every time I'd try to do ab-specific exercises, my back would ache terribly long before my abs felt any workout. So I tried back exercises, which didn't seem to help either. Finally, after a session early this year with a student personal trainer where I'd try a thing, get two reps in, and go "wow, that really hurts," I googled around for the umpteenth time and finally found things that said lower back pain is often directly caused by tight hip flexors. Heeeeeeeeeey....
My work here was more yoga, including lots of planks and other various exercises I've learned which actually focus on abs that don't use hips much (i.e., not situps). Results: Definite progress, my yoga got better, and my abs are a little stronger. While I could definitely stand to improve them much more, learning why I -wasn't- improving was a pretty huge and satisfying hurdle to get over.
Shoulders. Last year I had problems with fingers tingling in some arm positions, an inability to hold various positions, and a strip of minor pain/discomfort along the right rhomboid when I would flex my shoulders back. I thought of it as being mostly lack of flexibility and strength, and also the result of years of poor posture/overuse. Unfortunately that was just guesses, and I had much less idea of what to do here.
Things I tried: I changed my mousing hand at work, changed my belaying brake arm, straightened up my posture, did more yoga, and started a bunch of shoulder flexibility exercises at home over the summer. Results: my ROM increased (in some areas), my posture got better, and my arms stopped aching during yoga, and the tingling mostly went away. The rhomboid discomfort was still there.
Finally in the late fall last year I went back to physiotherapy to see what they would say. I got confirmation of the sore spot (it was quite heartening when the therapist felt around and pushed right -there- and my back went *crunch* and he went "yep."), and through a combination of exercises, massage, adjustments/manipulations, and heat, we at least found the right things to target, and made some progress. But it wasn't until early this year when the student trainer started me doing some regular heavy lifting that I kind of woke up one day and the pain was totally gone. Huh. Several months later, slacking on workouts and doing more hard running started to bring it back, but a few good weight sessions pushed it away again. That makes me happy. My yoga has also gotten significantly better with stronger shoulders. I still have a few weird inflexibilities (like, my left arm can do the bottom of this pose just fine, but my right arm can't at all), but I think that's something I can just live with. I still get upper shoulder stress-knots, but regular massage is working wonders with those.
Ongoing. So now I know my -actual- weak point is my hips. And since I have a desk job and likely will keep having a desk job for the next 30 years, this is something I need to be actively working on, regularly and intentionally, just to not get worse. My knees and abs can definitely still use strengthening, although knowing where the pain was coming from and being able to target things better should make that easier. And I like being able to lift heavy things and put them back down again (and my shoulder likes it a lot), so I will likely keep doing that. I wish I could bike hills better, but I don't actually like doing it if I don't have to. Maybe I can run them instead, and that will help both hobbies.
Goal for this year: get faster, better, and stronger, and stay injury-free.
Knees. Last year I thought of my knee problems as mostly being general post-injury weakness. Over the summer, though, I realized that the specific problem I needed to fix in my running form was excessive external hip rotation, which puts lot of stress on my knees, and is likely a contributor to the patellarfemoral pain I've had problems with. And the likely root of -that- is poor internal hip rotation, from tight hip flexors, which (among other things) comes from.... sitting. Come to think of it, I knew hips were an issue from back when I did physiotherapy 1.5 years ago -- during my initial ROM tests, the therapist put my legs in a few positions and had to repeat the test because she didn't believe I'd scored that poorly. I've got good flexibility in many other areas. But apparently not ... somewhere in there. And that's the main problem with my knees.
My work here mostly has been to watch my running form and do plenty of yoga, focusing on the poses I am worst at (like warrior). Results: My running times dropped significantly, my knees hurt much less (almost none!) after running, and my yoga got better. In fact, except for the patellarfemoral pain after this year's half, I'd almost thought it licked. Probably pushed too hard somewhere in there, though. But a week of being gentle and regular stretching got it back down to normal, and now I have specific things to work on. Progress!
Abs. Last year I thought of my ab problems as mostly being general post-injury (childbirth) weakness. Progress was frustrating, though, because every time I'd try to do ab-specific exercises, my back would ache terribly long before my abs felt any workout. So I tried back exercises, which didn't seem to help either. Finally, after a session early this year with a student personal trainer where I'd try a thing, get two reps in, and go "wow, that really hurts," I googled around for the umpteenth time and finally found things that said lower back pain is often directly caused by tight hip flexors. Heeeeeeeeeey....
My work here was more yoga, including lots of planks and other various exercises I've learned which actually focus on abs that don't use hips much (i.e., not situps). Results: Definite progress, my yoga got better, and my abs are a little stronger. While I could definitely stand to improve them much more, learning why I -wasn't- improving was a pretty huge and satisfying hurdle to get over.
Shoulders. Last year I had problems with fingers tingling in some arm positions, an inability to hold various positions, and a strip of minor pain/discomfort along the right rhomboid when I would flex my shoulders back. I thought of it as being mostly lack of flexibility and strength, and also the result of years of poor posture/overuse. Unfortunately that was just guesses, and I had much less idea of what to do here.
Things I tried: I changed my mousing hand at work, changed my belaying brake arm, straightened up my posture, did more yoga, and started a bunch of shoulder flexibility exercises at home over the summer. Results: my ROM increased (in some areas), my posture got better, and my arms stopped aching during yoga, and the tingling mostly went away. The rhomboid discomfort was still there.
Finally in the late fall last year I went back to physiotherapy to see what they would say. I got confirmation of the sore spot (it was quite heartening when the therapist felt around and pushed right -there- and my back went *crunch* and he went "yep."), and through a combination of exercises, massage, adjustments/manipulations, and heat, we at least found the right things to target, and made some progress. But it wasn't until early this year when the student trainer started me doing some regular heavy lifting that I kind of woke up one day and the pain was totally gone. Huh. Several months later, slacking on workouts and doing more hard running started to bring it back, but a few good weight sessions pushed it away again. That makes me happy. My yoga has also gotten significantly better with stronger shoulders. I still have a few weird inflexibilities (like, my left arm can do the bottom of this pose just fine, but my right arm can't at all), but I think that's something I can just live with. I still get upper shoulder stress-knots, but regular massage is working wonders with those.
Ongoing. So now I know my -actual- weak point is my hips. And since I have a desk job and likely will keep having a desk job for the next 30 years, this is something I need to be actively working on, regularly and intentionally, just to not get worse. My knees and abs can definitely still use strengthening, although knowing where the pain was coming from and being able to target things better should make that easier. And I like being able to lift heavy things and put them back down again (and my shoulder likes it a lot), so I will likely keep doing that. I wish I could bike hills better, but I don't actually like doing it if I don't have to. Maybe I can run them instead, and that will help both hobbies.
Goal for this year: get faster, better, and stronger, and stay injury-free.