Over the past two years, I have had a never ending series of little injuries.
The injuries stated with a torn plantar fascia. That was followed by a wicked bout of peroneal tendinitis. Then the top of my foot started hurting. Finally it was a sore hamstring & glute.
I was beginning to think that I couldn’t win for losing. Seemingly, as soon as I started to recover from one injury, another would pop up.
I’ve been a pretty good patient. Physical therapy, rolling, trigger point treatment, icing, reducing the length and effort associated with workouts. You name it, and I’ve tried it.
While there may well be some other underlying issues around my running style and gait, shoe selection, weight (yes, that’s a biggie), and more, I’m becoming more and more convinced that the root cause of many of these injuries lies in the fact that my tendons and muscles basically have the flexibility of a piece of stone.
Some history: I just turned 46, and have been running or cycling since I was 15. I ran track and cross country in high school and picked up cycling in college. In high school, we had a regimented stretching cadence that we followed both prior to and following every workout. We’d do a warm up run, some core work, and then a bunch of basic (mostly) static stretches. Fast forward a few years, and I essentially stopped stretching pre or post workout. To make matters potentially worse, I sit all day long at a computer or conference room table.
Don’t get me wrong – I so some stretching, but whatever I do tends to be centralized on something that is nagging me at the moment. For example, if my calves are sore, I’ll stretch them. If my shoulders are sore during a swim, I’ll do some stretching.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was remembered a comment my teammate Ryan Heisler made earlier this year. His statement was along the lines that everything is connected in your body, and that if you are having foot issues, the root issue may be someplace other than in your foot.
And if you think about it (and remember that Schoolhouse Rock video about the human body), it’s true. The leg bone is connected to the hip bone, and so forth. It only makes sense that foot pain could be the result of something jacked up in your hamstrings or hip flexors.
So, I decided to test this theory. My going-in hypothesis was that I had at least a modicum of flexibility still. I was going to test my flexibility through a few simple tests: (1) crossed-foot toe touch (2) calf-stretch and (3) forward lunge. The highly scientific benchmark was the range of motion that I remembered having back in my high school running days. (Let’s just ignore the fact that ~30 years difference might have some impact on my level of flexibility for now).
I decided to do each of these stretches twice each leg, for :30 each leg. The true test would be the amount of pain I had to endure and at what point I started to feel the “stretch”.
And as you might suspect, I failed miserably. Essentially, I can’t touch my toes without feeling like my hamstrings are going to rip in half. The forward lunge (apart from killing my quads) made my groin and hip flexors scream as if someone had forced me into a split. I literally thought that some giant gorilla was shaking me around like an old Barbie doll or something.
So, how am I going to fix this?
For starters, I’m going to start stretching again. I’ve read that the static stretching that is near and dear to me is no longer in vogue. Dynamic stretching is the way to go. And so, I”ll incorporate some of that into my routine. I’ll stand more. I’ll give yoga a try (begrudgingly).
I will become more flexible.
TriMadness! 