A few weeks ago I finally admitted that my right hip pain was not healing up with acupuncture and massage therapy like I hoped it would, and decided that I finally had to seek medical advice. I blogged about this on May 4, so I won’t go into all the details again. I ended up with a diagnosis of tendinopathy (lateral hip/gluteal tendinitis) and the sports medicine doctor recommended rest and physiotherapy.
Now that the Toronto marathon is over and done with for another year (May 5), it was time to finally get to the root source of my injury.
Being a personal trainer, its a difficult process to admit you need physiotherapy, especially when you feel a little ashamed that you couldn’t spot your own weaknesses in your running form. But it is hard to be objective about ones own performance, so I swallowed my pride and made the sensible decision to listen to the physiotherapist.
I’m glad I did because the bigger picture is now coming into light as to why this tendinitis injury occurred, and what I can do to prevent it from recurring, and dare I dream, quoting Daft Punk, to become a stronger, better, faster runner in the future.
Here is the big picture which Gordon (my physiotherapist) and I have pieced together over our last 2 sessions. I was born with 2 different back conditions: hyperlordosis, which is a pronounced curve of the spine in the lower back (basically I have a very pronounced arch in my lower back), and also a minor case of scoliosis (when the spine curves to one side). I was already aware of this, but not to extent they were now affecting my athletic performance.
These back conditions have lead to an anterior pelvic tilt, with my right side higher than the left. Over time (I think mostly from 2012-2019 when I’ve been training more competitively) the stress of running on my body has caused my muscle groups on the right and left sides of my body to work differently. Basically my right glute medius and glute minimus were not firing properly which led to tendinitis in the hip area, which finally acutely flared up this marathon training season.
The weak right hip/glute can also be evidenced in my running form where I display a distinct right sided pronation in my runners pose - my R knee turns inward from the weaker hip muscle, while my left side form is much better (watch for it in my video below).
Now that the problem has been identified, Gordon worked some manual therapy techniques to release my locked SI joint on the right side, and has given me a series of exercises to help address the bigger issues. Firstly, to address the anterior pelvic tilt, I perform a very simple tug of war motion with my right leg to keep the hip unlocked. This will most likely be a long term strategy but one that is very time efficient and easy to do. No problem.
Next I have to strengthen and stabilize the weakened right hip/gluteal muscles. I’ve created a short 2min video illustrating the two most important drills I have to do to help with this issue (there are actually 5 exercises in total). I am going to film myself doing these two exercises each week to track my progress. As you can see, I’m fairly shaky going into the process, but I will work hard to improve.
Here is the link to the video: https://vimeo.com/335754459
(Filmed May 12, 2019)
So why I am putting this online?
* Basically, I want to lead by example and show my clients and followers that we are all human, and sometimes we get injured. It happens. There is no shame in that. And the best thing we can do is seek professional advice as to how to solve the problem safely, efficiently and permanently.
* Secondly, many people are born with back conditions. These 2 examples are mine. But I want people to know that these sorts of genetic conditions do not necessarily prevent you from playing the sports you want to, as long as you pay attention to the red flags and address them early. These things do not have to hold you back. In fact, being in tune with your body can help make you a better athlete.
* Finally, I think it will be interesting to follow my own progress and to have a more objective record of the process that I can reflect on. This will be a learning experience for me as well. I’ve already learned so much about my body, and I am going to use this knowledge to become a better athlete.
Here’s to four more weeks of insightful physiotherapy and a stronger, straighter, speedier, Kelly.
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Update May 19, 2019.
I have been doing my physio exercises all week (x3) as prescribed by my physiotherapist.
As promised, I created an updated video to track my progress. What do you think of my balance and stability between the right and left sides now? Also watch for the tracking of the knee when I move, as it signals strength (or lack thereof) of my hip.
Here is the link to video: https://vimeo.com/337089049
(Filmed May 19/2019)
I will post next weeks video below here when the time comes. It has been interesting to track my progress, and I'm looking forward to next weeks progression. Feel free to post any of your thoughts and comments below.
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