Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Me and PT and my angry right knee

Made my first trip to physical therapy today to try and get my knee to rejoin the rest of my body in the quest for marathon number 2. At this point I'd just settle for being able to run again, but have to keep the larger goals on the horizon. Interesting trivia I learned today from my therapist:

- I am indeed as horribly lacking in flexibility as advertised, however, not the worst he's ever seen.

- My IT bands are extremely well defined when my knees are flexed, to the point that "we could take a picture of them for a textbook". Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but the therapist thought it was interesting.

- My vastus medialis (teardrop shaped muscle on inner part of thigh) is also very well defined (another textbook photo opportunity apparently), but noticeably stronger on my left (good) leg than my right.

- My right IT Band is noticeably tighter than my left, but both are much tighter than 'normal'

- My quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves are all below 'normal' in terms of flexibility

- They have a lot of patients that are runners .... go figure

We went through a series of flexibility assessments, followed by some stretching instruction, followed by ultrasound treatment, followed by ice massage. Overall prognosis was pretty good, and the fact that he wasn't appalled by my generally petrified-wood degree of flexibility was a relief. Left with lots of do-it-yourself home stretching exercises to be done twice daily, along with foam roller torture and ice massage. Still no running for another week, at which point we'll have our next session and see how things are progressing. Best case I'm probably 1.5 weeks from trying to run again. In addition to the PT routine, I'm still planning to give yoga a try in the next few days. After some online research I ordered the "Athletes Guide to Yoga" DVD so I can keep the comedy of my first yoga attempts contained within my own home. Don't think the world is yet ready for my unique yoga stylings.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, please keep the new yoga attempts at home...ha, ha! I'm best friends with my foam roller, it's helping a lot! Keep up the stretching too!

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  2. Would you like to hold a 'who is less flexible' contest? We might have to fight for first place. ::smiles::

    I have my fingers and toes crossed that in 1.5 weeks, you'll be back on the road again.

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  3. Im going back and reading your entries. I relate to the ITB. I also hate but appreciate the foam roller. Its hates me though, i can feel it.
    SOunds like you are pretty tight in the leg department!

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