I've not been shy expressing my frustration with my stupid knee. After nearly three months of self-guided stretches and no running, it's still bothering me. I knew physical therapy could be a potential solution, but honestly I always assumed PT was for the elderly...or people who've majorly broken something. I'm not old (ok, I'm not elderly) and I haven't really broken anything, so I never considered PT as an option - silly rubber band exercises and stretches can't possibly help, right?
Well, out of desperation, I decided it was time to get the professionals involved, so I got a referral for physical therapy at Performance Therapy. The gurus at my local running shop recommended them because they're runners, too...and they would know exactly what I needed.
The Problem Is My Lazy Butt (no, seriously)
To figure out the problem, they watched me run and put me through a functional movement screen (fancy for "how flexible I am when doing a series of predefined movements"). It didn't take them long to diagnose the issue: I'm told my glutes don't fire like they should during my running movements. Apparently this is causing the muscles that pull your leg up/forward (the hip flexors) and my calf muscles to overcompensate. The result? Super tight legs that cause my knee to turn inward slightly as I run...causing irritation and inflammation.
So yes, it's literally my butt muscles being lazy.
The Fix
I'm told there are two things that need to be fixed: loosen my leg muscles (to fix the pain) and correct my running form (to keep it from coming back).
As expected, they gave me a series of seemingly unimportant stretches and foam rolling exercises that I have to do twice a day for next several weeks to loosen the leg muscles. Alongside that, they gave me a series of seemingly unimportant running drills that will help correct my form.
What I didn't expect is how these seemingly small, unimportant drills can actually do anything to help (they seem so easy!). Crazy thing is, it's actually working. I'm about 4 weeks in and I'm finally up to a 5k distance without any knee pain. But the icing on the cake is that my average pace is a whopping 30seconds per mile faster than where I was before. SORCERY!
Lessons Learned
- I've still got a ways to go to get back to 10k and longer distances, but I have a new found respect for physical therapy. This is just plain magic.
- My physical therapist is a masochist. She seems to enjoy my facial expressions when I'm stretched and bent in ways my body was not designed for. But it seems to be working, so I'll just have to grin and bear it.