Traxee - Women's Running - Thorough Running Analysis Pays Off Big, I Hope

Thorough Running Analysis Pays Off Big, I Hope by bmoore

Today was my physical therapy appointment at Ortho Pro Physical Therapy. I guess I faced it with more than a little trepidation - afraid that I would be told that I could just forget the LA Marathon. Thankfully, that's not what I heard, but the news wasn't all that great either.

Ortho Pro is a physical therapy group that specializes in the treatment of runners and running injury. Their practice focuses on healing the causes of injury as well as the symptoms. The office is nestled inside an upscale shopping center in a simply gorgeous area in Westlake Village. Jeff Waldberg introduced himself to me and we went to the examining room. Jeff's examination was very thorough and included an extensive examination of my injured knee and a variety of questions relating to pain level. He also explained throughly with a model the functioning of the knee and where he thinks my problems are coming from. Now, here is the fascinating part.

Jeff had me run on a treadmill for about 10 minutes while he filmed me from every angle possible. Then came the moment of truth.

Image: Jeff analyzes my running form

He uploaded the film into his computer and voila - the stuff runners' dreams are made of - a complete analysis of my stride, posture,form, foot strike and alignment as I am running. Embarrasing in some regards, not so emberrasing in others.

Turns out, a lot of my problems are stemming from my form - I am striking on the heel instead of the mid foot and this is throwing my hip alignment out of balance, putting undue stress on my RIGHT knee - which I am compensating for in my left (the injured one)! Looking at the images, I kind of looked like I was rocking back and forth while I run. And here's another surprise - my posture is good. I don't slouch or stick my butt out at all and I DO NOT overly pronate in my left foot! So much for the RoadRunner analysis!

Jeff then had me run easy on the treadmill, focusing on mid foot striking. Now, I haven't run in about 2 weeks . I was fine at first, but about 2 minutes in...YIKES! Incredible pain...just like on the day I injured myself - and I had to stop.

Diagnosis? I was right - IT Band. Prognosis? Good. Running right now? No way. It's going to be eliptical training for me to keep my aerobic conditioning up...but only light run/walking. So much for running beautiful Winston-Salem next week. Jeff is going to show me a taping technique that is going to help and we're going to practice some techniques to improve my form. I'll go back twice next week.

So I think I need to turn this lemon into lemonade. I've been meaning to get to the gym and start cross training so now is my chance. I have enrolled in a private gym very close to the house (no excuses) and will start on the eliptical trainer tomorrow. For now, it's back to the ice and elevation.

Waaaaaaah!

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Thorough Running Analysis Pays Off Big, I Hope

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