Archive for the ‘Try This!’ Category
6/25/12 – New to the Village, I Think :-)
For a while people have been learning of barefoot and minimalist running. It is now possible to get most of those shoes from major retail stores such as REI. However, their sales associates usually do not know anything about barefoot running. They can tell you the specs (weight, material, sizing, etc.) on any of the shoes, but how to use them safely and with no injury is not part of their education.
Yesterday, I was dreading my first training session, which was to be the running test to figure out my maximum heart rate. OMG! I can’t even run a half mile without my posterior tibial tendon screaming at me! How was I going to run long enough to figure out my maximum heart rate? Let me go back to last Thursday.
Last Thursday was the organizational meeting for the triathlon training group. They told us about the Heart Zones Training method we would be using and introduced the coach, assistant coach and group leaders. It’s a dynamic group of women, and I was really excited to be a part of this group, until she started talking about the running test….
Also, the head coach, Denise, was wearing some minimalist looking shoes. I asked her about them at the end of class, and she said they were her transition shoes. “Hmmmm,” I thought. “Transition shoes might be a good idea.”
Then, I promptly forgot and headed to Arkansas for a weekend on the lake with actual warm water and 100 degree temperatures – YEEHAW!
Monday, back to reality, anxiety and dread of the impending doom of the – dun, dun, duuuunnnn – RUNNING TEST!!!
How on earth was I to get my feet through that?????
Consequently, on the long, boring plane ride home, I started reading Born To Run, a book on minimalist and barefoot running. You might have heard of it because it is a great read. I highly recommend it. I digress.
Monday morning, instead of thinking about the impending doom of the RUNNING TEST, I decided to read the book for three hours. While reading, I thought, “Last time I was in Born To Run®, one of the guys mentioned that they do gait analysis. Maybe I should go there and see what they say. Maybe I could get some transition shoes to help me actually finish a 5K in time for the August 19 Triathlon!” And off I went.
Just as I had hoped, Born To Run® was not very busy just after lunch on a Monday. So, Andy, the guy “who runs the place,” videoed my running. It turns out that I was extending my front foot too far forward, which was causing a lot of unneeded stress on the ankle tendons.
Your feet, legs, hips, back and shoulders combine to form a giant spring when you strike the ground. As such, they work best when they are in alignment. So, as your foot strikes the ground, it should be directly below your hip, which is aligned with your straight back, which aligned with your shoulders, neck and head, which is held high. In addition, since your stride is significantly shortened, you should be taking two to three times as many steps per second – think 3 steps per second or 180 steps in one minute. Dee, dee, dee…..over and over. Very, very quick, short steps.
How did I line up? Well, my back, neck and head were all in the correct place. Yes! Essentially, all I have to correct now is placing my foot directly below my hip at strike and quicken my steps per minute.
I then decided, after the little two lap running demo had started to aggravate my tendon, that I needed a transition shoe for my RUNNING TEST that evening. Andy was reluctant. He said that with a shorter stride, I could probably make due with the Vibram 5 Fingersâ„¢, but I was insistent. So, he showed me some minimalist, zero drop shoes.(Drop refers to the change in drop from the heel of the shoe to the forefoot. According to http://www.podiatrytoday.com blog, the average drop in most popular running shoe is 12 millimeters from a 24mm heel to a 12 millimeter forefoot cushion. So, a zero drop shoe is the same cushion at the heel as it is at the forefoot, which allows your foot to function more naturally.)
The great thing about Born To Run® is that they encourage you to try out their footwear. So, I put on a pair and ran out the door onto the outside sidewalk. The white soles were going to be gray and dingy, but Andy didn’t seem to care at all. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to hear him yell, “Faster!” as I went bounding down the sidewalk trying to shorten my stride. His yell prompted me to set my foot down lighter and quicker b/c you have no choice when trying to go three steps per second. Striking the ground too hard takes too much time. Hmmm.
When I returned, he said that they had personal coaching available, and that I should seek out Mack to help with the coaching. Immediately, Mack joined Andy at the door as I took off in the second pair of shoes. It was really cool as Mack was evaluating my gait at that point, too.
After a few more trials, I picked the Inov8â„¢ Bare-X-Lite 135. They are, of course, hot pink and awesome. As I checked out, I mentioned that my husband’s toe was hurting, and they quickly recommended two physical therapists to see who understood and could treat barefoot/minimalist running injuries. OMG! I love this place!
As far as I am concerned, Born To Run®, the store, is the newest member of The Village. I will now be seeing them for all of my minimalist footwear needs, and I highly recommend that you do, too. 🙂
2/2/12 – Groundhog’s Day Acupuncture and Chiropractic
I’m still working on the whiplash from the car wreck, and it is really making a difference going to both the Chiropractor and the Acupuncturist.
This week, I have not felt pain in the low back, but it is still shifting around between the neck and the shoulders and back again. For example, on Tuesday, it was definitely in the neck (on the sides and back of the neck). Today, the pain was like a large blanket over my upper back and across the tops of my shoulders. Today, Jenna deemed it time to do another session with cupping. It was just lovely with some rather dark purples places as well as some lighter ones. The darkest places are on the left side this time, which was the side of the impact in my wreck. The body is a very interesting machine.
My Chiropractic work complements the acupuncture very well because after acupuncture, I still had a lingering shooting pain down the left side of my spine that Jenna referred to as “structural”. Dr. Larry adjusted my back, which really helped to lessen those pains.
I am hoping to be completely well in record time, but we shall see how quickly my body really can heal 🙂
Sad news :-(
On my first day at my acupuncturist’s, I recommended Travis Orth as a Physical Therapist that she could reliably recommend to her patients. I thought of this because they were located in the same building.
She promptly called to set up a meeting with him only to find out that he had moved back to the Mid-west.
Well, one part of the Village has left, again. It is sad for me, but I wish Travis all the best in his new location. May he continue to help his patients with his careful, thoughtful analyses and treatments.
Good luck out there, Travis!
1/27/12 – Training with Melissa Apres Wreck
I went ahead and trained with Melissa keeping in mind that I would stop if the move hurt. I am not supposed to do any high impact exercises (running, jumping, jarring movements), which I knew that Melissa and I would most likely avoid. And we did!
My right shoulder is getting stronger, and I am noticing some tightness in the left shoulder, which is inhibiting the range of motion for that joint. It is not inflamed, which makes dealing with it so much easier. I am still working with the TRX on strengthening the abs and shoulder. Yay!
Then, we went on to strengthen the low back, the legs and to do a physical therapy type move for opening up the shoulder rotation. I did notice that my lats were much more tired than I felt they should be. I think it is related to the whiplash.
Needless to say, it felt very good to get into the gym after the wreck. It had been one week since I had worked out besides walking to and from work.
1/20/12 – Car Wreck
So, I am from the South. This means that I do not have extensive experience driving in snow in and ice, which were the conditions of the road on Friday, January 20, 2018. Long story short, I lost control, drifted into the next lane and a car hit my driver’s side back door. No one was seriously injured, and only one car collided with me that day, which was lucky seeing as how I ended up perpendicular to oncoming traffic with my front bumper against the middle metal railing and stuck on the large pile of snow put there by the snow plows. The driver of the other car helped me to get to the side of the interstate, and the drive home was, thankfully, not very exciting.
The aftermath:
Whiplash. It has been 9 days since the wreck. The day after the wreck my neck was sore; followed by two more days with a sore neck. Then, on Monday I happened to already have an appointment with Dr. Larry followed by a massage from Lynda. This appointment was by far the most important in starting the healing process. Dr. Larry did not treat me that day. Instead he did an examination of my neck and back where he found some very sore places. Lynda then did an intense massage of just my shoulders and back to help get everything moving (i.e. blood flowing, muscles relaxing, which was a feat that we didn’t really fully accomplish due to the injuries to the muscles). Over the course of this past week, the pain has traveled from my neck to my low back to my hips to sciatica in my left leg behind my knee and back up again to the neck. What a mystical thing whiplash is – to me, anyway.
I also went to my acupuncturist, who immediately gave me the whiplash treatment where she tapped into a strong web of energy to funnel that energy back into my spine and neck. I know it sounds hokey, but, I think it’s really helping me heal quickly. I do believe that the body is surrounded by energy that can be channeled to help heal areas of need. I also believe that the energy can be stuck or stagnate when we have injuries or scar tissue that have been left to get hard and immobile.
Anyway, the quick responses that all of these professionals have had to my injuries is really helping me get better quickly. I have not lost much range of motion in my neck, which was starting to happen by Monday after the wreck.
My Chiropractor has been spot on in having me come in often because each time I make an appointment so close to the next, I think, “Well, I might not need that next one….” only to find that my neck or some other part of my back is completely out of whack and in need of some help by the day of the appointment.
Needless to say, I highly recommend having injuries treated promptly. I am looking forward to a speedy, full recovery!
p.s. I think my posts will likely be about the recovery process rather than my feet for a while….it’s all related, you know 🙂
1/17/12 – Meet Acupuncture, the Newest Member of the Village!
When I first went to the Chiropractor, it was after several recommendations and a 3,000 mile car ride across our great and really big country that finally led me to that office. Yesterday, I visited an acupuncturists office after many of the same recommendations. My friend Ollie enthusiastically suggested it first, but I must admit it was not until my massage therapist, Lynda, told me that it would be a great idea to get any “stuck” energy moving.
Per my last post, I have been feeling really stuck lately: My right shoulder, my right knee, my left foot – all stuck in the same place. Each still hurting despite the endless physical therapy that Melissa, my personal trainer, continues to thoughtfully direct me to do. What have I done to unstick it? So far, physical therapy, massage and chiropractics. None are working. I felt like they have taken me as far as they can. What next? How do I heal?
Acupuncture.
After Lynda’s recommendation, I hastily texted Ollie for the contact information on the acupuncturist she recommended: Jenna Beem, Health Discovery Acupuncture and Herbs. After all of the first visit paperwork, I headed back with Jenna to the treatment room. She and I talked about my history, and she was really interested in the car wreck in 2007 when I hit a bus. The whole incident was not my fault – he ran his left turn arrow, turned in front of me, and got stuck in the middle of the intersection I was approaching downhill in the Atlanta pouring rain. I did not have anti-lock brakes, and I slid right into the bus. It won; my poor small car lost. The air bags were wonderful, though! No broken bones, but a lot of bruises and a really upset right shoulder to show for it.
Jenna asked about my Raynaud’s – when did it first show up? You know what? It showed up the winter immediately following my car wreck! Eureka! Connection? She seemed to think so 🙂 I might not only heal my shoulder, I might also heal my cold-numbing fingers and toes! I cannot express eloquently enough or at all how much having regular circulation in my hands and toes again would mean to me.
Ok. So, she decided that we needed to start face down so she could work on my shoulders, back and feet. She also said that she was going to do some cupping to remove some of the “stuck blood”, which she thought might be causing a lot of the problems.
I know I had more than 40 needles in me at one point. Also, she told me to tell her if any of the needles hurt, and when I mentioned the one in my left foot was uncomfortable in a dull way, she said that was good and meant that we had found an area that really needed to be opened up. Ok – now, I’m listening. My left foot is definitely needing to be opened up. She further explained that sharp, acute pains were bad, but dull, annoying ones were fine.
After she removed the needles, she did the cupping using two small glass globes. She moved them all along my back stopping in certain places and moving again. She explained that when the area was purple after the cupping, that meant that there was a lot of “stuck blood” in that location, i.e. that’s where the scar tissue is, or it is where the energy is stuck. I was skeptical at this point b/c the cup is basically making a hickey on my back. I mean it could be that she is just going to leave it longer in the areas I say are hurting so that they appear more purple. Ok. NOT what happened at all! She moved the cups equally along my back. The low back is just pink, while the upper back is purple. My right shoulder is very purple. VERY PURPLE.
After all of this, she massaged mint oil into my back, which was therapeutic in and of itself for the rest of the day. I left with a lot more mobility in my neck and my shoulders felt more open. I felt lighter in my shoulders and neck than I usually do.
After two days, my shoulders are definitely still more mobile, but they are beginning to get tighter. This is a process, like all things involving the body. It is going to take 4-6 weeks to see consistent change. When you go to build muscle, it takes 4 weeks to actually begin making new muscle. Likewise, it will take that long for my body to realize that it can rebuild those areas and be less tight. Open up old passageways, so to speak.
I am also doing two meditations several times each day. They are going really well. I am so excited about the prospects of finally continuing to heal. Hooray! Is this the missing link? It’s an adventure, and we shall see 🙂
EDIT: According to Jenna, I had around 20 needles, not 40 🙂
12/11/11 – Updates and Procrastination….
Posted by admin in Reflections, Try This! on December 11th, 2011
When I left off, I was working on the 5K. However, as I reflect on my performance in Oct and Nov of the past two years, I find that life has a way of really getting in the way during these two months. I am now recovered from a very busy and emotionally draining Oct., and November’s celebrations and holiday are done, too 🙂
Now, back to work. I realized that I have yet to get my running videos from Travis. I took him a thumb drive that was too small (I think it is about 10 years old – do any files equal less than 128MB anymore?), and that was the last time I tried to get the videos. Since I have reminded myself, I will focus on getting the videos from him this week or next week when my winter break from work starts (Hooray!).
With the videos I will begin a new regimen of running. The running is very difficult in VFFs in the winter due to the cold and wet conditions combined with the Raynaud’s Phenomenon, which causes my fingers and toes to go numb with the slightest chill. I find that running on wet pavement in the winter causes my toes to go numb really quickly, which leaves my feet feeling like big blocks of wood that are propelling me along. I will say that when I ran a 5K (more like walk/jog) on Thanksgiving day, my feet were numb within 1/4 mile, but at mile 2, the feeling began to return to my toes as my body heat increased. It was a very pleasant finding that I have been unable to compel myself to replicate :-/
I am continuing to work with Melissa, and we have had to scale back my workouts due to my lack of motivation (read: I do not go to the gym unless she is with me). I am also in the process of changing to a gym that has a TRX device. My first TRX workout was last week, and it was such an amazing change of pace. I will write more on the device later. To balance out the TRX workout with my regular workout (the only way to workout lower body large muscle groups is squats and lunges on the TRX, and my right knee is currently rebelling against those two moves), I am doing a regular non-TRX workout this week. I did go to the gym one time between my workouts with Melissa last week due to my interest in the “new” TRX workout. Yes, it was rather like a kid with a new toy. My new plan is to workout once between training sessions with Melissa followed by a yoga class the next day to help increase flexibility. If I can get back into the workout habit, then Melissa can up my routine, and I can start rebuilding strength. Yay!
Motivation is slowly coming back. The biggest factor is that I just turned 35, and my thighs look more like 35 year old thighs than 25 year old thighs, which is not how I want my thighs to look. I mean Cher looked awesome at 65, but I think I read somewhere that she spent 3 hours in the gym each day. I guess there’s something to look forward to. At least I won’t be bored in retirement, and I could wear a thong leotard and dance on a Navy ship with all of the sailors. Now, that’s a good retirement plan…..
9/15/11 – Another 5K (practice run, not race) and a Workout with Melissa
So, I gave myself three days of recovery before trying the 5K again. Now, that I know I can definitely run the whole distance, I was determined to do it with my 9min, 30 second mile pace that I can do when training at a 1.5 mile distance. I knew I could run faster than that stupid 10:18 pace on Sunday. I mean, I’m wearing Five Fingers – come on!
I walked down to the flat waterfront park area so that it would mimic the relatively flat terrain at Greenlake. Plus, there are no crosswalks and lights to mess up your pace, either. I was really going to show the clock!
I started out the first mile with a great pace just over 9 min per mile. Half way through the second mile I was up to 9 min 30 seconds. No problem. See, I knew I could do this! Then, I got to the start of mile 3: Pace up to 9min 55 seconds. YIKES! I can still beat this! Now my goal has become to finish with ANYTHING under a 10 min pace.
Let me just say that the third mile kicked my ass. I ran the whole way, but it was really tough. I did knock 14 seconds off my race pace, though, to finish at 10 min, 4 seconds per mile. Woohoo! I knew I could go faster.
My new focus is improving my time on the 5K. I am also working on leg extension while running. I think if I get my legs extending back, then I will have an automatic decrease in time or increase in speed due to more efficient propulsion forward. However, leg extension is hard. It requires a lot of strength in your hamstrings and glutes as well as flexibility in your hip flexor and quads. This is going to be another big push of exercise and stretching. My quads are super sore from the run when I was trying out the extensions.
I told Melissa all of this, and she, that same day, gave me a bunch of hip and glute exercises to help facilitate this goal. Man are they killer!!! Boy is she great!
I am going to get my video from Travis on Tuesday of next week. I will then post the video and his notes, which will elaborate on all of this.
What a great week of running and working out so far. Woohoo!
9/13/11 – PT, My Jaw Story, and a Workout!
I am moving toward a goal of posting more, again, on the blog 😉
So, today was a visit to Travis about my right shoulder. I originally started visiting him concerning an inflamed biceps tendon, but since then, it has changed to more a slightly sore infra-spinatus. The cause seems to stem from my lifelong habit of clenching my jaws together,which I am also seeing a different specialist for.
Anyway, over the weekend I had to get a massage to relieve my shoulder pain due to excessive clenching, which causes a chain reaction of my levator scapula getting tight and causing a downward rotation on my shoulder blade, which then causes the rest of the rotator muscles- that are already a little too weak – to work super hard to get the upward rotation on the shoulder blade. The end result is an inflamed small muscle or tendon in my shoulder and a very tight neck and top of shoulder area. Argh.
The massage enabled me to run the 5K Iron Girl on Sunday, but by today, I was already super tight again and feeling some discomfort in my shoulder. Travis, being the incredibly knowledgeable PT that he is, did a very specific massage, which loosened up the muscles enough so that we could actually do some exercises. He, then, took it fairly easy on me due to the inflammation of the new area.
I also told him what I had learned about my jaw from the specialist at UW. It goes something like this:
I broke my only crown, which I had had for 10 years, in January of this year and had it replaced in February. After the replacement is has hurt and continually extruded (or pushed up). My dentist filed it down three times before determining that it was probably something more serious and sent me to an endodontist due to my long tooth roots.
Cut to endodontist: She determined that I had a cracked tooth, which had been held together with the old crown, and opened up with the new crown, which equals a ROOT CANAL! Yay! The root canal was supposed to solve the problem and stop the tooth extrusion.(She also measured my tooth roots b/c I was wondering how long they were and why they were considered so long. It turns out my tooth roots are 25mm long, and a normal tooth has roots approx. 22mm long. And now you know….)
Note: this whole time I am wearing my night guard religiously each night. My night guard is basically a mold of my teeth with some kind of plaster built up on the front part to keep my teeth from touching in the back. The only teeth that touch are the front ones, and boy can I feel it in the morning on the front teeth when I’ve had an exceptionally clench-filled night.
Well, the root canal on August 16th did not stop the tooth from continuing to extrude. My endodontist even did a file down to help ease the discomfort about one week later.
In the mean time, I set up an appointment with the TMJ specialist at UW. I explained the whole process to him, and he immediately was impressed that I knew how long my tooth roots were. 🙂 I’m such a nerd sometimes. Anyway, the result of the dissertation I made and the observations he made were that my night guard was causing the tooth to extrude. WHAT?! The freakin’ night guard that I dislike anyway is causing this entire catastrophie?! ARGH!
Here’s what was happening. He said that it is well known and thought of that a tooth on the top of the mouth without a tooth to oppose it on the bottom will overtime extrude because it does not have any force to oppose it and keep it in place. It is still known, but not really thought of (as in it is not the immediate conclusion) for bottom teeth, which is what my tooth is. So, my bottom tooth was inflamed, which means that the bone is building up around the root to help protect it, and the tendon surrounding the roots are working overtime to try and get the inflamed object to go away (i.e. extrude). Normally, after the root canal the tooth has a chance to calm down and stay in place b/c at some point in the day, it will hit the opposing upper jaw tooth and stay in place. However, due to my unfortunate nightguard, my back teeth NEVER touched, and my poor inflamed tooth was able to continue to push out each and every night.
He told me to throw out my nightguard because he was going to give me a new one (the temporary is a simple sports self-mold model – this thing is huge, but all of my teeth can touch the bendy plastic substance it is made out of). His theory was that with the touching of the teeth on something, the back tooth would begin to intrude, which it has, happily, done! Woohoo!
The second part of my treatment is all behavioral, i.e. I have to change my clenching habits during the day. I also learned that your teeth do not actually touch when your jaw is in a resting position. Many of you already knew that – lucky for you. I had no idea! I’ve been clenching my whole life thinking I was relaxed! No wonder my shoulders are like rocks.
So, my homework is to continually remind myself to relax my jaw – keep the tongue resting behind the front teeth while the teeth remain slightly apart to give the jaw joint space. I have been completely amazed by how often and how severely I clench during the day, even. It’s crazy! I especially clench during upper body (specifically shoulder) exercises. I also clench when I run, get really stressed at work or just sit and read facebook. My day now consists of me checking the status of my jaw and relaxing constantly.
I told Travis all this today, and he also added that the levator scapula is very tight possibly due to weakened multifidi on the C1-4 vertebrae. So, I now am working in pushing my tongue against the roof of mouth to fire those extremely tiny muscles along my spine. Woohoo! I’m just afire with crazy crap to keep up with.
Travis also finished analyzing my running video that we made several weeks ago. Due to the file size, I will not have it in my possession until I am able to get a thumb drive to him to download them. I will save his findings for the video.
I also ended my day with a workout from Melissa. Woohoo! I’ve gotten it all in this week. I’m going to try and run tomorrow as it will be day three after the race, which should be enough time for recovery, maybe.
Things are very exciting right now. I really believe if I can tame my jaw clenching, then I will see a huge reduction in my various discomforts and ailments. Never underestimate how connected the entire body is.
p.s. Travis measured the flexibility of the achilles tendon by measuring how far away from the wall I can stand and touch my knee cap to the wall. I’ll explain why in the video post, but for now the numbers – so I don’t forget them.
The right foot (big tow) was 5.5cm from the wall, and the left foot (big toe) was 7cm from the wall. These numbers are new measurements that I look to improve to the goal of 10cm for each foot over time.
2/18/11 – Physical Therapy Before the Ski Trip – Different Therapist
Based on Travis’s recommendation that I come back in before I go on my ski trip so that I get some work done to loosen the tissue around my patella and learn how to tape, I had to make an appointment with a different therapist. At Seattle Physical Therapy, there are only three therapists. So, I have definitely seen all of them at work at some point.
I had a 7am appointment with Jeff, who was very thorough in his investigation. He found that my right VMO (little quad muscle on the inside of the knee) was slightly less firm than the left, which he hypothesized meant it wasn’t firing as effectively. Also, he said that I most likely wasn’t using my pelvic floor muscles (if you’re female, think Kiegle exercise) when lifting or using the leg.
So, he tested these, and sure enough, I had a drop in the right hip when, laying on my back, I simply lifted the right leg straight into the air. Ah, those lazy pelvic floor muscles.
Thus, I ended up with two more exercises (one for the VMO – turn the right foot out and lift the leg straight up with the left leg bent and supplying support – and one to teach me to use the pelvic floor muscles while simply raising one leg at a time straight up in the air.), which both proved to be insanely difficult. Shouldn’t I be able to lift my legs???
Jeff also taught me a different way to tape, which worked as well, and I was off to ski!