After my pelvis-breaking accident, I armed myself with everything I knew about how the body should move while walking, swimming, biking, and running, and adapted strength training and mobility exercises to teach my left leg to function again.
My biggest initial hurdle was flexibility. I've always felt a bit like Gumby, with limbs that could be twisted and positioned in almost any direction. During my senior year in high school I started training myself to do the splits. While doing homework on the bed, I would stretch to open up my hips and hamstrings in pursuit of this goal and within a month I could sit comfortably in the splits on the bench at a swim meet.
But it turns out that being on crutches for 7 weeks really tightened up all of the connective tissue leading from the base of my pelvis to my glutes and hamstrings on the left side. My leg was used to hanging vertically and any activation of my hip flexors to raise my left quad were slow and tense. To combat this, I started using the Captain's chair at the gym less for combined abs strength and also as a semi-supported mechanism for raising that left knee to my chest.
Another helpful tool was my yellow therapy band. With it wrapped around my lower calves, I could sit or stand, move my legs in any number of directions, and add resistance to a suite of tiny movements, each one designed to teach muscles and connective tissue to fire again.
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| Magical therapy band |
But none of my efforts were a substitute for professional physical therapy. Sure, I was able to walk, then run, then race again, and I didn't have any visual limp or imbalance, but the imbalance was there nonetheless.
The imbalance was there in the size of my quads - my right quad is noticeably larger than my left.
The imbalance was there in my pedal stroke - my left hamstring rarely engages to pull my leg up and around on the back half of the pedal stroke, and as a result my left toe points daintily downward.
The imbalance was there in my kick - my left hip flexor would tire before my right, and yet my right hip flexor was the one always getting injured.
The imbalance was there in my running - on flat ground it was less noticeable but on trails I would adjust my stride to get the maximum propulsion from my right leg as I bounded along.
After almost three years of training and racing in this lopsided way, I decided that enough was enough. I wanted to assess the full extent of the problem and find a way to correct it. After all, if I could be this successful as an athlete with one fully functional leg, imagine what I could do with two!
To fully diagnose my leg imbalance, I turned to physical therapist and triathlete superstar Holli Finneren (check out her Tri Dreaming blog!). Holli practices at Rose Physical Therapy group near Dupont Circle, my old stomping grounds. Rose PT regularly offers running groups, tri clubs, and other athletes complementary strength training and injury prevention clinics.
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| Strength training for triathletes at Rose PT |
I attended my first one in December and was immediately impressed by not only Rose PT's knowledge of the human body in sport but the myriad tools available for diagnosis and rehab. What particularly caught my eye was a biofeedback device that measures muscle output upon firing. During the clinic, Holli had fellow triathlete Katie Tobin hooked up to the machine to assess shoulder muscle firing during the exercises. Being the nerd that I am, I was immediately intrigued to see what we would learn about my legs!
Holli was generous with her time and invited me to come in on a Sunday afternoon for a bio-assessment. The data was immediate! We attached sensors to my quads (along with an extra lead as a ground) and started recording muscle firings during double leg squats. My right leg produced perfect, strong peaks while those produced by my left leg were shaky and short. Even when Holli told me to concentrate on pushing through my left heel, I could barely get the activity from my left leg to match that of my right leg.
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| Yet another strength session at Rose PT - this time with the biofeedback machine attached to my quads! |
The data gathering had to be put on hold when the biofeedback battery died, but we already had a good sense of the severe imbalance I was working with. While holding a wall sit, I could easily raise my left foot off the ground and support all of my weight on my right. But when I tried to switch legs, I almost fell over! Oh boy ... I was going to have my work cut out for me.
During the rest of the session we worked on single leg squats, my pedal stroke, glute firing, resistance bands, and lots more. I now have a repertoire of exercises to be completed on alternating days to try to bring my left leg back up to speed so it can work in harmony with my right!
Stay tuned for how the exercises are going!
