Hips DON'T lie

DNS WSER:
I wanted to talk about why I ultimately pulled out of WSER this season. The main reason is because my right hip was tight causing my hamstring, sciatic and knee to become inflamed and painful. Despite the strength training I was doing it did not agree with the volume and workouts I was doing to prepare for a 100 mile race.

Onset:
One day after my last big week before tapering I woke up experiencing knee discomfort similar to knee tendonitis, and my hamstring felt really tight and the tightness would not go away as much as I tried to loosen it. I dropped my volume down to zero for a week. I slept a lot, drank lots of water, removed caffeine and sugar from my diet, ate less processed foods to minimize inflammation and scheduled some dry needling appointments.

During those few weeks after the onset of symptoms I  realized that there were a few muscles that were weak in  my hip and some that were then overcompensation for my weakness which then put strain on my hamstring and knee. I am a firm believer in strength training, but it really takes attention to every muscle to master the balance of running consistently and racing at the level you wish to push your body.

The muscle that we often neglect as runners is the gluteus medius or ( glute med). I thought I was strengthening it by doing lateral band exercises and planks, but the angle really matters here. So I've worked to find a few key exercises to support all the muscles in my hips as well as those lateral muscles that need strength work too. If you don't strengthen them they will become over taxed and cant respond to the demand in which your body is exerting. This is what happened to me post Lake Sonoma 50. I felt strong going into the race. All systems: endurance, strength and speed were a go. But I had a slight weakness in my glute which could not handle the load I was placing on my body. That glute med became overtaxed and my hamstring took on the load and referred pain. If I continued to train on this system with out strengthening that weakness I would not be able to continue to train and perform at the level I had worked so hard to achieve.

Glute Med Exercises:
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Warm up
Wall Sits: 5 sets of 45 sec

Then
Bridges:
1.Use a small theraband and place it around both legs right above the knee.
2.Push hip up to be level with knees in bridge plank pose
3. Use a theraband to add resistance in an abductor movement keeping glutes flexed, core engaged and slowly pulse knees out and back feeling glutes and core muscles engaged.
4. 3 sets of 10-15 abductors using band with 10 second hold before releasing to bridge plank pose.

Lateral Leg Raises: AKA Jane Fonda
1. Lay on you side and stack your legs. The one we're working with is the one on top. Pull bottom leg in at a 45 degree angle this will allow for more stability when you do these leg lifts
2. Lift leg slowly up and down at about 45 degrees or so.
3. At the top of the lift hold for 10 seconds before releasing back down for next rep.
4.When doing this make sure you are not activating your hip flexer, but targeting the rear area which is the glute med.
5. You can also keep upper body stable but extend upper leg back slightly and continue lifts to engage and strengthen glute med.
6.Alternate sides after doing 15-20 and do 3 sets.
*PS: this exercise is a good way to tell if your glute med is weak.

Clam Shell: I've never understood this exercise in high school or college. BUT I get it now.
1.When you perform the clam shell make sure you use a small theraband and place around legs and above the knee.
2. Lay on your side and open hip to the sky, but focus on the rear glute area raising the leg.
3. Keep back flat, posterior pelvic rotation forward and core strong
4. Do 15-20 reps and 3 sets.

Cool Down:
Quad stretch: I use couch to place my foot up upon it and place a towel under my knee and fully allow the quad to release as I breathe in to the stretch and relax it the best I can. I hold the stretch on each leg for 1-2 min. There are many ways to do this.

Achilles Stretch: This is a great stretch because it lengthens the entire posterior chain. Use a wall and press into the wall alternating legs, foot flat and targeting the stretch in your soleous ( upper calf).

* I don't always do static stretches before runs, but with this hip issue I find it's helpful to do it before and after. I typically just do static stretching after running.
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That's it! 20 min everyday before your run.

If you have any questions about this topic or are interested in an individualized coaching plan feel free to send me a message at mountainendurance@gmail.com

Happy Running!