Hello Hogsback Half Marathon Runners!
I hope you have fully recovered from your race and those aches and pains are now all gone!
I apologize for not being able to get to work with all of you after the race. As part of my model of care I do try to find some key complaints or physical attributes as to why an area hurts in particular and not only treat that area but discover why the issue surfaced in the first place. This process does entail taking a bit more time with each person.
I found that while interviewing and then working on each person, as well as reviewing the sign-up sheet of those I did not get to, I discovered a trend in runners complaining about mostly the same side of their body hurting. In the Hogsback Half many people felt the slanted road and restriction to running on only one side of the road really caused most of their pain. Although I completely agree that this can be a large factor in one-sided extremity or back pain, I do always check with my patients as to whether their body may have had a pre-existing imbalance that simply got over stressed during the process of racing a long distance and then compounded by the exceptional factor of the road surface.
Most of the runners I screened had one side of their body fail in my mobility or stability testing with specific deficits in their glute region, hip flexors, and in the ability to fully dorsiflex their foot. One side of their body, the painful side, usually showed one or more of these deficits, more limited than the non-painful side.
My interest in pointing this out to you all is to encourage you to pursue, either within your own city or town, a therapy group or trainer that can assess you for these imbalances. I utilize the SFMA (Selective Functional Movement Assessment) and the FMS (Functional Movement System) protocols to screen my patients prior to working on an area of pain. Some of you may have heard me discuss “up-stream” or “down-stream” to the injury as contributing factors to your excessive tightness or pain. This “stream” approach takes in to account that your area of pain may just be the body part that was abused the most during your run, but is likely a result of other imbalances in mobility and/or stability found in your body either up or down the leg.
In order to perform your best, increase your running distance tolerance, PR, or just survive a long run with less post-race pain, you may want to consider researching a therapist or trainer in your area that can assess you completely and then provide you with a comprehensive program to free-up and stabilize these imbalances.
If you are in my area I would be happy to work with you! If you would like a free 20-30-minute consultation and a quick physical screen, please feel free to give me a call or email me to set up an appointment.
You can reach me at 860-507-7365 at the office or email me at cindy@bodyfitphysicaltherapy.com.
And please visit my website at https://www.bodyfitphysicaltherapy.com. There you can read more about my model of care, research injuries, read my blogs and sign up for BodyFiT’s monthly newsletters.
Lastly, please follow me on Facebook at BodyFiT Physical Therapy; On Facebook you can join the Running Club With No Name; and I am also on Instagram as ptcindy2018.
Good luck with all of your future runs and thank you for visiting me at the Hogsback Half!
Cindy Langer, MSPT, CMCP, FMT, TPI Certified, FMS Certified
BodyFiT Physical Therapy, 45 East Main Street, Avon CT 06001
