Three Things Thursday: Doing it all wrong

My calves. Oh my goodness, my calves. They are tight, sore. Maybe even painful. Though I have seen some relief thanks to ProCrompession socks and my Tiger Tail, I'm still walking like I ran a marathon ... except the marathon is 23 days away and my next 20-miler is is tomorrow.

I could be left to scratch my head but there was a change this week, and that change was in the form of a guest physical therapist.

Before releasing me with a big packet of exercises and Indiana Physical Therapy T-shirt, my PT wanted me to meet with the practice's running expert. The PT, who is an accomplished ultra marathoner, would evaluate my gait, form and general running self to see whether those things could have contributed to my original injury.

And though that's not the way he put it, not exactly, I am doing some things wrong.

Problem No. 1: Overstriding. If running properly, a person's foot lands underneath her hip. My leg, on the other hand, extends far in front of my body before coming back in and landing in front of the hip. With each stride, I'm basically wasting energy to extend my leg and then braking momentarily as the foot lands to get better alignment. It causes undue stress on the hip extenders (hamstrings and glutes) rather than using the quadriceps.

Solution No. 1: Bounding. This exercise/drill is tough, and I felt like a complete tool trying to nail it in the clinic as others rehabbed shoulders and hips post-replacement surgery. The goal is to reteach the brain form by exaggerating the knee drive and accentuating proper foot placement.

Problem No. 2: Hip stability. As you run, your hips should stay stable and even. In my case, my right hip drops as I land on the right foot, indicating a weakness in the gluteus medius to keep it stable. The weakness on the right side affects the left and boom! Left hip problems.

Solution No. 2: Hip drops and other things. I have been working to improve the strength and connections of neuromuscular pathways of my glutes. My exercises have included clam shells, monster walks and pistol squats but some more specific exercises have been added - hip drops on a step, squat jumps, one-leg squat jumps and one-leg lateral squat jumps. The plyometric exercises will not only strengthen those muscles but help improve the power in my stride.

I was lucky enough to get to do all of these under his supervision and let's just say when he corrected my form, I felt the need to apologize for the state of my T-shirt.

Problem No. 3: Torso rotation. We all know core strength is important to running but do we know why? For me, a stronger core will help stabilize the torso and prevent undo rotation as I run. I exhibit the rotation clearly, even to the untrained eye, in my arm swing. I bring the arms in front of the torso using a slight internal rotation of the shoulder rather than keeping the arms by my side and using them to drive the body forward.

Solution No. 3: Focus. This problem is the only one the PT said I could actively work to fix mid-run without making things worse. He advised bringing the arms out to the side and using them to move like the wheels of a train.

Because I am a train. Obviously.

Note: These exercises were prescribed for me by a licensed physical therapist, and I am sharing them for informational purposes only.