Glutes! Of! GLORY!!!

This is the workout that kicks my butt.

If you were around a couple of years ago, you might remember that I was dealing with a serious pain in the badonk. And hip. So I went to the guy who would fix all my problems:

He evaluated me and pointed out my weaknesses. He diagnosed me with LAS:

I'm not kidding. It's pretty common amongst runners.

The cure?

Just kidding. That would be so awesome though, right?

It turned out the cure was actually a series of exercises that he called the Glutes of Glory program; designed to make me stronger and faster, and less prone to injury. 

At first I stuck to the program, and over time I graduated to newer and more complex exercises. But the new exercises were HARD and I was easily frustrated. The road to maximal gluteus glory was rough:

I would lose my balance.

My leg would fall off the ball.

I couldn't do even ONE hamstring curl. Not one. My legs just wouldn't budge.

Don't even get me started on the single leg curls, ha!

So I did what any sensible person would do in this situation: I kept going knowing that consistency would make me stronger.

Real mature.

I complained to Bruk that after a workout I could barely walk up or down the stairs for most of the week, so how was I supposed to run on such sore and un-glorious glutes (and abs, and quads, and hammies, and calves)? 

After numerous attempts on my end to gut it out, Bruk decided to simplify my plan: he knocked off some reps and rewrote it such that I had a plan to incorporate into race training  and one for my strength-building phase (i.e. not race training).

Since I'm not training for anything right now, I am in the strength-building phase and should be super strong in no time!

Dare I say, even "Glorious"?

Though I'll probably be more successful if I actually work out more than once a week.

On second thought, maybe I'll just take up the cowbell after all.

Questions:
1. Have you ever been diagnosed with "LAS"?

2. Do you struggle with balance as much as I do? I'd love to know if you have any good cures for it.

3. Do you live in the Seattle area and need a top notch PT? If so, I highly recommend Bruk. He has an opening since I've moved :)

*I know that it's hard to comment on my blog sometimes, but feel free to comment on my Facebook page, email me at 'Trigirl at Tri-ingtobeathletic dot com' or tweet me!


UPCOMING POSTS: MY "RUNNING" CLUB, MORE INTERESTING SIGHTINGS IN L.A.

I Got My Run Analyzed. Bring on the GLUTES OF GLORY!

If you know me at all, you know that I have a tendency to injure (click here) myself (and here) pretty (and here) often(and here).(here too)  Most recently, I started experiencing pain that would start in my left hip and then settle a little more, uh, posteriorly.

Running had quite literally become a pain in the butt. 

Over the last couple of years, TriGuy has brought up his running guy whenever I would whine about mention some ache or pain. I would half-heartedly mumble something along the lines of:

And then I would hobble on my merry way.

TriGuy tried to encourage me when I said how it conflicted with my work schedule, by stating the benefits of getting my run analyzed.

So, when my hip/butt pain became too much in the spring, I finally called.  I scheduled the full running analysis, which includes videotaping of walking and running, and an EMG to see which muscles are activated.  I was booked for an appointment 2 months away, but I knew it would be worth the wait.

On June 2nd, I got to see the running guru.  They call him:

                     Why, you ask?

                      There you have it.

We exchanged pleasantries and then got down to business.

FYI, if you want to get a running assessment done, you should know the following:

In order to get an accurate picture of what strange things you're doing with your body, you're required to hang out in nothing but shorts and a sports bra (over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder optional for men).

Once the taping was done, we sat down to watch the video while reviewing my history.

I had to regularly remind myself that I chose to watch myself run.

Yep.  I CHOSE to watch myself run.

I continued on with my history.

I CHOSE to watch myself run IN SLOW MOTION ON A VERY LARGE MONITOR.

Bruk took a deep breath before deciding how to answer me.

 Quick.  Like ripping off a band-aid.

 He asked if I would be ok with going back to see him because he saw some potential areas to work on.  I apparently don't use my butt at all when I run (or ever), so Bruk let me know he was putting me on a special program.  It's called:

That was the moment I decided to tell him that I have a blog, and that would be a perfect title for a post about this experience.

But(t), I'll save that visit for the next post.

UPCOMING POSTS: TRAINING, RACING, MY PATH TO GLUTES OF GLORY

* I changed her name to Jen since I haven't asked her if I can blog about her.

All this Exercise is a Pain in the Neck

...and shoulder, and back.

Therefore, I've gone back to physio.  Physical therapy.

I've been a bit off-kilter for years and all this exercising has just exacerbated the issue.  I've mostly ignored it but little things like swimming to the right, some muscle spasms during long runs, and pain when I yawned finally drove me to get help.  My last PT (and current friend) Jenna recommended one of her esteemed colleagues to work on my perplexing issue.

This lady is named Janis.  Janis is special.  She's Canadian!  But also, she's a physiotherapist AND an occupational therapist.  A PT/OT.

Not really.

The first time I met with her we went over my basic history, which included my racing experience. She tried to pinpoint when I had pain.  We discussed cycling first.

She readjusted her expectations.

We moved on to the topic of running.

Yep.

I talked about how I always swim to the right and have no clue why.  I told her of my grand plans to one day do an Olympic distance triathlon, as well as a full marathon.  And then Janis found the silver lining in our conversation:

Such a good motivator.

She started to have me do things so she could see my body mechanics in action!  At one point she asked me to do a push-up.  I got myself into a solid plank and did a nice, strong push-up.  I came out of it and looked at Janis for feedback.

Oh.  Well, okay.

As I returned for more sessions to work on my "potential", Janis began doing the usual things, like massage, and the not-so-usual things, like mobilizing my spine.

While stretching me out, we've had many discussions about my unevenness.

"Discussion" might be an exaggeration.

One day Janis had me stretch out my left side while pulling on a table leg.

This likely explains the swimming-to-the-right deal.  Anyone else's head tip to the right when you raise your left arm?  I dare you to try.

The newest stretch involves hanging me.  Wait, no, that's right.  Hanging me.

I think it's going well.

Our most recent goal has been my posture.  For starters, Janis told me to sit up straight.  So I did.

So I did.

I'm nothing if not a rule follower.

I might have walked out a little crooked, but I think I've figured out what I'm supposed to do.

Turns out the Athletic Stance was right all along!  I just need to keep finessing it.


UPCOMING POSTS: BLOGGER MEETUPS, TREADMILL RUNS

Linking up with the great writers at Yeah Write again this week!

PT Stands for "Pathetically Tri-ing"

Since I got this lovely injury, I started back up with my physiotherapist Jenna, or physical therapist for all you Amurricans out there; PT for short.  Many of you have already met her through my first spin post.

We spent our first few sessions with heat, high-tech electrocution e-stim, ultrasound and deep tissue massage.

I was sent home with some gentle stretches and once I was not hobbling too badly it was time to get to work!  We were going to focus on ankle and foot strength.  Enter the BOSU BALL.

If you're a child of the '80s like me (I'm totally not that old, right??), then you'll remember the Pogo Ball.

I never understood this "toy".  In my mind it was always a broken wrist, ankle, elbow, nose, coccyx and all ten phalanges waiting to happen (Phoebe: "Something is wrong with the left phalange"). 

This is precisely what I think of whenever I see the Bosu Ball, which is PRE-cisely why I've always ensured a 10 foot radius between it and me at the gym.

But I digress.

First, I got on the ball, round side down (with a little help of course) and was told to balance.

 Once Jenna finished laughing was satisfied with my attempt, she flipped the ball over and had me stand on one foot while lifting weights.

(I am now quite certain she just makes up these "exercises" to see them on the blog.)

Then, it was off to the treadmill.  If only I was allowed to turn it on.

Ever try walking on a non-ON treadmill? It's hard. Which was of course the point.

I did get to turn it on for the next exercise that involved walking sideways on a treadmill.  It may have caused a bit of motion sickness and it definitely caused a lot of klutziness.

After the treadmill it was back to the Bosu ball (Yippee!).  My mission--which I have no idea why I chose to accept--was to stand on one foot, bounce a ball against an angled trampoline and catch it.  She started me off easy with a low-weight medicine ball.

So then we switched to a good ol'-fashioned dodge ball and that worked better.  And next week I will learn to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge!

Side note: *Some* of you may already know this but medicine balls, even if they're just 2 lbs, do no bounce off walls.  Even if you're in a very public place. Like the gym.

UPCOMING POSTS: RACE RECAPS. ALSO, IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE, I DID A FUN LITTLE GUEST POST EARLIER THIS WEEK OVER AT DAT'S SO CUTE.  BJ, THE AUTHOR JUST HAD A BRAND NEW BABY SO GO ON OVER AND SAY HELLO!