How to stay injury free

Over the last 4 years I have faced a few injuries.  It seemed like every fall I would suddenly be struck with pain in one of my knees and all my training and running would come to a halt.

Finally after going through three fall seasons with injuries I decided it was time for a change.  After taking time off back in the fall of 2011, I decided I need to make a change and break my fall injury streak.

As I got back into running and began serious training for a spring marathon, I stuck to 5 days a week of running and made sure my easy runs were in fact easy.

But on top of all that I began to go to Pilates class every week after my long run.  Often it was tough to go to an hour class after running 12+ miles but after a few weeks I got the hang of it and I began to like it.  I could feel my hips becoming stronger and I noticed that I was recovering from long and tough runs faster.

I think it was the core work mixed with the controlled hip exercises that made the difference.  Especially doing those exercises when my body was already tired from a long run.  The class that I attend is very relaxed and the only equipment I use is my yoga mat.

Since I have been going to class for over a year I have a pretty good idea of the flow and sometimes I do the exercises at home when I can't make the class.  The important ones I make sure to do are (1) side kick series, (2) kneeling side kick/donkey kicks, (3) bridges and (4) planks.

Side kick series

To begin, lie on your side with your legs, hips and shoulder in line similar to the picture below.  Use the leg on the bottom for stability and make sure to turn the heel of your top foot down so that as you complete the exercise it is as if your heels are clicking.

I complete small circles (in both directions), leg lifts up and down, leg lifts forward and back, side passe (in both directions), and leg circles (in both directions.  Then repeat on the other leg.  For more details and visual cues see this website.

Kneeling Side kick/Donkey kicks

These kneeling side kicks are tough.  Even though I have been doing them every week for over a year they still are tough to complete.  The starting position is similar to a modified side plank with your knee on the floor.  Lift the opposite leg up to hip height and begin by doing up and down lifts followed by circles in both directions.  Repeat on opposite leg. 

For donkey kicks, position yourself with hands and knees on the floor.  Lift one leg up with foot flexed and raise towards the ceiling and the lower back down to starting position.

Bridges

To start this exercise, begin on your back with your knees bent and your heels as close to your butt as possible with your arms laying by your side.  Curl your hips up to the ceiling and hold for 20 seconds then back down to the floor.  To increase the difficulty, press up and then lift one leg up while you pulse, then switch sides and repeat.

Planks

For me planks are tough.  I think if I timed myself I would only be able to hold a plank for about a minute. 
To start, lie face down then push up onto toes and rest on elbows.  Hold for as long as you can.

I really think these main exercises have attributed to helping me to stay injury free for over a year. 

And for more Pilates exercises, I found this great little portable pilates workout sheet to allow you to do Pilates anywhere!

Have you ever tried Pilates? 

My knee: final thoughts

Thanks for all the wonderful and supportive comments on my last post. I wish I had better news but I believe that I have an inflammed tendon connecting from my quad to the patella. I have not been running for 4 days and I can still feel and see slight inflammation above my knee cap and into my quad. To read more about this specific type of injury go here. Of course this is all self diagnosis since I haven't been to see my doctor. My dad goes to this chiropractor that does ART so maybe I will try to get an appointment there.

Like I said before, this is sad that I won't be able to run but I think its for the best. Looking back I have been training for a college sport (either basketball or track) without any breaks since March 2007. Before that I didn't have much time off either so this is the perfect time to take a step back and rest. I don't want to push the injury to try and run the half so I have decided that I will not be running it no matter what.

Ok ok enough about my knee...moving on...

Tomorrow I am heading to the pool at 5am for a little swimming. It should be really interesting!

This week I have a few posts planned that will drift away from running and expose a little bit more about myself, J. Hope everyone had a great weekend and I promise no more talk about my knee!

It's a sad day

First off...I totally forgot my blog birthday/anniversary thingie. It was July 18th and you can read my very first post here.

Next, here is my 8 week training plan for the Half marathon that is on September 13th.


The sad thing is that I don't think I will even be able to use it.

After yesterdays 3 mile run and this mornings failed interval workout I think its time for me to stop running, take a rest, and see if my knee can heal.

It could be runner's knee, it could be IT band problems...who really knows. I do know that it hurts when I run, it hurts a lot. It's an irritating pain right on my knee cap and sometimes on the sides. And the pain lingers even after I am finished running.

I plan on starting to swim to keep myself in shape and also to keep me sane. If I didn't have some sort of exercise to do instead of running I would be freaking out!

This is really hard to say that I am going to stop running for a while, and the fact that I don't know how long I will have to sit on the sidelines makes it worse. But I do know that I was able to run the Boilermaker this year (although that may be the reason why I am in so much pain) and there will be more races in the future. As long as I can run pain free I will be happy, whenever that day is!

Thanks for all your kind words of support, I really appreciate it!! Happy Wednesday!

I Ran Today

Yes...I ran today.

1.6 miles...with some pain.

No swelling, no bruising, but there's a slight twinge (pain in the knee) still when I run.

I think somehow my quad muscle isn't strong enough to hold my knee up properly.

Not sure though : (

Its just so weird...I've never had anything like this.

I do have a nice little half marathon plan! Ill share that later on this week.

I also have successfully recruited my friend's Jackie and Margot to run the HM with me!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend...I am not looking forward to Monday!!

Ice vs. Heat

We have all heard that ice is good. It makes the soreness in the muscles go away BUT is it really a cure for everything??

I have found out that for me it is not. Sure I ice my hamstrings, I go in the ice bath and stuff but this past week I found out that icing a hip flexor is not the best option for me.

I have finished my 4th week here with this injury. I didn't ice at all during the third week and I felt great! I was in Florida running in the sun and warm weather.

The next week I got back to school and continued with my rehab and started back icing. Well I started to have pain in my hip again. I was depressed and upset because I felt like I was taking a step backwards for no reason at all!

Last Thursday I went back to the trainers and they told me to stop icing. By icing my hip I was causing the muscle to tighten up and then I would try to walk it would be painful because the muscle was stretching. So I am off ice now and I just use heat for prewarm - up stuff. I am hoping next week I will be back in action!

Interesting how things work!!

In other exciting news I got new shoes! Ill post pictures tomorrow! Today marks the first day of OUTDOOR track practices!! We will probably be outside as it is supposed to be very nice out!!

Happy Monday!

State Track Meet

Today was quite an experience!!

I got to the track and went to the trainers area. I got a heating pad thingie and put it on my hip. I really like heating up my hip because it makes it feel soooo good! After I put heat on it, I feel like I can run and jump!

The trainer then wraped my hip up REALLY tight. I couldn't tell if I was having pain in my hip beacuse of my hip flexor or because of the warp jobie!

I ended up throwing a seasons best in shot put of 10.15 meters (Translated to feet that is 33 feet 3.75 inches) and got 12 place of 18.

The 4x400m relay ran without me today (Alison ran in my place and she did great). They ran a 4:10.48 which is the exact qualifying for the regional meet next weekend. I am sad that I can't run - especially since a lot of the athletes did very well and are going on to compete next weekend.

Overall the hip felt pretty good - after throwing I had to immediatly remove the warp thingie because it was so tight it was cutting off the circulation in my other hip and therefore I was going numb! My hip felt tired later on in the afternoon but tonight I have had no pain. I feel like my brain thinks there is pain in my hip when there really is not! Its like pseudo pain!!

Tomorrow I am headed to Florida with B-Rabbit and his family for Spring Break! I have a hard time packing! I am always worried that I will get down there and not have something that I need!! I don't know how much I will post but Ill be keeping up with the blogs as much as I can.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! I can't beleive that tomorrow is March 1st!!!

Hip Flexor exercises

I am on a mission - to help all people avoid suffering through a hip flexor injury.

I went back to the training room yesterday (i have a standing date with them at 10am every morning) and saw the head trainer this time (a woman who has helped me since I was a freshman) and she gave me some more exercises to do.

First off, A MILLION THANKS TO MARLENE for the video she left in my comments!!

Check it out here

Basically the exercises in the video that we do in practice for warm ups are:
hurdle trail leg (forward and backward)
lateral leg swing
linear leg swing

For rehab I do very similar exercises:

I do the lateral leg swing on a machine at the gym so that I had resistance from the weights. I also do the linear leg swing with a bent knee on that machine. These both are great exercises to strengthen your hip flexor (do 3 sets of 10 reps).

I also do stretches on a balance ball. I stand with my right knee on the ball and gently roll my leg back. It is a light stretch since you technically are not supposed to stretch the hip flexor when you have an injury (do 20 reps).

Next I put a light ankle weight on and stand bracing myself with the wall and pick my right knee up. My right quad is parallel to the ground straight in front of me and I rotate at the hip to the right so that my leg is outward but still parallel. I then rotate back to the original position and bring my leg down to the ground (do 3 sets with 10 reps).

Finally I do lunges - today I did them with 5 pound weights in each hand but felt some pain so tomorrow I will do them without the weights (do 3 sets with 12 reps).

After just one week of sitting out I realize how important it is to do the little things when warming up. If any of these exercises don't make sense let me know and I will try to explain it better!

Yesterday I basically went pain free. On the downside the trainer said that I probably wont be able to run for 2 more weeks! 2 MORE WEEKS!!! I have cabin fever as it is and just want to run run run!!

On the upside, I am competing in Shot put this Saturday for the state meet. Its not a running event but at least it is something!

DNS

I went to the meet Saturday with my team, I stayed over with the other Pentathletes, I arrived at 9am at the meet. I ran a few laps and warmed up, I started to sprint and felt pain.

I did not compete.

I am doing ok with this - I was pretty upset when I had to tell my coach I just could not compete. It was hard to watch the other girls compete so I focused on helping my other boy teammates (they came in 2nd and 3rd!!) I have been slacking on the commenting on blogs because I really haven't been too happy and I don't want to spread my negativity.

I went to rehab this morning (I sound like I am on drugs!) and the trainer gave me 3 exercises to do and honestly I am really glad that I didn't run yesterday because I have minimal pain in my hip.

I am hoping for a quick recovery. The hip flexor is such a tricky thing, but I'll be doing my exercises all week and icing every few hours and also taking my drugs (aka aleve). I hope everyone else had a great weekend and is doing well!!

Status Update

I went to the trainers yesterday and they put me on the bike for 15 minutes. Then I got ultrasound and then biked some more and finally stim and ice. Stim is where they hook up electrodes above and below the point that hurts and it sends pulses through it to break up the inflammation. It feels really cool!

So I even went back a second time to the trainers in the afternoon for more treatment! The only bad part was that last night I was in a little bit of pain.

I talked to my coach - I am going to the meet Sunday and competing in Pentathlon and we will see how it goes. He said that Pent is my main concern right now and that I have to at least give it a try because this is the state meet and I could do really well even with my leg hurting. I seriously love his attitude although I am nervous about hurting myself even more. Right now I am listed in 4th place out of a total of 7 people; apparently there will be a few more girls added in.

So that is the news - I am happy but nervous. Its hard for me because this is my first real injury - I was so lucky to get through 4 years of basketball without any injuries.

So I am done with the negative and only thinking positive! I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and enjoys the weekend!

Done

Thanks for the outpouring of support BUT things have gone from bad to worse.

I saw the trainers today and yes it is a hip flexor strain.

I am officially NOT allowed to practice.

And I am pretty much out of Pentathlon this weekend.

This sucks - BIG TIME. I have a real problem with sitting out from practices.

I don't know exactly what is going on - I have to go back to the trainers tomorrow to get checked out again.

My coach wasn't here at all today so I wasn't able to talk to him about anything.

Then things just got worse from there.

I called home to tell my parents the news.

They didn't even seem that concerned - like I was faking this injury or something!

So now I am in a huge fight with them because of that and other family drama.

JUST GREAT!!

Sorry to be a super debbie downer! I am off to bed now - Here is hoping that Thursday is a better day.