After about a month, I have officially been discharged from physical therapy!

The pain isn’t gone completely yet, but something that’s nagged for this long obviously will take a longer time to heal. However, I am now armed with stretches, exercises and a full game plan of how to move forward with training.

Not only will I heal the damage done but prevent this from happening again.

The Underlying Condition

A month ago when first starting physical therapy, I wrote how my focuses were calves, form, core, hips, and flexibility. After a month of really paying attention to my body and talking with the physical therapist, I’m now seeing the reason for this.

Unfortunately, the largest contributor to my chronic pain is genetics.  I took this picture while waiting for my appointment.

This is my natural position when I stretch my legs out.

As you can see my toes slightly point out, which was one of the main focuses from the get go. Not only that, but you can see my legs are slightly everted while my feet themselves are inverted.

I mentioned before how I needed corrective inserts in my shoes as a child to correct natural flat-footedness. My physical therapist believes they may have over-corrected this issue which could also be a factor in my pain now.

Don’t be mistaken, the main factor is still how my body is naturally positioned.

This misalignment isn’t to the point where I need surgery, braces, or can not continue working out. It simply means that the mechanics of my body means that more pressure is on my ankles/feet than the average person.

The Treatment

Knowing what I’m up against and what exactly I’m battling, the treatment makes more sense. Since I have more pressure on the ankles than most, physical therapy is the natural way to fix it.

• Strengthening Calves – The muscles connected to the Achilles and the main source of pain. Strengthening the calves will give my ankles and feet the ability to handle the higher stress better.
• Hips/Core – better form and strengthening the entire chain will alleviate some of the pressure on the lower legs.
• Flexibility – The Achilles itself, as all tendons, do not actually stretch. Even stretching a little bit can cause a rupture, so it’s on the MUSCLES to remain flexible. Flexible muscles mean it can go further before putting strain on the connective tissues.
• Feet Facing Foward – I have to continue to break 33 years of habit and be conscious of the direction my feet point at all times. That twisting motion adds stress!

It all makes so much sense now!

The Results

In just a month I have noticed improvements all around. I’m able to do more calf raises, now on one foot, which I do every night and can see it getting easier each time!

While we started more conservative in treatment, I quickly graduated to higher intensity options. Moved from elliptical to the treadmill, started jumping movements, using a BAPS, and being on the highest setting of the total body workout machine.

I very much notice a difference with the hips and glutes when running on the treadmill. I feel so much more controlled when running. This was one of those “ah ha” moments, where I didn’t even realize that I was NOT running controlled until I felt what it was like to run controlled.

Moving Forward

Obviously, my work here is not done. It hurts less first thing in the morning and it goes away much quicker than it did before, but it’s still there. So I have to keep everything up while continuing training everything else.

Overall, I’m really glad I did this and it’s silly how long I put it off. But it’s all for the better now and now I can hopefully move on pain free very soon in the future!

 

 

Edit: Addition!

In Practice

The morning after I wrote this post I went to the gym. For those that don’t know, I go to Orange Theory Fitness, where it’s a mix of floor work and HIIT cardio. It was a smaller class, so the trainer decided everyone would be in the same block instead of the usual half the class doing floor while the other half does cardio and switching halfway though.

I was running late and hit some unexpected traffic, so I came into class late. Since everyone was on the treadmills with none open, that left me to being on the floor alone, and then the treadmills alone. It almost felt like I had a personal trainer.

As I described earlier in this post, my hip stability and control while running has improved, and I really felt it today. I got into a zone and performed better and more confidently than I have in a really really long time!

The workout ended with a one minute sprint, so to “empty my tank” I set it to 6mph and went for it. While running, a couple people that were wrapping up on the floor saw me and started cheering me on. When I was completed, the instructor had the class give me a round of applause and one of the guys came over and gave me a high five.

As I’ve written in the past, I feel that I’m introverted by classic definition. I don’t need to feed off crowds because my strength and motivation comes from within. However, in this case, it really did help out.

Perhaps I’ve always rejected attention from strangers due to lack of confidence. I didn’t want to fail publicly. Maybe that’s changing and I’m starting to gain more confidence.

Either way, it was a great workout and I feel great now because of it!