Hips don't lie!

So I had my appointment with a podiatrist about my ankle - turns out it is the tendon which runs down the inside of my ankle (tibiallis posteria if anyone's interested!) which is the cause of the niggle! Advice was no running or parkour, as although I caught the problem early before doing serious damage I don't want to cause further problems. Very frustrating! 



If you've never had a biomechanical assessment before (which I hadn't) basically they had me walk and run on a treadmill whilst filming you. I was then shown various stills taken from the footage with different things point out to me about my form etc. Because I do parkour, I was also made to jump off a box and the same process of looking at what was going on. Even without the injury (which is what prompted me to go) I found it so interesting as I had no idea of all the different things going on and think it would have been worthwhile! 

But why the Shakira reference in the title?! Well I'll come to that... 

So the reason this problem has developed (if I remember this all correctly as it was information overload!) is due to where my body weight is over my leg when my foot hits the floor. And the reason my body weight isn't aligned properly is due to the angle of my hip and leg when I'm running. And the main reason for that is my hips! 

Basically all of my angles are wrong - back to hips, hips to legs, knee!!! My foot goes out to the side when extended behind me (like Pippy Longstockings) and also my femurs internally rotate particularly the right side (i.e. my knees come together which explains the bruises at parkour!)

It all comes down to weak hips (particularly my hip flexors) and I also need to strengthen my glutes. This is partly due to my job, as I sit down all day but probably mainly because I'm not very good at doing stretches outside of circuits. Yes I know numerous stretches but do I actually do them? No! 

So I've been given a number of stretches and strength exercises to do to work on the overall issue, plus I have to do calf raises to help with the ankle. I have another appointment in a week's time with the podiatrist to see how things are coming along. 

The challenge will be continuing with the stretches once the ankle issue is resolved short term as otherwise it's liable to come back. So I need to work out a routine of doing these and stick to it! Once something is routine, it's easy but it's getting that routine in place in the first place where I struggle! 

However, the benefit will be with stronger hips I'll be a better, more efficient runner - or a beast as the podiatrist called me! (I'm not so sure about that but maybe there's hope for me!)

I found it so interesting seeing myself run on video and finding out all about the things I need to work on (a lot!), so would recommend seeing a podiatrist even if you don't have any current issues! If you're local to Ringwood, I suggest Foot Focus which was who I saw as Aengus was so helpful! www.footfocuspodiatry.co.uk 

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