Revamping the Plan

     Shannon and I had the opportunity to take a continuing education class a few weeks ago through our place of work. We have to take so many hours of classes per year to maintain our PTA license here in Tennessee. This class was about Functional Training of the Lower Extremity. It sounded good for work, but also caught my eye as something I could learn to better my riding and running. I have known for a while that my glutes are weak and need attention. I thought maybe I could learn some ways to make me better through biomechanics as well. We really didn't know what to expect, as a class talking about the lower extremity can vary with so many potential issues to discuss. Well, it happened to be freaking awesome! Dr. Chris Powers from the University of Southern California (USC) taught the class and every bit of it was applicable to me, both from a work standpoint and from an athletic standpoint.

    Dr. Powers basically related 90% of lower extremity injuries to hip weakness. We learned how to test for glute weakness and evaluate mechanics. The goal is to be able to correct the mechanics of athletes through strengthening and adjustments to their training methods, in order to prevent injuries and increase power. It made perfect sense for me to do it since I already knew my glutes needed work.

     After the class, Shannon and I ran through the glute strength evaluation. We both failed it, but I was way worse than her. I have no glute strength. I make up for it with my quads. I am very quad and hamstring dominant. Why use only two of your large lower extremity muscles, when you can use three?! So I have started working on it with strengthening exercises and some minor changes to my pedaling style. My running gait was very ugly. I have not tweaked the run yet as I'm still not strong enough to maintain good form. Dr. Powers linked my hip pain earlier this year and my constant posterior shin splints to weakness in my glute max.

Looking at my pedaling style with a camera

     I am almost three weeks into the strengthening program. I have noticed some gains with the exercises themselves and even some on the bike already. I don't think my glutes were super weak, I just didn't know how to activate them to stablize my legs during activity. My glutes have always limited me with my time trialing. Having a lower trunk causes more glute recruitment. The aero position really drops your trunk down and causes the glutes to participate more. I'm struggling a little with the change to my pedal stroke. It's hard to break a habit that's been going on for over 10 years, but I'm starting to be able to hold the form without constantly thinking about it. And I'm definately recruiting my glutes more. There's no doubt when you are using them because they will scream and let you know! I've had to cut back my hours in order to not get an overuse injury from the change to using new muscles that aren't so used to working that hard. It sucks to not be riding as much, and it's going to hurt my performance for the last few cross races, but I think it will pay off next season.

    My goal is to get my form correct on the bike and with running to improve my times with triathlon and power with bike racing. It should help me time trialing and give me enough power to finally get in a real breakaway. I'm going to reassess my glute strength every four weeks, so I will post some comparison pictures as I go through this process.

    I've already evaluated some athletes in the clinic. It's amazing how a top athlete in their respective sport can have such weak hips. Most of the athletes I've looked at demonstrate quad dominance with squatting and jumping, and show medial knee collapse with all activities. Medial knee collapse is the main cause of ACL tears, so it is very important to correct. It seems that most of us have significant weakness and we don't even realize it. Just a tip for those of you who are interested in doing something about it, watch your knee position with everything you do. Even with something as easy as walking up stairs, you may notice your knee drifting in as you step up. Concentrate on keeping your knees directly in line with your toes. And do some glute strengthening exercises! Buns of steel!