Running
I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the pavement a few weeks after my son was born. My knee didn’t hurt and things didn’t feel that different. I took things painfully slow- alternating walking and running, being uber diligent not to overdo things.
While things were ok at first, it quickly became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to give myself the consistency I needed in order to train properly. As we reached the peak of the no-sleep debacle, I just didn’t have it in me to get out there and run on a consistent basis- slowly cutting down the walking intervals and gradually building mileage. I definitely didn’t have the time the dedication to commit to my rehab exercises in the manner I needed to in order to see progress. You don’t build muscle or gain strength by haphazardly doing a few PT exercises every few days. So after awhile I sort of subconsciously through in the towel.
Once the baby started sleeping {halleluiah} I started to get some of my energy back. Before long I was itching to get back out there, but the lack of sleep and breastfeeding had taken it’s toll on me. Even with a good warm-up, five steps into a run I was limping in pain. While I was angry and frustrated to still be dealing with this old nagging injury, I knew what the problem was this time- I had {and have} zero muscle.
Forget muscle imbalances – a leading cause of injury – I had a serious case of muscle wasting. Lack of sleep destroys you, both mentally and physically. Add to that the physical burden of breastfeeding and I was a lost cause. I love nursing my son and I think it’s the best choice for him, but it requires a TON of calories. Even when I stuff my face, I can barely keep up with the demand. There are no extra calories left for me to build muscle, gain weight, or fuel a run.
Even though I’d love to just lace up my neon shoes and dart out for a run, it’s a back-to-basics approach for me. Instead of waiting for injury to knock me on my butt, I started where I left off last time around- with my beloved chiropractor. He’s a sports-focused chiropractor specializing in Active Release Technique. He’s an athlete himself and I knew from my past experience with him that he could help get me off on the right foot {pun intended}.
Turns out it may not really be my IT band that’s the culprit. Over the course of the month he gave me a whole boatload of new exercises to target my weaknesses, kneaded out some of the kinks in my leg, and helped me work on my running form and cadence {again}.
Now it’s up to me to be a good patient and find the dedication to truly focus on the rehab and rebuilding my strength. Committing to the rebuilding phase is what will get my back on my feet, running like I long to be. I can’t wait for the physical and mental relief a nice long run brings. 
Injuries
Today’s my last appointment with the knee doctor. Not because my knee’s better, but because The Man says I’m done. And by man I mean insurance.
I feel like I’m breaking up with my security blanket.
Every time I go in, I tell him what hurts and what I did, and he tries to fix it. We both know that he can get my knee in fairly good shape, but as soon as I try to run or bike, it all goes down hill. It feels safe knowing when it’s time to run that someone will be there to put the pieces back together.
Not anymore though. I’m on my own. Yikes.
This doctor was different because he used ART as therapy.
Just kidding. ART as in Active Release Technique.
When I first mentioned I saw this doctor for ART, many of you said ART was magic and provided an instant cure for your injury. Ok you didn’t exactly say that, but you had good results.
While mine aren’t so immediate, I definitely encourage anyone with an injury to look into it as an option.
What is ART?
In my non-professional, uneducated assessment, ART is like a foam roller on steroids. And crack. And heroin. All at once.
The idea of ART is to release the build up of scar tissue, which affects the lengthening of muscles and tendons.
It uses the same idea of trigger point therapy to work out kinks in the muscle and tissue. The therapist digs into the trigger point, then has you move that body part to release the tissue. It’s less strange than I make it sound.
If anybody is certified in ART and wants to move in with me to be my personal ART-ist, I will pay you in brownies and cookies and cinnamon rolls…
I’m 100% serious.
Have you used alternative therapies for an injury?
Injuries
“Hit the stop button. Get off the treadmill. I can’t let you run anymore, you’re gonna get hurt.”
Those words sound horrible, evil, depressing.
But to me, they were magical, beautiful, fantastic.
Those words meant there was something wrong with the way I was running. Seeing something wrong means there’s something to be fixed.
Yesterday was supposed to be the day the orthopedist was going to insist on surgery if I wasn’t running yet.
(I’m not running yet. I only made it to half a mile.)
5 months is a really, really long time when you’re wishing you were running or biking or something. But in the grand scheme of things, 5 months isn’t that long. No way was I letting some doc that saw me for a few minutes every 4 weeks slice my knee open.
So with a deadline impending (and my insurance deductible conveniently met) I searched out other options.
I finally found a guy that was certified in ART- active release technique– which I’ve heard can be quite successful in resolving chronic injuries. The guy sounded good- he had experience, he had advanced certifications, and he was a runner & triathlete. IS a runner & triathlete.
With nothing to lose, I knocked on his door and begged him to fix me.
Bad news: I’m quite messed up.
Good news: It’s likely fixable.
Hallelujiah!
He didn’t say rest and ice and covered it in some pain numbing cream and come back and expect it to be magically better.
He said it was going to take time, a lot of hard work, and some more pain before I was up and running again. But he didn’t say if I was running again. 
My head was flooded with so much information I can hardly remember it all, but the gist of it is this:
My left IT band is hurting because my right side is rotating too much when I run. It sounds backwards, but because of the rotation, extra stress is being put on my left IT band and my left leg is working much harder than it should be. My joints are super mobile, but extremely inflexible…aka a bad combo.
(He was convinced from watching me run that I’d had an injury to my right hip in the past. After insisting I never did, and him asking over & over, “are you sure?” I suddenly flashed back to my high school days were I limped and hobbled around with tendinitis in my right hip from dancing.)
I was amazed- the doc just looked at me standing in front of him and pretty much knew right away what he thought the problem was. He did a few more tests- balancing, squatting, rotating, etc and watched me run on the treadmill.
Not one x-ray. No MRI. No poking and prodding. Problem found. Genius. (Or super quack.)
So now starts more therapy, more exercises, more doctor’s appointments. But this time the exercises make so much more sense to me. They’re functional. I can feel how hard they are on the right instead of the left.
And me explaining all that probably took longer than it did for him to diagnose me.
Have you ever tried alternative therapies? What was your experience like?
