Hi,
Several athletes have asked me to visit your forum to see if I can help you to find answers to various pains. My name is Julie Donnelly and I'm a deep muscle therapist in New York. I've been working with athletes for two years and have a special connection with Ironman Triathletes. In fact, I began my on-line self-treatment clinics with the athletes who were posting on the IMU (Ironman Utah) forum. I'll be teaching Julstro Self-Treatment Clinics at Ironman Lake Placid and Ironman Kona, hope to see you there.
If you have any aches and pain that you would like help with, just let me know and I'll be happy to help. It's really important for you to release the spasms in the muscles. Spasms cause the muscles to be tight, putting pressure on the insertion points at the joint. This can cause problems such as Achilles tendonitis, as well as hip/knee/ankle pain and a long list of conditions that can be easily corrected by self-treatment.
The most important muscle I've found is called the psoas. It originates at your lumbar vertebre, goes through the inside of your pelvis and inserts onto the front of your thigh bone, at the very top. When the psoas contract you either bend over (as in the aerodynamic position while cycling), lift your leg or sit down. That means that the muscle is contracted 95% of your life (you bend your legs while you sleep), and you most likely never stretch it.
The psoas is the reason why your low back hurts when you get off your bike after 112 miles and you try to stand up to run. The tightened muscle is now too short to go from the lumbar vertebre to the femur (thigh bone). So it pulls down on your lumbar vertebre, compressing on the disks, impinging the nerves, and literally pulling on the bone (like pulling your hair will hurt your scalp). You need to stretch it in order to make it long enough to stop the pain. (I'll talk about this in a minute).
Also, a contracted psoas will rotate (slightly, but that's all it takes) your pelvis forward, which is overstretching your hamstrings, and your quads will shorten because of the rotation. This causes pain in the gluts, as well as the front and back of the knee.
If you are interested in reading about how muscles cause joint pains, and also more about the psoas, as well as the treatment for the psoas, it's on my website: www.julstro.com. Look in the section titled "Muscles and Pain". Also, if you have any problems that you'd like to see if we can work together to relieve, please feel free to ask. You can either ask me here, or come to the forum on my website.
Good luck with your training, I hope I can be of help.
Wishing you well,
Julie
Don't let pain cause a DNF! YOU are your own Best Therapist! Visit http://www.FlexibleAthlete.com and http://www.Julstro.com to learn logical solutions to repetitive strain injuries and how to stretch safely.
Several athletes have asked me to visit your forum to see if I can help you to find answers to various pains. My name is Julie Donnelly and I'm a deep muscle therapist in New York. I've been working with athletes for two years and have a special connection with Ironman Triathletes. In fact, I began my on-line self-treatment clinics with the athletes who were posting on the IMU (Ironman Utah) forum. I'll be teaching Julstro Self-Treatment Clinics at Ironman Lake Placid and Ironman Kona, hope to see you there.
If you have any aches and pain that you would like help with, just let me know and I'll be happy to help. It's really important for you to release the spasms in the muscles. Spasms cause the muscles to be tight, putting pressure on the insertion points at the joint. This can cause problems such as Achilles tendonitis, as well as hip/knee/ankle pain and a long list of conditions that can be easily corrected by self-treatment.
The most important muscle I've found is called the psoas. It originates at your lumbar vertebre, goes through the inside of your pelvis and inserts onto the front of your thigh bone, at the very top. When the psoas contract you either bend over (as in the aerodynamic position while cycling), lift your leg or sit down. That means that the muscle is contracted 95% of your life (you bend your legs while you sleep), and you most likely never stretch it.
The psoas is the reason why your low back hurts when you get off your bike after 112 miles and you try to stand up to run. The tightened muscle is now too short to go from the lumbar vertebre to the femur (thigh bone). So it pulls down on your lumbar vertebre, compressing on the disks, impinging the nerves, and literally pulling on the bone (like pulling your hair will hurt your scalp). You need to stretch it in order to make it long enough to stop the pain. (I'll talk about this in a minute).
Also, a contracted psoas will rotate (slightly, but that's all it takes) your pelvis forward, which is overstretching your hamstrings, and your quads will shorten because of the rotation. This causes pain in the gluts, as well as the front and back of the knee.
If you are interested in reading about how muscles cause joint pains, and also more about the psoas, as well as the treatment for the psoas, it's on my website: www.julstro.com. Look in the section titled "Muscles and Pain". Also, if you have any problems that you'd like to see if we can work together to relieve, please feel free to ask. You can either ask me here, or come to the forum on my website.
Good luck with your training, I hope I can be of help.
Wishing you well,
Julie
Don't let pain cause a DNF! YOU are your own Best Therapist! Visit http://www.FlexibleAthlete.com and http://www.Julstro.com to learn logical solutions to repetitive strain injuries and how to stretch safely.