mon-thurs, in the morning before work:

1 day of bodyweight exercises
1 day resistance band work
1 day lifting heavy (dumbbells and barbells with lots of plates)
1 day of plyometrics

this is for the off season - i usually only do bodyweight and rehab/pre-hab stuff in race season.

squats, deadlifts, lunges, planks, good mornings, planks & pushups are all compound movements that engage lots of muscles.

working the adductors & abductors with resistance bands or bodyweight can help hip stability. targeting the gluteus medius has helped a lot of runners.

foam roll regularly. i need to practice what i preach there.

cheers!

-mistress k

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__________________________________________________________
ill advised racing inc.

Boiled down version for injury prevention is to move sideways. Triathletes move forward and as we age, stabilizing muscles need work too. Gym work is my least favorite activity because I work there, but to avoid muscle imbalance and IT band injury, it has to be done.

For the record, I don't enjoy brushing or flossing my teeth, but I do both out of necessity, as well ;-)

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DFL > DNF > DNS

Thanks ladies!!!

It's my gluteus medius at the moment that is my problem. A pain in the butt - yeah, I went for the obvious there, sorry.
But it's been 2 months and just lingering. I'm going to see my ART guy today, and then start w/ some weights this week to try to strengthen that area.

I appreciate the input!!

Nancy

For glutes:

Hip exercises:

Clamshell
Lay on your side with your knees bent – the angle between your abdomen and your hips should be about 135 degrees. Keeping your heels together, use your glutes to lift the top knee (like a shell opening). I do sets of 20. You may have to fool around with the abdomen/hip angle to feel the right muscle but it will make your glutes burn. Note – though heels are together, your top foot will rotate up as well.
When this gets too easy, tie a resistance band around your thighs just above your knees.

A similar exercise here is the abduction machine at the gym – the one on which you sit and spread your legs.

Hip Hikes
Stand sideways on a stair or chair on one foot. The other foot needs to hang over the edge. You will move your pelvis up and down as if you were bellydancing. The glute of the leg ON the stair does the work as the pelvis rotates up/down. Again sets of 20, working up to 100 on each side.

Bridges
Lay on your back with your heels up against your butt (knees up). Contract the glutes to raise the pelvis. Arms can be along your side or out at 90*. To make it harder, hands can be “streamlined” behind the head or perpendicular to the floor.
Next challenge: single leg bridges. The foot is using the HEEL only as otherwise you’ll push too much with your calves.

Weird wall thing
This one is hard to explain. You need a rolled up towel or medicine ball or kickball (something that size to put between your legs).
Lay with your knees up, feet on the wall, butt pretty close to the wall. Plant feet on the wall; raise hips. Remember you have a rolled up towel between your thighs. Using one glute, rotate the pelvis up slightly – it’s a slight motion – so the foot on that side slides up the wall a tiny bit.
Next challenge is to lift the foot slightly off the wall rather than sliding it.
Keep squeezing the towel between your legs as you do this.

Dynamic exercises
These are all lateral movement. We spend so much time moving forward that sideways = good sometimes! You can
Walk sideways, grapevine ( leg crosses over in back, then front), increase speed of grapevine, do squats as you walk sideways (step, squat, step back up, repeat).
Tie a resistance band around your ankles (“monster walk.”). Take a diagonal step backward, squatting a bit so you’re low to the ground. Continue to step backward diagonally. I think stepping backward is harder than going forward. You can do it forward too.

Donkey Kicks
This one is a “hip extension” like the machine at the gym but done w/o machine. You can add ankle weights if it becomes too easy. Get on all fours. Lift one leg up behind you keeping the knee bent.
To make it more challenging: “Fire Hydrants.” Lift the leg to the side (abduction) like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant.
Combination of the two: with leg in fire hydrant position, straighten it back before returning it to the ground.

ALSO --- lunges!!!! Front and side.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I seem to be in the same boat as you...maybe a little further along as I've already spent a small fortune at the chiro!

When I first got into tri's I had been doing a weight program for a couple years and I continued with it (twice a week, heavy as I could lift, aiming for 3 sets of 12 reps). I jumped right into tri and was doing an IM every 6 months until I hit 5 of them and then I quit for 2 years.

I never really had any injuries. Always some aches and pains, but nothing that really seemed to sideline me (maybe there was a correlation and maybe there wasn't).

After I quit tri's I also quit weights. Now I've just finished my 3rd season back in tri's and this whole past year has been about injuries.

While I don't feel the need to get back to doing all the weights I was doing, I can't help but think that there is benefit to maintaining some degree of balance (strength and flexibility) between all the muscle groups that surround the pelvis and shoulders.

I'm currently taking time off all training to see if that will reset my body. When I start back up the first thing I was thinking of introducing was a dynamic strength program (like what tigerchik outlined and mistressk referenced).

I don't see a program like this being an energy drain (which I think is the big argument against doing weights). It's more about making the time and staying consistent with it that will be the hardest.

I should maybe also mention that I believe a big part of my issue was also trying to adapt to racing flats. I tried to introduce them slowly over the last 2-3 years, but I think I have to let that one go. For whatever reason I just seem to need some support and heal rise. Maybe when you layer strength/flexibility imbalances on top of that you get injuries??

Anyhow, interested to hear what others have to say.

Hope your ART guy can help you out!

Thanks everyone. Thanks Tigerchik for the detailed hip exercises. I'll start them tonight.

ART guy (AKA miracle max - from Princess Bride) says it's a trapped sciatic nerve. He did some things and it is better. I have some stretches to do to hopefully free my nerve. I think it was better on this morning's run,but maybe that's just placebo. I'll let you all know.

Thanks again!!!


nancy

That would make sense with the hamstring pain. I don't know much about sciatica.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

For what it's worth... here is my 2 cents...

I had been having a "pain in the butt" for nearly 2 years. Running made it hurt really badly especially hills... curbs felt like hills. It started on the left side and I know that I was overcompensating with my right leg. I was running with my right leg and literally dragging my left behind me. About a year into the pain, the right side joined in on the fun and now I had pain on both sides.

I went to a friend who was a chiropractor and did ART and some e-stim. He also recommended using a foam roller and some stretches. It did NOT help at all. They didn't take my insurance so needless to say I quit going.

It wasn't until I was driving down the road to the tailor (yeah, to get some pants hemmed) and my ass hurt so badly that I literally pulled the car into the sports medicine facility along the way. I walked in and waited for an appointment for nearly 4 hours. They did some analysis and took some x-rays. An hour later, the ortho doc called me into the x-ray room to take a look. He showed me the x-rays of where my hamstrings connect to my ass bones. I clearly had an old avulsion fracture and he explained that in addition to that my hamstrings were "chewing away" at my bone. They suggested PRP but I was on steroids for an allergic reaction at the time so I wasn't a candidate. He did say that the foam roller wouldn't do much to help. He had me do some PT which also didn't help a whole lot. Eccentric stretching and core-stablization is the recommended treatment.

Some reading on the internet guided me to this article: http://www.agilept.com/...pathy-in-runners.pdf which has been incredibly informative.

Basically, my suggestion is to go get it checked out by an MD just in case. Oh, and read the article too!

Thanks so much for the info.
I'll read the article today, and let you know.

How are you feeling now?

Well, I must admit that I had a jam packed season (was training for my first Ironman this year) so I just forced my way through training. I'm actually just getting to the point where I've slowed down enough to a.) begin to heal and b.) to start a stretching program with a focus on the eccentric varieties.

I will tell you that since I've been able to back off the running... I feel pretty good running every other day and feel even better if I can take two days in between. Hopefully if I'm religious with some sort of program, I'll know what it feels like to run pain-free every day!

Do you know how the avulsion fracture occurred? That's an odd spot for a fx (unless you fell really hard on your ass...)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Actually my ortho doc said its quite common. Although he said he typically sees it in sprinters, football players, etc. who are making more "explosive movements." He did say that even though it's rare for it to occur in endurance athletes it can arise through overuse which is what happened in my case.

I was/am in the same boat. For the past year I haven't been able to run at all because of pain in butt from glute med. Tried all same stuff. Finally got a really good personal trainer who understands what to do for this injury. After 6 weeks yesterday I ran 3 miles!!! Pain free!!! It's the only thing that worked. Plus I love all the other benefits of how good muscle looks, and how much stronger I feel!!! Best of luck, T

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the help.
So the ART guy, who's always fixed everything for me, didn't really help. But I did start w/ the eccentric exercise, and I'm amazed at how much better I feel. Too soon to tell, but I really feel like I improved overnight. I plan to keep them in the routine. Hooray!!!

Happy training,

Nancy

This shouldn't really be a controversial topic IMHO. In reality I think triathletes should start with a good basis of strength/physical conditioning before they start racking up the hours of cardio work, biking, swimming and running. There are only two ways to prevent injury that I am aware of, one is by allowing yourself rest breaks and building up your base slowly, and a good strength training program. If you are having problems with injury, I would drop some of your cardio and get on a full body strength training program. The break will definitely help and you will also get the benefit of building a good strong body to cope with the stress associated with repeated hours of endurance work.

A couple of things that might help strengthen your glutes and hamstrings, that you can work into your endurance training are: pedaling with one foot clipped, power walking on the treadmill with a high turnover, water running and sprint kicking exercises in the pool. But if you are feeling a lot of pain right now, I would wait until you have given yourself some recovery time before trying any of these things.

Hope that helps.

Im new here so I hope this is o.k. I have been using Eric Cresseys Show and Go Training system for a while now, and this is where it really shines. Eric is a kinesiology and soft tissue expert and with this program he is kind of your at home trainer. You also get a book on soft tissue that would probably be helpful . You can find it at http://theshowandgotraining.com . There are very specific workouts for different issues. I had a shoulder problem and this really helped. Good luck.