It seems that any running injury that I get develops in my right leg. The leg feels tigther at the hip region than my left. This year I developed plantar fasciitis and a little bit of a pain in my knee. Nothing big… ran thorugh it all. I also noticed that if I lay on my back and do scissors with my legs I get a clicking noise in the pelvis/hip area. Strange… Anyway rapping up my season and wanted to see if I can fix this issue. I am convinced there is one little/big thing create a chain reaction of injury and pain in my right leg.
i’ve had some miracles happening for me with ART therapy. i go to a physical therapist here in cincinnati that is excellent with runners and with ART.
BTW, i agree that this little thing can trigger a huge chain reaction. my troubles stem from hip and hamstrings which causes a horrible chain of reaction. so, you’re right if you fix it now, you’ll save yourself alot of anguish that’s around the corner.
can you find an ART specialist where you live? or, is cincinnati near you?
Go to a good sports ortho and also get the opinion of a good sports PT. The PT’s understand the mechanics. The should be asking to see your stride in order to figure out where the problem is…you are spot on thinking one leads to the other…
I have seen a good sports PT diagnose a pitchers wrist problem by lack of mobility in his ankle. He watched the pitching motion and saw that his range was cut off due to stiff ankle. This was causing his wrist to snap more and thus caused the problems…He fixed the problem by increasing range in his ankle.
That is when I realized there are good Doc’s and PT’s out there and there are some not so good ones. Track down a good one!
That’s a tough question because the answer is #1 a doctor who has an interest in your problem. It could be an orthopedic doctor but remember that usually their first love is operating and if it isn’t a surgical problem they may not have a lot of interest. There is a subspecialty, usually from family practice called sports medicine. If you live near a major city there should be someone who has done a fellowship in this. This is different than the sports medicine fellowship ortho people do. If it is someone with a running or trii background even better. If it does turn out to be surgical then s/he would refer you out. I would also consider having your relative strength/ limb length and flexibility checked. You might have a gait assymetry.
This can be a daunting task. Mostly, you need to find a Dr. who at a minimum understands running/runners and preferably IS a runner. Definitely you are going to want to see a PT that can teach you the exercises that will help with the flexibility and strength in your core. I echo what Kittycat says about the ART, it can be miraculous and might really help you out. There is a book that you can get called the Lore of Running by Tim Noakes that you might also find helpful. Good luck.
I have had better results with a good podiatrist and running problems than anything else (maybe because my podiatrist is an ultra runner). Whatever doc you see if he’s not a runner/athlete he’ll probably tell you to stop running.
Thanks for the info everyone. Slowbern you hit the nail on the head. I do not want to go to a surgeon that immediatly wants to cut me open… Anyway, I am in the Wasington DC area if anyone can make recomendations.