Getting To The Core Of The Problem

After being fired by my chiropractor and getting a referral from a doctor, I finally had my first physical therapy appointment last week. After 60 minutes of bending, reaching, pushing and resisting, being pushed, being pulled, being pressed and being palpitated, the physical therapist diagnosed me with a misaligned pelvis. She tugged on my right leg to adjust me, reassessed me, and sent me across the room to work with a trainer.

The trainer explained that the first order of business is to strengthen my core. Between all my crunches and #plankaday efforts, I thought I had a strong core, but I clearly have not been working all of my core muscles. Apparently, my transverse abdominus and multifidus and erector spinae need help. I also need to strengthen my glutes, which comes as no surprise given my piriformis issues.

One eye-opening exercise he had me do involved lying on a partially inflated blood pressure cuff and trying to move one leg at a time while holding the pressure needle steady. Not only was it interesting to see how hard that was, it also was interesting to see how having that visual feedback really helped me figure out what I needed to do and do it.My daily homework includes easy range of motion exercises like cat/cow and more difficult gluteus medius exercises like side leg raises with an 8 second hold and prone heel squeeze/glute lifts, also with an 8 second hold.

All this focus on my core has made me realize that I have horrible posture at work. I slouch. I lean. I sit askew. Hopefully I will develop better habits as I practice contracting all these core muscles.

I agreed to refrain from running for a short time so we can see if the adjustment and exercises keep me in alignment and pain-free. Since my chiropractor “fired” me because she felt that I should not need to be adjusted as often as I was, this plan makes sense to me, as hard as it is to be sidelined when we are having such gorgeous weather. (Morning temps in the 50’s–my perfect running weather!) Since I don’t have any races on the calendar until October, this is a good time to take the time I need to fully recover.

Have you ever had physical therapy?

What is your perfect running weather?