Hi folks, welcome!
A simple lesson can make all the difference to the enjoyment of your sport, and your chances of avoiding or fixing training injuries.
Click image for link to video – my video skills have improved since then, but it makes the point.
About 18 months ago, I posted a crude video demonstrating how bike pedal design can allow your heels to float from side to side. This is critical if the forces tracking through your knees and ankles don’t follow a straight line, essentially parallel to the midline of your body. The absence of this float will then force your lower legs along a straight, and potentially damaging, path, thousands or even millions of times. I had such a problem with my old pedals inducing severe knee pain on the bike.
Then Victor, of BicycleLab, suggested that I try SpeedPlay pedals. This change completely eliminated my cycling-induced knee pain, so I posted a crude (I was a beginner videographer) video on YouTube, which has seen a lot of traffic, and recently a few comments. A simple trick, but a miracle for the avid cyclist; thanks Victor.
By combining the use of a TriggerPoint Performance roller with YogaPro Yoga Toes, I’m getting that tight calf muscle to let go, finally. The newspaper is ready to kill mosquitoes, that seem to love my blood above that of my family and friends, for some reason.
Now I’m tackling another thorny problem, right calf tightness during running – it doesn’t occur on the bike. In fact, I’ve ridden about 100 miles in the last two days, with no evidence of calf issues. But when I run, within a few hundred yards that pesky calf messes up everything. I had the blood supply checked for both my left and right legs, at the Cleveland Clinic, and there was some minor evidence of vascular disease in my right leg (hell, I’ll be 71 in a few days, so what do I expect?). However, it was concluded that this defect was insufficient to induce claudication (muscle spasm due to inadequate blood supply). Once I knew that, I knew it was safe to be more aggressive with my TriggerPoint Performance Roller self-applied myofascial massage. I’m already seeing a difference – better hurry, I have another Ironman race in a couple of months.
Always study an injury problem before rushing off to find a cure prematurely. Or, as Albert Einstein, who also had an abdominal aortic aneurysm, like yours truly, was purported to say:
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
Cheers,
Kevin aka FitOldDog
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