Hip, hip, hooray

Went to my first physical therapy appointment today.  Was told it was just a consult = I can take Lucy with me since hubby had to work.  Nope.  Full on exam and then exercises.  But as usual, Lucy was a trooper.  Except when she HAD to go 'tee tee' right in the middle of my IT band exercises... with no toilet paper in the bathroom (which they QUICKLY fixed with my glare)... and then missing the seat with said 'tee tee'... and then staying in there til I yelled 'what are you doing?'  Lucy: 'waiting for you Mommy.'  So, I quit my exercises and hopped on one leg to the bathroom - thank God it wasn't too far from my exercise table - and cleaned the floor, Lucy, and then myself up - all on one foot.

I have weak hips!  Well, howboutchee.  And I'm going to cheat a bit tonight as I need to eat before I pass out, and cut and paste some things about weak hips and why weak hips should matter to runners.  These are different exerts from a great article on the subject from runningtimes.com:

See if this sounds familiar: First your Achilles flares up. The next week your knee starts bothering you. Then your hamstring gets all hitchy. And all on your left side. It can't be a coincidence. It's gotta be the shoes, right?

Conventional wisdom has cast atypical pronation, or the inward roll of the foot upon striking the ground, as the running injury scapegoat. And while the torsional forces caused by atypical pronation shouldn't be disregarded in diagnosing an injury, new research suggests we look deeper, or rather, higher

The main hip muscles to focus on strengthening are the hip adductors, hip abductors, gluteus medius, tensor fasciae latae, piriformis, and hip flexors. If you're already injured, Ferber emphasizes the importance of "positive daily stress." Translation: Do the exercises every day. Once you're out of the woods, two to three times a week is sufficient.







I return to PT on Thursday and then Tuesday and Thursday of next week.  I will be doing all my prescribed hip and IT band exercises at LEAST once/day if not twice/day.