Learning to Walk Again!

Literally!!

I had one of those "AHHHH!!" moments at Physical therapy today. Let me explain...

Ok, so if you've been following my recent saga's, you know that I've been having pain in both of my heels and arches. Relatively new thing. Of course my first thought was Plantars. It's common... It kind of went a long with the description. But I was a little weary with the self-diagnosis because I knew I had calf muscle issues and where as plantars generally feels better once you start moving, my heels and arches ached all day mostly with walking and standing.

So Monday, after being gone from my physical therapy all last week, and with this new issue, I head to a PT appointment first thing. Anytime I have issues... whatever it may be, I want to fix it immediately! I go into this, ok... got to fix this NOW mode!

After talking with Tye, my pt about my symptoms/pain issues, we both agreed it doesn't sound very plantarsish. My calf muscles are just super "crunchy!" That's my word for the stuff that happens where when you rub the muscle it's all yucky feeling. :) Ok... so after some major tissue massage work and ultrasound on both of my calves and feet, I was feeling much better. Definitely could tell a difference since then. Not too much pain between now and then, but still could tell that it wasn't something that would heel overnight.

So I went back this evening before my boot camp class and he did more tissue work and ohhh that stuff is painful! But it's that, "I can get through this because I know I will eventually feel oh so much better" kind of pain! So afterwards he was telling me to stretch and he told me to do the classic runners calf stretch but with the bent knee to target the soleus muscle (the lower part of the calf) I was like, no problem... I've been doing those. So I proceed to position myself and he was like, ok... but you need to do it with your toes pointing forward!!!!

Ok... here is where some background info is needed. I started taking ballet at the age of 3. I took it until the age of 15. And at the time, I was really into it. My mom had private lessons for me and everything. I went to camps for it and such. If you've ever seen a dancer, you'll notice that you are trained to walk with your toes pointed out. HOURS of time is spent working on that perfect first and third positions. Because of that, I have ALWAYS walked with my feet turned out. For as long as I can remember. And I think it's somewhat significant as people will comment about it.

I've just always considered it a part of who I am. I never notice it. I even run that way. It's just how my body functions. Well... apparently that's a problem.

When I try to point my toes forward, my knees drop in. If I try to align my knees over my ankles, even for just standing, my hip gets all out of whack. When Tye physically aligned my ankles, knees and hips and told me to hold it... within 5 seconds I could feel the burn in my hips and gluteus medius!! Which just so happens to be where all of my mechanical functions stem from with my SI joint tendonitis. My knee was messed up today and my calves have it to. I have only 1/2 the flexion in my ankles... It just all suddenly made sense!

I guess everyone has their own gait. And despite what some running technique theories believe, I support that you don't mess with it unless it's a problem. Well tonight I realized for the first time, that apparently I don't walk or stand correctly and that is a problem.

So for two hours following, I really tried to focus on walking correctly. Straightening my toes in the forward position and trying to walk from the hip instead of my foot. Dancers initiate the walking motion from your feet. You literally sweep them off of the ground forward. Regular people walk from the hip. Well after only 2 hours my hips and butt were already sore!

Imagine for a second... most of us have had to learn a new stroke technique. And we all know how hard and frustrating that is. What if you had to learn how to walk better??!! Ahh!!

Oddly though, I left excited! Again, because when I have an issue, to me, just knowing the problem is 75% of the battle! IF this is really the cause of all of this hip/knee/ankle issues, and IF I can work to correct it... that's good news!

So wish me luck! If you see some crazy lady walking around looking ridiculous... it's probably me! Just wave and tell me to point those toes forward!! :)

BTW: I leave tomorrow for Albuquerque, NM! My weekend of USAT Coaching training is here! I'm excited, and it should be so much fun! So I plan on using the flight over tomorrow to get that LONG Texas blog all ready! So stay tuned!!

K