If you were around a couple of years ago, you might remember that I was dealing with a serious pain in the badonk. And hip. So I went to the guy who would fix all my problems:
He evaluated me and pointed out my weaknesses. He diagnosed me with LAS:
I'm not kidding. It's pretty common amongst runners.
The cure?
Just kidding. That would be so awesome though, right?
It turned out the cure was actually a series of exercises that he called the Glutes of Glory program; designed to make me stronger and faster, and less prone to injury.
At first I stuck to the program, and over time I graduated to newer and more complex exercises. But the new exercises were HARD and I was easily frustrated. The road to maximal gluteus glory was rough:
I would lose my balance.
My leg would fall off the ball.
I couldn't do even ONE hamstring curl. Not one. My legs just wouldn't budge.
Don't even get me started on the single leg curls, ha!
So I did what any sensible person would do in this situation: I kept going knowing that consistency would make me stronger.
Real mature.
I complained to Bruk that after a workout I could barely walk up or down the stairs for most of the week, so how was I supposed to run on such sore and un-glorious glutes (and abs, and quads, and hammies, and calves)?
After numerous attempts on my end to gut it out, Bruk decided to simplify my plan: he knocked off some reps and rewrote it such that I had a plan to incorporate into race training and one for my strength-building phase (i.e. not race training).
Since I'm not training for anything right now, I am in the strength-building phase and should be super strong in no time!
Dare I say, even "Glorious"?
Though I'll probably be more successful if I actually work out more than once a week.
On second thought, maybe I'll just take up the cowbell after all.
Questions:
1. Have you ever been diagnosed with "LAS"?
2. Do you struggle with balance as much as I do? I'd love to know if you have any good cures for it.
3. Do you live in the Seattle area and need a top notch PT? If so, I highly recommend Bruk. He has an opening since I've moved :)
*I know that it's hard to comment on my blog sometimes, but feel free to comment on my Facebook page, email me at 'Trigirl at Tri-ingtobeathletic dot com' or tweet me!
UPCOMING POSTS: MY "RUNNING" CLUB, MORE INTERESTING SIGHTINGS IN L.A.
