just a stab in the dark here, but would tight glutes (medial and responsible for external rotation?), along with TFL, possibly contribute to the outwards movement of the knees??
Yes, remember, the tfl is not a muscle, it’s a band, and the muscles that control it are up in the hip. Normally when people feel release in that area, it’s the Lateral head of the thigh. And boy, that can get super tight in runners!
issues normally always happen in clusters. Eg, if the outside hip is tight, the the outside thigh normally gets tight, and the outside calf normally gets tight. You may also have Lats tightness in your back? Depending on issues, the problem can easily swap sides from the upper hip and upwards, eg, right leg but left upper body.
Tfl is hard to stretch out. You have to work the angles a bit. I’ve recently been targeting that area and it is really helping. If I follow the chain of tension it goes all the way from the outside of my left knee, up through the right side of my back (lats, as you just said), through my traps to my neck, and down into my right forearm. Loosening the forearm and shoulder area is helping my hip function/recovery greatly…
7.26.2012
full warm-up
5x2 hill runs (xc hill, ~80m, short flat walk in between reps, long walk after set, its a very long hill with a flat section in the middle)
2xcircuit#3
7/26 lift
stretch/self-massage
15’ ice l. heel, right thumb joint, right inner thigh
notes:
-heel pain mostly gone, just I notcied a bit of tightness while walking barefoot on hard surface post workout. right thumb joint has always been an issue with me since I jammed it and temporarily had a ligament move out of place 4 years ago. right inner thigh just felt a bit tight and tender to the touch so I was being proactive
-thought about having everything approach the midline during my warm-up drills, and wow, my ability to have my hips move is awful, haha. I thought itd feel more natural and flowing, but I actually had trouble letting the hips rotate. also tried to let my hips swivel and keep the knees in during power outs. maybe doing all the drills loosened em up a bit, because it was a bit better when i just ran and didnt think, knees not flailing out as much. when trying to go through the motions in a couple reps, I finally saw that type of side to side motion that is “good” in pro sprinters, that I never had, so im thinking its a hip mobility issue for me. I also think that, structurally, I am not built to let my legs have too much movement inwards on the recovery portion, or my knee on the front swing (bolt and powell’s actually cross their midline while behind the body, sometimes) because I am significantly bowlegged so my knees cant swing by too close to one another or I’d clip my calf and trip (powells thighs nearly touch in his accel strides). i definitely see variations in how close the legs are to one another and how much roation is occurring, but going from none to at least some and not letting my legs bend outwards i think would definitely benefit me
Thanks for the input! I’ll try to respond to each post…
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my left leg has always had recurrent problems since a partial tear in my pcl several years ago (ranging from hip tightness right down to the foot arch. but as far as this injury, I’m positive this occurred because of crappy long jump form combined with my bowlegs. I was just having fun with teh event at a local meet and rolled my ankle, but was stepping down so hard to jump that I really bent my ankle and managed to get a big contact bruise. and since heels get so much daily wear and tear, its been slow to heal (haha, pun) and i’m just being careful with it so it wont be a problem once team training starts. no real pain from it anymoere, just icing to make sure all the swelling is gone
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this could be a possiblity. everytime i’ve gone into pe i’ve had some sort of hip alignment issue. if more problems occur I’ll have the trainer at my school take a look at it in about a month
I agree. my lower back tightness, which seemed to be remedied by stretching and massage, was really caused by internal hip tightness, so my massage therapist cured it without ever even touching my back! squatting always did it to me, but not because of back pressure or poor form, just because my hips were inflexible!
is the tfl the muscle on the outside of the thigh that would bulge out while/from squatting? on my upper, outer thigh, when I squat, the muscle grows so quickly I have stretch marks. and I think that being bowlegged contributes more to this than glute tightness. most of my major muscles are flexible enough that coaches don’t push me to stretch much
I could potentially have lat tightness, as I actualyl have trouble shoulder pressing because to get my arms to push straight up with majoraly arching my back is very difficult for me, and if I just hang from a pull up bar I get a major stretch
do you really think the forearm is contributing much? and i assume if the chain of tension goes from left elg to right back it passes diagonally across the core? and any tfl strech recommendations?
watched some video, and if i try to keep my knee in any closer to my midline in the back swing, it has to manuever itself out when the other leg swings by it forward to prevent my ankle from hitting my opposit calf because of the curvature in my lower leg. it looks quite awkward, i think relaxation and whatever goes on from my hips is the best cueing plan, and i can try stretching new areas to add some mobility
The nerve that goes up the arm into the neck is tense. The tension in my neck travels down my back.
I’m not sure if the phrase ‘conditioning leads technique’ is one that I heard or one that I made up. Basically, the technical flaws you develop are often caused by the condition of your body, not some quirk of coordination. As such, the key to solving the problem lies in fixing the condition of your body first…
ahh, and i’ve heard that too. as people get faster from training, technique will often get better, flaws may disappear with new fitness/strength/flexibility
note:
-have been noticing in the mirror at the gym lately that, while still not bulky or mscular at all, i’ve definitely developed at least a little tone in my calves, and my lower legs are starting to have a much more “dense” appearance to them. this along with the much improved hip height I have now i think are good signs for my elasticity/leg stiffness
7.27.2012
full warm-up
7/27 lift
5xhill runs (hill by school, ~120m)
3xcircuit#3
stretch/self-massage
7.28.2012
30’ basketball
full warm-up
human flag
backflip
3x stair run
3xshort,steep hill start
3xfootball field striders
stretch/self-massage
7/29/2012
stretch
7.30.2012
full warm-up
2x5xhill run (~80-100m, short walk in between reps)
7/30 lift
stretch/self-massage
notes:
-got time of a 10m fly from a section of my build ups in the warm-up, and it was well under 1s. finally, my top speed is getting over 10 m/s. strides look very elastic, hip height is great and stride length has increased with less overstriding. If I can come through 30m in 4s, plus reaction time of .2, I just need to average .97s per 10m from there on out to go sub 11. I think this is very attainable
7.31.2012
full warm-up
4xcircuit#4
7/31 lift
basketball
stretch/self-massage
notes:
-stuff really feels like it is starting to come together. mobility is increasing, I think from the circuits and daily warm-up exercises, knee lift is up higher and heel recovery, while still a bit higher than preferable, is not too excessive. it is definitely minimized when I just let my legs go through the motions instead of really trying to push forward at the start. This definitely makes sens in my mind, because the folding action of the leg would occur when the foot continues to travel backwards but the knee starts to come forward, so when force is applied more parallel to the body (which it can be with a forward lean), the foot would have less momentum going perpendicular to the knee’s motion and therefore would swing back less
8.1.2012
stretch/self-massage
8.2.2012
full warm-up
3xcircuit#5
lift 8/2
jump rope
5xhill sprints (~100m, hillando dr. hill)
stretch/self-massage
8.3.2012
full warm-up
lift 8/3
jog
stretch/self-massage
8.4.2012
full warm-up
flip and human flag check
3xstair run
3xsteep short hill sprint
3x120 yd build up (grass)
stretch/self-massage
8.5.2012
full warm-up
lift 8/6
15’ bike
stretch/self-massage
8.6.2012
stretch/self-massage
notes:
-olympic lift form improving. not rushing the deadlift portion as bad, using more legs/less back, so im scraping my shins/knees more often and at the “pop” it will knick my thighs now
-thought of less cycling in the first few steps, and heel recovery back to a bit better. its really only not great on my second step, but I think blocks will help it
8.6.2012
(off)
stretch/self-massage
8.7.2012
full warm-up
3xcircuit#6
5xhill sprints (~150+m)
8/7 lift
stretch/self-massage
notes:
-did much better rep-wise in the gym than I usually do (lifts at 70% of max for today, usually cant make 5 or more reps easily at anything above 65% of my max)
-starts feel fast and fluid, transition natural and top speed i feel like I am running “over, not on, the ground”. initial exit angle sometimes feels too high, but I think this is a result of coming out of a 3 pt, so my shin angles in my starting stance have to be more vertical. having blocks I think will fix this
8.8.12
stretch & self-massage
8.9.12-8.13.12
off (disney world)
8.14.12
(premeet)
functional warm-up
stretch/self-massage
notes:
-wanted a week to make sure I go into team training fresh. thought a good time to do this would be during my disney trip
-did a premeet because I plan on doing some testing the next couple days, and since I had been inactive from intense activities, wanted to loosen up
-heading back to college on thursday and classes/team practice starts on next wednesday. I will do some more testing, and loosen up the day before practice begins, but I will take the week easy to settle in. I’ve been working hard this summer, and really dont want t overtrain so i’m going into practice as fresh as I can, especially because I believe I am in pretty excellent shape already, so any regressions would not be a huge deal