Good lord I can't believe I actually made it to Spring Break.
The last two weeks have been very quiet blog-wise due to multiple reasons. I just survived two weeks of hell, ie DPT school midterms. It has been a whirlwind of caffeine, no sleep and stress. I am now laughing at my past self who just 6 months ago thought the first semester was hard. In addition to that, I injured my foot about a week ago during a uptempo run in the Skechers GoRun Ride 3. My hypothesis is that I jumped into a very neutral shoe with a higher heel-toe drop than I was used to (the GRR 3 has a 8-9mm drop whereas the Purecadence 1 that I was previously training in had a 4-5mm drop with support) may have exacerbated the amount of pronation I was experiencing. My assistant professor and I took a look at my foot and after some manual muscle testing, gait analysis and a tuning fork test (testing for stress fractures. Thankfully it was negative) we began to realize just how bad my pronation issue is and one of the connections of my Posterior Tibialis was seriously pissed off. The Post Tib functions in plantarflexion and inversion of the foot. It also plays a huge part in maintaining the arch as well as eccentrically and concentrically controlling the subtalar joint motion during foot strike going through the contact phase, stance phases with pronation, supination and terminal stance phases. I have always been a huge pronator, but have been a bad DPT student and not addressed the issue/ignored it. I'm wondering if some of my Achilles issues stemmed from this.... because I've mostly trained in neutral shoes for a long time. Particularly during my super-minimalist phase.
Not that pronation is the end all diagnosis. I'll say this over and over again: when it comes to the mechanics of gait in walking or running, the whole kinetic chain is involved. Something that happens at the foot is usually a result of something happening at the hip. And it translates the other way as well. I'm reevaluating my hip mechanics to see if I've missed anything, other than the fact that I have still have mild imbalances. Example: my right gluteus medius is a little weak, which is why my right hip drops a bit. Running mechanics are a constant work in progress because little things will always pop up and the body will compensate for them in amazing and irritating ways.
I have to say I am very impressed with how much of an aerobic stimulus I get from using this awesome tool. Every time I've used the Elliptigo (time ranging from 30 to 60 minutes) I've come away with sweat pouring off me (even with a fan, which I put up later) and fatigued in a good way. It really provides a good stimulus that is CLEARLY above and beyond what an elliptical provides (even with the stationary trainer).
What makes the stationary trainer and Elliptigo combo even better is that I can study while using it! I've been using a large binder clip and attaching my class notes to the handlebars to get studying and a second "workout" in. As DPT school has continued on, I've realize that I have less and less time to do things outside of school. Adding the Ellptigo into my routine has allowed me to get some really good aerobic work in while still preparing for class and exams. Plus without as much impact, I can still run at a high level due to the high level of work I can put in. I've found myself recovering faster due to replacing that second run with a non-impact form of exercise. My normal runs have been increasing in pace due to both my increasing aerobic capacity and possibly my glutes firing better. Those are the major muscles that are sore after using the Elliptigo, which is perfect. Those are the muscles you really want to be using during running if you want to run fast!
Thanks for reading!
As always, my opinions are my own!
Tack On!
*I won the Elliptigo 8C from the 2014 Las Vegas CSM physical therapy conference and it was provided free of charge. This did not change my view of the product. However I would like to thank the kind people at Elliptigo for giving me the opportunity to try the Elliptigo.
Please go check out the Elliptigo website. They have some really great products that I highly recommend. Elliptigo is an awesome company with a bright future.