Glute Strengthening Exercises

Doctor's Orders Exercises:

Walking in a 1/4 squat, knees out, with band around knees:
- sideways and backwards/ forwards
This really burned the sides of my ass/hips, but felt good.

10x 1/4 squats with toes against the wall - very hard too keep the hamstrings out of it.
3x 10x 1/2 squats with the band around the knees - hard to control the glutes
3x 10x glute bridges with punching the muscles
- also difficult, but not as bad as the squats


--Duration: about 15mins

Chiropractic Treatment

This was a cool session at Athlete's Care. We did some functional exercises, which showed me just how much I was overloading my hamstrings because my glutes are so weak.

I did a mini-squat standing on one leg on a small book, and my bad hamstring burned. My butt was doing nothing. Even my good side is really weak. So then KD had me do some half-squats facing the wall so that my knees wouldn't go forward; still didn't activate the glutes. Then he had me do some bridges by squeezing my butt and relaxing my hamstrings - I eventually got it right. Here are the exercises I'll be doing for the next week:

- walking sideways and forward/back with a band around my knees, pushing the knees out
- doing half-squats with the band around, making sure my back is straight and my glutes are firing
- doing the half-squats against the wall
- the glute bridges, with taps to the muscles to activate them, on the floor, off a couch, off a ball (if I'm ready)

Apparently my brain has forgotten that I have glutes and needs to be retrained to make me use them. Otherwise I'll just keep loading my hamstrings and destroying them.

We also did more acupuncture on the butt muscles and a bunch of ART. and then KD brought out this crazy tool that looks like a video game knife-weapon, which he scraped my skin with to release the skin from the fascia and loosen the muscles.

Chiropractic and Acupuncture

First ever appointment with a real practising chiropractor (as opposed to interns at the Chiro College.) Big spender! Kevin is a practitioner at Athlete's Care, and Dr. Chen recommended him for putting me through very focused ART as well as acupuncture.

We started off with strength tests of the glutes and abductors - I have no strength in the left side. It's uncanny.

This was a lengthy appointment, with ART done on butt muscles I had not yet heard of in the course of treatment for my broken butt. He was actually able to find the exact sore spot I always feel after running.

He gave me an SI adjustment as well to realign my pelvis, but I need to do exercises to make sure it stays aligned.

After all the ART in the world, he stuck some acupuncture needles in my butt and then in my abductors, and then electro-shocked my muscles to get rid of scar tissue. I got off the table and wobbled around after that. I had zombie leg for the rest of the day.

He also prescribed a number of strength exercises.

1) clam shell: opening up the hip but making sure it's the butt that's doing the work, not the back
2) leg raise: up and slightly to the back, but again, not with the back
3) a bending-over exercise with a band
... a few other things he will send an email about
And he asked me to roll on a soft Travelroller ball against a wall after workouts

Essentially my muscles are knotted to shit as well as being extremely weak. So we need to strengthen them and break them apart. We did another strength test after the treatment, and I couldn't believe the difference. So away I go!

Sports Medicine

Went in for my follow-up appointment with Dr. Chen at Athlete's Care. He said my pelvis is realigned and that I can stop using the brace except for workouts. I'm kind of worried about giving it up.

He said I should try some ART or acupuncture on my butt to break up the tense, inflamed tissues. But a few hours after he had poked around, I developed the usual ache in my hamstring and sit bone, so now I'm reluctant to go in for more poking. It definitely aggravated my symptoms back in the spring. I forgot to mention that to him.

So really don't know what to do. He wants me to start some light training again and come back in a month. He might run another ultrasound, as he doesn't trust most clinics out there, ha. Anyway, I'm so confused about this whole thing and what to do over the next month.

Chiropractic Treatment

Sooooo.... it's not bursitis? Apparently the ultrasound should have shown these damaged tissues, AND riding for hours and hours on a bike should have aggravated it. They are kind of at a loss, but I got a mega-adjustment to my sacrum, which was very misaligned, and MAY be causing stress to the ischium. Sigh.

Ultrasound of the Butt

The chiro college sent me to a sports medicine clinic to get a quick evaluation by an MD so that I could get an ultrasound there. It sucks that chiros can't refer for diagnostics directly; it's just stupid.

I got my whole butt and upper hamstring ultrasounded and the other cheek as well for comparison. The short answer is that the technician didn't see a thing. We'll discuss the "results" next week, but I guess there won't really be any. Booooooo.....

Aggressive Ass Therapy

Commencing Operation: Aggressive Ass Therapy.

Went to sleep on an ice pack Monday night, although not sure if the cold was actually penetrating deep into my ass to get at the bursa. Then I tried to sleep curled up with a pillow between my legs to align my hips and prevent my hamstring from pulling on the bursa. Still got up in the morning with a sore ass.

Spending the day sitting on the ice pack, and now my ass is all wet.

I think sitting on a bulging hard surface is counteracting any good the ice might be doing, but this is a medical experiment. I'm supposed to keep this stuff up for 10 days while they treat me at the clinic.

Chiropractic Treatment

Instead of the electro-shock, this time I got a therapeutic ultrasound right on the ischiogluteal spot (15mins.)

There happened to be a stability ball in the room, and when I sat on it, it was instant comfort. I was advised to sit on that or something else soft. We tried a memory foam pillow, but it squished too much, and then a disk cushion, but this one still hurt my butt a bit. The SB seems like the way to go, although it'll look funny at work!

I'm also supposed to sleep on the uninjured side with a pillow between my knees to avoid stretching the injured side.

I will also have to start icing about 3x per day to reduce the inflammation.

The clinician told me that this is probably the hardest condition to treat. Even if we manage to get rid of the inflammation, the tissues around the bursa will have to be rehabilitated slowly so they don't reaggravate the area. I'm looking at basically not having a racing season this year.

Chiropractic Treatment

Back in for more electro-shock therapy. It was milder and shorter today, but it actually hurt the specific injured spot. Then I got the gluteal soft tissue worked on, but I'm not sure if it wasn't too aggressive. The area is really tender the whole day.

Chiropractic Treatment

Finally got a diagnosis for my achy butt. It's not the hamstring; it's not any of the glute muscles or piriformis. It's actually bursitis - an inflamed bursa, which is a little lubricating sack of fluid that sits between bone and muscle to make sure everything moves smoothly. I feel it through my glutes, but then it radiates down to my upper hamstring.

I've resigned myself to rest. Missing the Rattlesnake Point race and the SOF Chase. Trying not to act devastated. But it's for the best, or I won't be racing at all this season.

One treatment that can aid in healing is electrical stimulation. They attach flat pads to the skin with electrodes running to the machine. A light current vibrates over the pads, sometimes making the muscles tingle, sometimes even spasm. It's supposed to dampen the nerves that are sending pain signals, which somehow induces the healing process.

So far, it caused me to walk funny for the rest of the day.

Chiropractic Treatment

Priority today was my achy butt. I'd foam-rolled the day before, and although my Raid DOMS are basically gone, my left butt muscle is quite sore again. My intern found the problem pretty quickly and guessed it's probably the piriformis. She massaged it out a bit and then vibrated it while I was in a glute stretch. I am to roll it and stretch it. I hope it actually heals.

My cuboid joint is still very achy, but since nothing south of my knees caused me any problems at the Raid, it was just a few ankle adjustments and checks of the tibialis posterior, and I was fine. I did get vibrated on the IT band, and that was hell as usual.

Foam Rolling

I've had major DOMS in the upper legs since Thursday, plus that butt muscle/tendon is still achy, and now the lower medial quad or whatever is spasmatic, yikes. So I did some careful rolling tonight of the whole legs and butt. Wasn't so bad, but I know that those two problem spots are still acting up. Will see how they feel at my club run tomorrow night. Rolled my arches on the pressure balls as well.

Sick Days!

Having some sort of flu-ey cold since Friday, with lots of fever and throat issues. Missed a long bike ride. Generally up to nothing but sleeping and coughing.

Chiropractic Treatment

Ankle and foot adjustments (cuboid joint still sore), SI adjustment on the right, sub-tibial adjustment, Thumper on my calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and ITB. Didn't feel too bad.

I reported the pain in between my left hamstring and glute, so she tested the connecting tendon for tearing by having me press against her arm pushing down on my leg. I could resist very well, so she concluded that it's a minor strain that just needs some rest. Phew.

Foam Rolling

Big session tonight after the long run. I hit everything: calves, shins, hamstrings, quads, glutes, lower back, traps, upper arms, and I even got the pressure balls under my feet as the arches felt a bit strained. Took a whole hour, but will hopefully speed my recovery.

Chiropractic Treatment

Re-assessment day. Ankle and foot joints still need to be mobilized. Tons of tightness in the whole lower chain of muscles. And one more thing! My psoas muscles are incredibly tight, which apparently impacts the usefulness of my glutes. So unless I get that stretched out, it will impede my progress in the glute medius. It is a static stretch involving letting the leg hang off the side of the bed or bench for 15secs, x 4-6.

Other than that, got my feet adjusted and my lower leg soft-tissue work done.

Foam Rolling

Did the whole legs tonight; worst areas were glute-meds, lower quads, ITB, upper hamstrings, medial calf.

Chiropractic Treatment

My legs and butt definitely need some recovery after the 25K of hard terrain/trail running yesterday. Since my right knee had acted up during the run, my intern focused on my right IT band.

The usual adjustments to my dysfunctional foot joints and ankle joints, plus a lot of deep massage on my feet again, which was really painful. Then she used a Thumper on my calf muscles and on my right IT band, and I was nearly in tears.

Finally, I foam rolled my calf muscles and the IT bands. The parts that had been vibrated or massaged were in much better shape. My left IT band was horrendously painful, and I couldn't put my full body weight on it.

Prescription for next weekend: foam roll after the long run, hydrate with electrolytes during the run, goddamnit!

Chiropractic Treatment

Adjustments to my dysfunctional foot joints and ankle joints, plus a lot of deep massage on my feet, which hurt for the rest of the day. My intern used a Thumper on my calf muscles instead of her hands.  Most soreness in medial calf again.  SI joint adjustment as well.

Foam rolling on my calf muscles, with medial calf giving me big problems.

Squats on a Wobble Board, which will improve the proprioception in my weak ankle joints.
20 squats @ BW. Did not touch down once. Freaking wicked.

Chiropractic Treatment

Adjustments to my dysfunctional foot joints and ankle joints, and ART on my calf and shin muscles to take the pressure off my feet.  I had a substitute intern today, so the soft tissue work was a bit light.  Most soreness in medial calf again.  SI joint adjustment as well, but only required on the left side.

Foam rolling on my calf muscles, with medial calf giving me problems.
Also went on the vibrating machine again, wheeee!

Finally, squats on a Wobble Board, which will improve the proprioception in my weak ankle joints.
20 squats @ BW.  Felt great!