Meal: Spinach, Strawberry, and Walnut Salad @ 12pm
Today, my friend Doug offered to give me an Overhead Squat Assessment to check which muscles may be weak and/or not firing correctly and contributing to my injuries and miscellaneous pain. Doug is a highly decorated personal trainer, owner ofConditioning Specialists at 1329 State Street in Santa Barbara, and Editor of SB Fitness Magazine (he totally has a ton of spare time other than that...not).
Anyway, he started me out on the treadmill, where he checked my gait. When I got new shoes in early April, the folks at Santa Barbara Running did a treadmill test to check my gait. Basically, they had me run on a treadmill and they videotaped me from behind, then slowed down the video to see how I was landing. This is when I learned that I was supinating on my left foot (landing on the outside edge) - which was most likely causing my IT Band injury. Doug's assessment today was actually quite different. He moved around to check my gait from the front and found that my left foot appears to be landing perfectly straight, but my right foot points slighly to the outside when it lands. As he explained it, "you can drive your truck with one wheel slightly off center for a few months but eventually it's going to bend your axle and throw your alignment off." He suspects that some of my pain in my left leg may have been as a result of overcompinsating for my right. Admittedly, its also likely that I've adjusted my stride since the first treadmill test so there's probably a lot of mechanics going in to my muscle fatigue and injuries.
Next, he did the squat assessment test, which entailed putting my arms above my head (I hate that, by the way) and squatting my butt towards the floor (similar to the chair pose in yoga), moving up and down for several repetitions. While I did this, he walked around me and looked for certain behaviors to assess which muscles were weak or not firing properly. Here is what he observed:
| View | Movement Observation | Muscle Tightness | Muscle Weakness |
| Anterior (Front) | Knee Moves Inward | Adductor Complex | Gluteus Medius Gluteus Maximus |
| Lateral (Side) | Excessive Forward Lean | Calf Complex Hip Flexors | Gluteus Medius Gluteus Maximus Medial Hamstring |
| Lateral (Side) | Arms Fall Forward | Lattissumus Dorsi Pec Major Pec Minor | Mid/Lower Trapezius Rhomboids |
| Posterior (Rear) | Foot Flattens | Peroneal | Posterior Tibialis Gluteus Medius Gluteus Maximus |
With each recorded tightness and weakness, Doug gave me a corresponding flexibility or strength exercise to help correct the problem and prevent further injuries. It was all very interesting...I only wish I had done this sooner!
After meeting with Doug, I headed to the gym to get in a brief workout on the elliptical before returning to work. (I would have trained longer, but I had already stretched my lunch hour a bit too far.) After a quick 5-minute stretch, I tried starting out on the treadmill, but I couldn't shake the tightness on the inside of my right thigh. I have found, once I warm up a bit, that the tightness alleviates - but I didn't want to push it too hard since I'm already pretty nervous about Saturday's 3 hour, 15 minute practice. The low-impact elliptical machine was a good option, and I got a decent cross-training workout in. As I mentioned, I was running late back to work so I didn't have time to stretch afterward...something I know I will regret later.
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