Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Break Through . . . maybe !?! July 29 to Aug. 2

Ok. I know that I have said this before, but this time I really do think that I am starting to put this injury behind me. Here is the thing, last we sucked! My achilles was just not feeling good, the rest of my left leg was starting to feel really tight as well. I was freaking out to say the least, so I was on the Internet looking up everything that I could find about achilles injuries. After a long while I ran across the video below: 

Which is really boring to anyone who doesn't have an achilles injury, but what is important about it is that he talks about how even though someone fells pain in their achilles ofter the root of the injury is located elsewhere in the leg, and that doctors often need to treat this other portion of the leg in order to relive the pain.  I didn't even have to watch the whole video before I felt like I know the cause of my pain!! 

I have known for sometime now that my left Hamstring is very tight and needs a lot of stretching.  It has caused me a good deal of pain in the past, but it didn't occur to me that it could be the source of this latest injury as well until I cam across this video.  I immediately stopped trying to treat my achilles and stared focusing upon my hamstrings and response was nothing short of immediate. First off, I really stared focusing on doing long periods of deep stretches and using the foam roller on my legs.  My God, the first time I tried to really stretch my left leg, I thought that I was going to explode and I was basically in tears, but my hammy was so tight.  I bent over to touch my toes, which was impossible, but I tried to keep my knees straight and hold the stretch for thirty seconds.  During that time, I tried not to wet myself and cry like child in the midst of a meltdown,; I could feel the stretch all the was up into my gluts and lower back as well as down into my achilles.  After I end the stretch my achilles felt so good !  better than it has after any of the calf stretches or exercises that I have been doing.  Basically, I think that all the stairs that I had been running tightened up my Hamstring and caused a strain on my achilles, and all efforts to to treat the achilles itself mealy irritated the and caused more stress on the achilles than it needed.  

I spent all of Thursday and Friday stretching my whole leg focusing mainly upon my hamstring, and by Saturday, I was back on the treadmill running a mile, and the difference from Monday was night and day.  It felt so much better.  My leg tightened up some that night, but my wife helped me stretch and gave me and a great massage, and on Sunday the leg felt great.  I took Sunday off just to rest up, but Honestly I feel so much better about where I am.  Cross your fingers, knock on wood, and all that Jazz! 

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