Thursday physio and gym strength sessions

You wouldn't believe how much poo had shot up and out the back of my baby daughter's nappy this morning. We didn't have to cut her out of her clothes as we have done, so it wasn't award winning but by golly it was certainly impressive. But I digress away from my exercise oriented ramblings from the week gone past ...

My persistent right ham / glute problem is still niggling away - I can feel tightness when I stretch in certain angles and after runs - so I was pleased when I saw my physio / sports therapist on Thursday and it was a lot better under a good elbow and knuckle pummelling. There was no tightness or pain except at the extreme ends of the stretches he does on me. It looks like I have a weaker right glute which means it has been relatively more stressed as a consequence of running and has been tightening up more, recovering less, becoming more stressed and so on. Not critically so but in longer races (>35 miles) my right leg stiffens up and I think it's because of my having a weaker right glute.

I've been doing strengthening exercises (lying on my back on the floor, heels on bed then raising my body up to a 45 degree angle then back) and Simon, the therapist, has recommended I do 50% more stretching on the right side to alleviate additional tightness. The strengthening appears to be paying dividends so let's hope with the additional stretching I can say goodbye to the dodginess in my right bum cheek muscle.



This might look like a gratuitous lady in tight clothes exercising photo but it's relevant - honest. Read on ...

I left it a few hours after seeing Simon before I returned to the gym after work to do my once fortnightly strength session. I'm using single leg seated leg presses - the exercise the lady in the photo above is doing but with one leg rather than two to mimic running muscle movement better - to strengthen the glute / ham and they are definitely getting easier. I do 2 sets of 15 reps with 30 seconds breather in between then 3 sets of 15 with a 2 sets of wide arm pull-ups in between (continuous - no break). Not sure of the weight as the machine has its own units which are a bit like pounds but not quite.

Been toying with the idea of a bikini separates set just like the lady in the photo but have decided to stay with the more conservative shorts and t-shirt, at least until the weather heats up a bit.
;-)