Right Hamstring Fatigue
About 10 years ago, I was really really heavy and I fell in the snow. The fall tore the tendon/muscles from my knee cap. A surgeon had to dril holes in the knee cap and reattach the muscles. It left the knee pretty weak in general.
Fast forward to now. I'm no longer heavy and I can run/bike pain free. The bad news is I have some lingering biomechanical issues, and I'm not sure what to do with them.
1. When I run, I tend to swing that leg around rather than pick it up. I run duck footed on that side on the best day.
2. When I run and bike (but especially when I run!) my right hamstring is the first muscle to fatigue. By the end of a marathon it will be burning, and my other muscles will be notably less painful.
3. On my CT, the spinscan indicates that I'm firing a bit late on the right leg. The red line in polar mode is at about 120 degrees.
I'm guessing that I have a few seperate issues wrapped around my previous knee problem, but I have no idea how to address them, if they can be addressed, or who to even talk to about doing such a thing. Should I be talking to a sports doc, a Physical Therapist???
Any ideas/help would be appriciated.
Comments
Miichael:
you should have this evaluated by a doctor. neurologist or orthopaedic/sports medicine.
the wide swinging leg can be a result of weakening of a nerve called the peroneal nerve, which is down stream of the sciatic nerve higher up. weakening of this nerve results in foot drop, which could explain your wide swing and unruly duck style on that side.
can you walk on your heels without any problem? if you notice difficulty on the affected side upon walking on your heels, then you have weakness in this nerve.
the hamstring weakness could be a result of a possible disk herniation that has not advanced to the degree where it feels like lava on the nerve. seems like you have no pain, just weakness. this could also result in some sciatic nerve deficit and subsequent misfiring at the hamstring.
these nerves are at the posterior of your leg and your injury was at the front, but your symptoms are very clear, so worth getting evaluated, especially since if the source of the nerve weakness is identified it can be corrected before any further weakening takes place and maybe even can be reversed.
sincerely, drgh.
oh and excellent job on not being heavy anymore. this is so important for your overall health. my little brother went through the same transformation and will be doing his first Ironman this June.
drgh
Thank you for the help! I can walk on my heels without any problem. I also can dorsiflex both ankles very well without issue. I think I'll take your advice and try to find / start with a sports medicine doctor.
Thanks
Mike
My advice is to do this when you can really devote the time and energy to the process versus smashing it into a season full of races/events. This is tough stuff, requires lots of concentration, and will mean lots of strengthening and drill work. Those new muscle firing patterns need to be hammered home before getting back out the door to run on them. If that is more involved than you want or impossible with the schedule, then go the sports PT route and they can do a quick treadmill run analysis and give you some exercises to start working on to the process.
Very good. If you can walk on heels with no problem, then the source of the wide leg swing and weak hammy is higher up.
The reason to see a specialist ortho spine/sports or a sports minded neurologist, is because pathology on MRI of lumbar spine needs to be correlated
To the symptoms. Abnormalities on MRI are not uncommon, so takes a trained eye to look beyond the false positives.
Rule out a medical cause before focusing only on rehab because it can maybe be fixed or further weakness prevented.
Good luck! Drgh