A lot of runners have told me about the leg assessments that Mike does at his shop, SBR Sport in Sunninghill. So, with all my leg problems and knowing that I probably needed to buy new shoes again, I decided that it would be a good idea to have this assessment done.

I went on Tuesday at lunchtime, and it took an hour to do.

Now, that’s actually quite a long time, but my word Mike is thorough!

He asked me about injuries, and I told him my woes about my ITB and about the pain in my right knee that I used to get. In fact, I’ve started getting it again when my ITB is really bad too.

He prodded my muscles and quickly found where I was hurting. LOL!

He measured all sorts of angles as I moved around, and wrote a lot of notes.

Then I got on a treadmill and ran for 50 seconds while he video’ed me from the side. That video was scrutinised and he measured loads of angles and lengths as he slowed it down and stopped it, and rewound it umpteen times. Then I went back onto the treadmill, and ran while he video’ed me from the back. And then that recording was measured too.

At the end of the session he explained what he found… this is a very basic rundown:

1. Yes I have ITB, but I also have PFP (runners knee in my right knee), and my glutes, hips and hamstrings are really weak. I basically knew that though… although he’s given me different exercises to do (not the same as the physio did)

2. I need to carry on taking the cartilage supplement the GP prescribed (to get the moisture back into my bones after the Roaccutane), although because the active ingredient Glucosamine isn’t absorbed easily, I should only see the effects in a YEAR!! Good grief, that’s a long way away… but he says it’ll be worth it in the long run so that’s what I’m going to do. And Omega 3 is a vital supplement too.

3. I’ve been using the wrong shoes!! Now this was one of the reasons I went to him. And yes, I did go to a specialist running shop to get my shoes. The anti-pronation shoes were not needed, so they were causing more strain on my ITB. He could clearly see in the video that I’m running perfectly neutrally, but I need a bit of arch support… so he’s recommended the Brooks Ghost range (which I’ve bought… they’re the most ugly grey colour but anyhoo).  He said it looks like I’m pronating because my muscles are collapsing my feet… and because the shoes that were recommended before were pronation shoes… they are forcing my knees to come in to compensate for the support I don’t need, which puts more strain on my ITB! Yip, it’s complicated.

4. I need to strengthen my glutes and quads and back muscles. And I need to stretch. A lot.

5. I need to shorten my stride. Because my muscles are weak, my stride is putting more strain on my legs.

6. I need some massage therapy too… which could be done by my physio

It was really very interesting, and I found it extremely worthwhile. At the end of the session you go home with all his notes, as well as diagrams showing you all the exercises you need to do. It’s never a bad thing to be more informed about your body.

 

 

 

There’s more information on the SBR website if you’re interested.

The proof is in the pudding though… so I’m going for a 4km run tomorrow in my new shoes, we’ll see how it goes.

I’m going to have to really slow down my expectations of the races I was going to do… I’m going to have to train slowly for a while. It’s going to kill me though, I have serious FOMO when my RWFL running buddies go on a long Sunday run, or run a quick 10km during the week… but it’s going to have to wait a bit.

I’ll let you know how it goes… stay tuned.

Disclaimer: I wasn’t ask to blog about this at all, I just think it was a great thing to do, and now I know exactly what is wrong, and what shoes to buy.