Now that I’m starting to gear up for my training for my next marathon, I’m hurting. The last 2 weeks or so, my hips seem like they want to take over as the central pain center in my body. I can just hear them now, “hey, you’ve had knee, hamstring, calf, and IT band problems. Now it’s our turn to cause you discomfort. That’s right, we’re hip.” I know, bad pun, but it’s all I could come up with. I think that maybe it’s just tightness in that whole hip area region, but my fear is that it is either arthritis, or something related to my MS. I took it a bit easy this week running, and on Monday I’m going to a muscle and joint alignment specialist. And no, it’s not a chiropractor. At least that’s what she said.
I think that if it is just tightness, I should be getting off my ass and start doing yoga. I hardly stretch at all to begin with, which I know is not good. I used to do yoga and I really enjoyed it except I looked like an elephant trying to squeeze into a Volkswagen. All these other people in the class seemed so small and limber, and I’m struggling with even trying to just touch my toes. Maybe it’s different now since it’s a lot more popular, and there are other Dumbo’s in the class.
I would think that if it was arthritis or MS, it wouldn’t affect both hips at the same time. It would be more like a pain in one side, but not the other. At least that’s what I’m guessing and I do watch the show Dr. House, so I am a bit of an expert.
Ouch! Sounds very uncomfortable. Hope your visit to the doc goes well!
Your yoga comment made me laugh so hard! I felt the same way when I did yoga a few times! I even considered myself to be fairly limber, but compared to the pretzel formations of my yoga classmates, I left as limber as a steel pipe! Found that it was best not to compare myself to others in the class, as many of them had been doing yoga for years. Any more limber & they’d all be recruited for Cirque de Soleil!
Oops, I meant to write, “I felt as flexible as a steel pipe!”
Anyhow, let us know how your visit to the doc goes. Hope it’s nothing too serious.
Just curious: Do you walk at all before your runs? I find that helps a lot to stretch the legs a bit, & then also it’s easier to stretch after walking a bit too. Just a thought.
I don’t usually walk first, but I do a real slow pace for about the first mile and then after 2 miles, I’ll stop and do some light stretching. I think that I probably need to target my hip region which is something that I’ve neglected. I usually do mainly hamstring and quad stretches.
Sounds like a good plan!
Hi Dave:
RE: yoga–I did it for a while a couple years ago. The first few weeks I hurt like you wouldn’t believe–sore, stiff, felt like a 90-year old (or like what I imagine a 90-year-old, non-stretching, out of shape person feels). But I stuck with it, and eventually after a month or so the limberness came. I can’t really tell you why I don’t do it now–just fell out of the habit I guess–but it was good while it lasted.
Jim
Hi Dave,
Have you stopped by Mister Scott’s blog, http://run-a-bout.blogspot.com? He writes a lot about yoga, in addition to running. He seems to know a lot about it too. Maybe you & he can trade thoughts on the subject. I’m not exactly one to advise you, since I’ve only done it a few times!
-C
Thanks for tip. I’ll check out his site and see what it’s like.