9 Months to Tri

Standard workout today.  I was tired, to be sure, so I know I didn’t do my best. The weights just seemed heavier today. Nevertheless, I pushed thru and finished all 3 sets of the workout, only failing on the bench press (that shouldn’t have happened) and the bicep curl (that wasn’t a surprise).

After the workout, one of the trainers, Kim, stops me and asks me if I’m interested in a massage, since the current appointment had just cancelled and Rick now had nothing to do. So I said sure. The massage therapist is the same guy who worked on my neck a while back. He specializes in sports injuries and the like. When I got in there, I asked if he thought if he could help with tendonitis, and he very quickly said “sure”.  After poking around my knee for a moment, he tells me to turn over since the problem is probably coming from my Gluteus Maximus. My butt? Really? My butt might be causing inflammation in my knee? Well, yes, apparently its possible. So, here’s the quick and dirty scoop:

Folks like me, who sit in a chair 10-14 hours a day, tend to have a problem with our Hip Flexors tightening because of the bent position of our legs and general lack of use of these muscles.  This tightening, Rick says, has a tendency of shutting down the nerve receptors to the gluteus maximus, which connects to the muscles all the way down the leg and right to the top of your foot. When this happens, the gluteus maximus puts extra strain on your knee and/or your foot and causes problems. Apparently in my case, its the knee. So, he worked on my muscles for a while, which he said were tightened up into a brick, and THEN he had me turn back over and worked on my knee for a few minutes of excruciating pain. He then tells me that my knee really shouldn’t be hurting like that, and if there hadn’t been anything wrong I wouldn’t be in pain. So, apparently my gluts and knee were both really out of whack.

When I left, he told me that I should see a dramatic improvement, but if the clicking continues, my inner quadricep might also be to blame and I could make an appointment for that next week.  When I left, there was definitely still clicking, but this evening, I’ve noticed that it has pretty much subsided.  For now. So remember, take care of your butt muscles.

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