After my last marathon on March 5th I took some time off. About 6-7 weeks. In that time I was in a slight fender bender that wrenched my back. When I started back up again I started getting severe pain in the highlighted area. The pain intensifies l, but then gets better if I point my toes up and walk for a bit on my heels.

I've gotten massages, stretched more, lowered mileage; and it still happens every run about a mile in. Could the wreck have changed my gait? My last training cycle had peaked at 60mpw. I had started a pretty aggressive 10k plan when the pain started, so maybe I strained it?

In any case, I'm having an unrelated surgery this Friday and will have plenty of time to rehab it in the month after. Any tips are appreciated.

Peroneal tendonitis? Any swelling? What else bothers it?

No swelling that I can really tell. Maybe slight? Nothing else really seems to bother it. I typically walk several miles a day and climb quite a bit.

Highly unlikely, but could be spinal related. Have seen it before. Guy with "shin splints" after some testing, noted to have slightly diminished motor function (or perhaps sensory function) in the lower leg. EMG revealed something off, MRI showed a tethered cord (if I recall correctly). This guy was in his late 20's, never had a problem. Not sure where it came from. Was an avid runner for years.

Thanks for seeing me on short notice man! Good bull.

Keep me updated to your progress. And if anyone else in the Austin area needs some PT I would be glad to offer up my expertise.

Any advice for Achilles pain? Not sure what I did but my Achilles will just randomly be sore for a day or two. Pain isn't severe but just enough to not want to run or make a quick cut. Workouts haven't changed and it's completely fine during leg workouts (calves are a little tight at first).

I'm not sure if my calves are just overly tight or maybe something else triggered it. Just looking for a stretch or something to try and see if it alleviates some of the pain when it does happen.

Usually you shouldn't stretch Achilles tendons if it is actue. Sometimes it's actually the soleus behind the calf that is tight and will respond to stretching. Does it feel like it on the tendon or higher up?

It's the tendon. It's sore to touch just above the heel.

What shoes you wearing for running? Are those old and need to be changed? Has your mileage jumped all of a sudden. Any other factors you can think of why you are having this pain?

Any tips for medial epicondylitis? Not sure what caused it, but it started a couple months ago as a discomfort. But over the past month it has actually gotten painful. Pain is really bad with supinated pullups, as well as barbell benching. I've cut back on those activities and been stretching the forearm flexor muscles, as well as massage, and things seemed to stabilize, but now it has become even more sensitive to more activities. Activities that didn't bother it at all before, despite avoiding activities that used to.

For example, just picking up heavy dumbbells used to not be an issue, but now it does. Likewise, I used to put my hand on a wall with my wrist extended to stretch the forearm, and that used to not hurt, but now it's quite uncomfortable. Previously only used to hurt if I fully internally rotated my forearm and extended the elbow and wrist as hard as possible.

Just decrease activity to further avoid aggravating activities?

Now that you mention it, I started wearing one of my pairs of shoes without soles for my leg workouts (flatter shoe) and am wondering if doing some cardio (stair climber) in those is possibly the culprit.

Remove the offending factors for now. Focus on Tyler's Twist exercsies with a Therabar and small weights to build up strength before really loading it up. Calm stuff down and build it back up. Also, might be helpful to get some hands on work and needling around the elbow. I have good success with that.

This might be just it. Pick a more supportive shoe and let me know how it goes.

Thanks for doing this thread. It's very noble of you to give back and offer help.



TL;DR:
Legs stiff and painful after standing and/or walking. Tried Pain management, PT and Chiropractor with no help.

I'm sorry to hear that. That's a tough road to go down. It sounds like the knees and the back are the issues here. Did anyone ever mention you have stenosis in your back? Do you still have that imaging report from 2018? It sounds the knee replacement are holding up well. Has anyone suggested you see a neurosurgeon at any point?

According to the 2018 MRI report, L4-L5 have, among other things "minimal disc bulging causing mild bilateral recess stenosis and mild to moderate foraminal stenosis".

According to what I've read, rest, PT, pain meds, weight loss, stretching, chiropratic care and injections are recommended. I've done all of these but really need to speed up the weight loss.

No one has suggested a Neurosurgeon.

Stiffness in left knee for last 3 days, range of motion is still good but I really feel it going into a squat position. No pain, no known injury, just lots of running, actually fewer miles lately. A couple of harder effort runs this past weekend and I guess I could have jammed the knee at some point without realizing it. Anything I can do besides rest, ice, anti-inflammatories?

Ride a bike or get in a pool to loosen up the knees. The bike is a great way to lubricate the knees.

Thanks, I have both available. Will report back soon.

I had some bad knee pain a long time ago after a week of backpacking. Wasn't going away. One day of swimming and it made a world of difference.

On another note, have you heard of this thing called the Iron Neck? Any thoughts on it? Gimmick? Or legit potential?

Strengthening the neck does makes sense just like any other part of the body. It just looks odd. The neck in my experience is really strong to begin with so not sure how many people are weak there.

Had rotator cuff surgery for 2 medium sized cuff tears, a distal Clavicle excision and labral debridement on 6/22. Dr says to start PT asap. Have first appt 7/3. Too soon for PT? I had my other shoulder done 5 years ago for smaller tears and could have sworn it was 3+ weeks before PT began. Also thoughts on dry needling? This standalone PT where my appt is seems to be big on it but my insurance doesn't cover.

Depends on the doc and their preference. When I would treat more post-op cuff patients we would start fairly soon after surgery to make sure they didn't stiffen up. The important part in rehab early is to minimize scarring and gentle passive movement to keep from getting a frozen shoulder. This is especially important with older women or those who have diabetes.

If you have a full labral repair then waiting a bit would be a good idea to make sure the anchors stay in place. Either way early mobilization is important and not doing aggressive strengthening exercises is key in early stages of rehab.

I coach and I've noticed an issue with female athletes. When they squat, weights or body weight, a significant number of them turn their knees in before driving up. We've really started to focus on this with them and reminded them to "keep the knees over the toes". What are the issues causing such movement and what can be the long term effects? Also, any ideas on how to help avoid this?

It is hip weakness. Usually glut medius which stabilizes the hip. Have them focus on exercises which work on strengthening the lateral hips and that should help over time.

aggiederelict said:

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Ride a bike or get in a pool to loosen up the knees. The bike is a great way to lubricate the knees.

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No running for 4 days, a 20 minute or so trainer ride and a little swimming helped a great deal. Knee felt good during and after today's run. Thanks again for your solid advice on here for all of us.

Glad to help in any way I can.

I have been dealing with lower leg pain off and on for the past 5 or so years now. it comes and goes. It will be fine for a few months up to about 6 months. Then the pain comes back, and sometimes it doesn't go away for over 6 months. It is the right leg. more on the lateral side to anterior side, upper part below the knee. It always gets aggravated by running or using the elliptical machine. however, once aggravated it hurts to peddle on a bike, walk, and even with swimming.

It started out feeling like i had some type of tendonitis. The first doctor sent me to a PT. the PT said that i didn't need to use more orthotics because i don't have flat feet. Which i have had to have some since junior high over 30 years ago. He also said that it is caused by my little toe is raised up a little bit above my other toes. It won't lie completely flat. Worked with him for about 6 weeks. It seemed to get a little better, but not enough to where i was pain free.

I then saw another othro doc, and he said it was due to tight IT Band, and sent me back to another PT. Where they focused on the IT band. Did another 6 weeks, still not pain free. I gave up and decided just not do anything lower body for several months. It finally got better to where I could do the elliptical, lift lower body, and hot yoga. However, any running or HIIT activity would aggravate it. After nearly a year i tired to do some running. It came back, and I was down for over 6 months again.

I finally was able to get to running again, and was able to do OTF for about 6 months before it came back. This time it went away after 3 months. I worked out again for a month with no issues, and it came back. I was down for another 6 months.

During this time i also saw a podiatrist who said i do need orthotics because my foot inverts in. I knew this because my shoes always wear out on the outside heal before anywhere else. So got some new ones. Then had to make an adjustment to them. And got some more new ones to prevent more inversion and cause me to push off of my big toe more. That seemed to work, but it still keeps coming back. The only good thing is that it doesn't feel like the burning sensation of tendonitis. My podiatrist said that is probably because previously it was also causing a major nerve to flare up in that area.

These last few times it just feels like i can never stretch it enough. If feels like that whole area has had Saran Wrap tightly wrapped around it, and it feels like it would be better if someone would just slice it with a knife to make it not so tight.

Currently, i have that feeling some; however, there is more of a noticeable sharp pain in one spot also.

The podiatrist says they have done all they could do because the pain is too far up the leg. The last time i saw an orthopedic, he said i just need to stretch my calves more. Which i already do a lot along with other lower body stretching.

Sorry for the long post. This has been very frustrating. Any thoughts or ideas?

Just a thought, did anyone mention Exertional Compartment Syndrome? Your saran wrap comment made me think of this.

Where are you located? Your statement about feeling the need to slice it open it telling but we need more info. Do your feet go numb or feel like pins and needles when you exercie?

I am in the North Fort Worth area, near Keller.

My feet and toes have never gone numb. Never had a feeling of pins and needles while exercising. There has never been any pressure to where it feels like something is going to explode if there isn't a release.

The reason why i say it feels like tight Saran Wrap is because that area just feels tight no matter what. When I planter flex and dorsi-flex it almost feels like it is sticky or kinda like sand paper rubbing.

I have a feeling that it maybe due to poor running form or just lack strength in the lower leg, ankle, foot muscles.

ORIF Acetabular fracture on 6/5/23. 0 weight bearing status on left leg through end of August and will hopefully be cleared to start walking end of August. Have been doing PT 3x/wk to combat atrophy and regain mobility/range of motion.

How long would you think I'll be looking like a newborn giraffe once I start trying to walk again?

I obviously plan on continuing to work with PT during that process, but after I get my legs under me, how long would you expect that I would need to keep attending PT?

Yeah probably not compartment syndrome then. Can you send a video of you running on the treadmill?

That's a serious injury. You are going to be in PT for months. How did you hurt it?