Muscle imbalances: Just like the name sounds, you have an asymmetrical muscle development. You have a long, weak muscle in one area and the exact opposite muscles are short and tight. If your other training or previous athletic activities include sports such as tennis, badminton, swimming the side stroke, cheerleader doing high kicks, etc., you probably have a left-to-right muscle imbalance. If you are an avid bicyclist you probably have a significant front-to-back muscle imbalance from those hours in a tucked position. The person working in those oil-change stations, looking up from below all day, frequently have horrible neck muscle imbalances.
History: Muscle imbalances are usually the result of a sport or occupation. It is pretty rare to find a muscle imbalance from an accident or injury, but they can happen. If you have an ankle sprain or fracture and have to wear one of those orthopedic boots, you can develop a right-to-left muscle imbalance because of a long leg (in the boot) and the other leg having to heft that heavy boot all day. Athletes in asymmetrical sports such as tennis, golf, darts (don’t tell the Brits that darts is not a sport!), typically have a Left-to-Right asymmetry.
Self-Exam: Here are some things you may look for:
1) You may not notice anything in the mirror unless you look closely. Then you will notice one shoulder more muscular than the other or one arm bigger than the other.
2) Ask a close friend to look at you from the side or back while you are wearing a tight-fitting shirt. They may be able to see some muscle differences.
3) Stand in front of a mirror and raise your hands up in front or out to the side. One may move more than the others. (Watch a pitcher do this. Holy mackerel, what a difference!)
Treatment:
1) Manage the pain:
a. WOW, this is hard to do on a website!!
b. Kinesiology taping may help. Apply it with a light tension on the sore muscles. If you have discovered a weakness you can apply it with greater tension to the weak muscles to encourage them to work harder. VID
c. Ice or heat can relieve your pain.
i. Ice right after you get done running
ii. Heat on non-running days
d. Continue running but avoid aggressive speed work and hill repeats, especially downhill running.
2) Restore full motion:
a. After you (or your friend) checked yourself out in the mirror you can emphasize stretching to the tight muscles.
i. You are trying to restore relative symmetry to your body so do not stretch both sides equally. Stretch your tight side more often. VID
b. Stretching does not have to be part of your warm-up or cool-down. But it HAS to be part of your training program. LIN
3) Begin non-weightbearing exercises to restore strength without all the pressure on the joints
a. I sure wish I could give better advice here, but I don’t know which muscle is short and which muscle is weak.
b. My recommendation is to locate someone who is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), or American Council on Exercise (ACE). There are a lot of flaky groups ‘certifying’ trainers. Those above are very good.
c. You will not be at this level very long; we just need to increase your strength while minimizing stress on your knee.
d. If you have questions about a personal trainer, please contact me.
4) Begin body weight exercises with emphasis on control versus strength and power.
a. Progress your training to bet back to running without pain.
b. Click here for video to know if you are ready to progress to more aggressive exercises.
5) Correct running mechanics.
a. Gradually return to your previous running. Start on relatively flat ground or even on a treadmill. The best part of returning to running with a treadmill is that you can actually hear your footsteps. Also, a lot of treadmills are in front of a mirror so you can see your hands move and your feet move. If your arms or legs swing weird, you may want to have a physical therapist complete an evaluation before you return to full running. Listen and ‘feel’ how you run. Is one leg hitting the ground harder than the other? Does one arm swing differently than the other? Until you can run without pain and with fairly symmetrical running mechanics, you are still at risk of reproducing your old injury or creating a whole new injury to another part of your body.
b. As soon as you can run without pain and without a limp you can return to your normal running routine.
6) Return to running speedwork and hills. After you have been able to run on flat ground for a week with your with your normal training and have not had any pain, you can begin to add speed and hill training to your program.
7) My favorite step, get back to full running! Have fun. Eventually you will bust something else and be back to the website to fix that.
8) If you follow the steps on the website for 2-6 weeks (depending on how badly you hurt yourself the first time and on how long you tried to ‘run through the pain’) and your problem does not resolve, then call our clinic for an appointment and we can do something Dr. Google cannot do. We can complete a hands-on evaluation, in-person evaluation to determine the cause of your pain.