Physical Therapy Visit
I had my first visit today with Mark, a physical therapist. When deciding which PT to see, I knew Mark’s office was a bit of a hike for me, but since he was well regarded by a bunch of runners I thought it would be worth the trip, instead of just picking a closer but random PT. (The PT I had visited previously was probably fine for most situations, but I wanted to go to one that specialized in runners this time).
We started out with Mark taking a training/injury history from me. Then he had me perform a bunch of movement and balance exercises (I felt incredible clumsy trying to do some of the exercises). Next he took measurements of my feet/ankles and checked flexibility. I apparently have a small leg-length discrepancy. He also had me put pressure pads in my shoes to see how my feet distributed stress when walking. Just as the PT I visited about 5 months ago saw, I was doing almost no toe-off. I had focused on proper toe-off sometimes during running and thought I had improved on it , but the pressure sensors showed that wasn’t the case. I also was showing much higher pressures on my right foot, which indicates I am favoring it. Mark also had me run outside for a few short bursts of varying speeds under his watchful eye to check my running form.
After he was finished with his observations and measurements, he said my form wasn’t (completely) horrible, but that there definitely were some areas I could improve. Unfortunately there wasn’t any clear clues as to what might be causing the lower leg sensations, but he recommended that I take a break for two weeks and see if the rest helps. He thought I could try doing PT exercises without adding additional (much) stress to my calves, so I’ll try working with his team and see how it goes.