Dillema on Running: the psoitis menace
I am struggling with my Ileopsoas again and trying to avoid both injury and having everyone scolding me for being so irresponsible. The Ileopsoas complex is a dangerous site of injury for many athletes. There are not too many good references on this, none epidemiological, but Gray’s piece is quite instructive (http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/tc/tc1009/back.htm ). The ileopsoas is not visible and acts “inside the hip joint (see pictures on the links bellow), which is a first obstacle to monitor it’s condition by the athlete him(her)self. The second problem is that when it starts hurting, depending on how it has been injured or affected, it may take the form of an acute back pain, an acute abdominal pain, both or none … just something pulling inside or near the joint.
You can read about it at the article above or you can believe me: I had all of them. Once my father took me to the Emergency room believing I was having a severe appendicitis crisis. Another time I ended up there again because friends thought it was kidney stones. Both times, it was just a nasty case of Ileopsoas pulled muscle pain. And caused by what? Can you guess?
Because stupid me decided to run one day after having either squatted or deadlifted … heavy. On those days (long, long ago, about six months away from now:), when I knew nothing about powerlifting, this could be an excusable mistake. Not anymore: I should know better now. I have been extensively lectured on the psoas threat by Gilson (my coach) to understand the dangers of not warming up or stretching it properly, and, obviously, of further straining it through running after a heavy squat/deadlift workout. My doctor, however, has been very strict on my about cardio. She demands I do it properly at least 4 days a week. She checks me every two months or even more to see if my HDL/LDL ratio is on the range she likes it to be (plus 50 other tests:) and if it is not, then I get lectured on the dangers of heart damage on strength sports. Believe me: when I spent three months doing very little or no cardio, she really disliked the rate (although the whole cholesterol was very low and all … no deal with her).
Walking is extremely boring, stationary bike so much more that it makes me feel like a hamster, swimming is unavailable at the moment and, to make things really worse, I LOVE running (I used to be on the high performance group on street races in S£o Paulo a year and a half ago). I try to avoid this subject with my powerlifting friends because they have scolded me more than once. They claim I am backpaddling, sabotaging my progress and, moreover, exposing myself to unnecessary injury risk. In a sense they are right: there is enough evidence to support the claim that intense strength and endurance training are not compatible and that the strength gains are cut back by such combinations. So I try to act on the “intense part of the statement, by doing it “light. At least I think it is and it feels light to me.
Yesterday I thought it would be ok to run, but it wasn’t. I hadn’t done any “heavy squatting or deadlifting. However, I had done several accessory exercises, such as squatting with rubber bands and frontal squatting. Many reps, many sets. I was feeling just a little bit sore and: oh: sure: I should have “listened to my body. Not a running day, definitely. No, I am not from my last visit to the Emergency Room, but I am holding an ice pack on my back and I am being very careful:
Gray’s Anatomy
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/gray/subjects/subject?id=127
Nice picture: http://www.fitstep.com/Advanced/Anatomy/Hip_flexors.htm
