Thursday, February 26, 2009

ART Session #4 - Adductors

Great progress today in getting to the heart of matters. First off, the stretching shock and awe is definitely helping. That much is obvious. But more needs to be done, and those things are doable and will just take time.

I was given a new heel lift that is thicker, now that I am acclimated with the previous one. The shorter right leg is a huge contributor to the plantar fasciitis which exists only in the left foot, and today was an eye opener as to how much that slightly shorter right leg has things out of whack.

Long story short, when one leg is longer than the other, strength in each leg is not going to be symmetrical. I was asked to do exercises testing the adductor muscles (upper, inner leg; near the groin).

I laid on the ground my right side first, and they had me extend my left out all the way and rest it on a chair, then lift my right leg up to touch the left leg. Okay, fine. Did about 35 or so reps until I felt fatigued.

Then I switched sides to test the left leg (the one with the PF).... hooooooooly crap. After three reps my leg was shaking and I struggled to only do 12 of them. I was seriously shocked. Yep, having a peg leg really does throw things out of balance. Wow.

So, the goal is to strengthen this side up, doing this exercise and another one that is too complicated to explain and I can't find a picture for it. This will provide needed support for the entire leg, and help absorb the workload that is contributing to the PF. I'll also continue doing exercises to strengthen the lower left that were previously prescribed.

No doubt this will take a few or several weeks to sort out, but the cause of the plantar fasciitis is quite obvious. It is really comforting knowing what exactly caused it and having a very logical game plan to correct it. The heel lift should definitely help, and of course the exercises and continued stretching as well. This is really nice to know, especially given how tricky of an injury plantar fasciitis is. Mad props to the folks at Raymond Chiropractic. Those guys are good.

1 comment:

Garry said...

Sounds encouraging! Hopefully you are getting to the root of this nasty PF problem and you can get it behind you.