Here’s a brief update on what I’ve been up to this week and what I’ve noticed about the condition of my body.

Here are the videos I spoke about in the video…

Single Leg Squat from a Seated Position (R)

As I mentioned in the introduction video, my strength and balance isn’t great on this side but I’m able to pretty much blag 14 reps on a few sets with this exercise. What I should be doing is keeping my knee over my ankle, preventing knee valgus (bringing my R knee in towards the midline of my body/the other knee), and making sure my R hip, knee and ankle are all in line with each other.

Single Leg Squat from a Seated Position (L)

Clearly I can’t balance on my L leg very well, I’m able to just about get 4 reps in a few sets only from persevering. You could tell with my reaction that I was a bit apprehensive with the first rep as I could feel I had no power. I focussed on driving through my L heel, but I’m still unable to keep that straight line from my L hip, knee and ankle, regardless of poor balance! Also, I did make an effort to control my body to the start position to get the most out of the exercise, however balance prevented me from doing this! Ideally I should drop my body from the standing to seated position.

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift (R)

Ideally I need my non-weight bearing (NWB) leg and my upper body to act like a see saw. A nice straight line from the NWB and upper body to create this see saw image to get the most from this exercise. Also, I need to prevent my NWB leg from rotating inwards and crossing over the mid line of my body. I felt ok with this exercise, I know I can do better with a few aspects, but I did feel I was using my upper body strength to keep myself balanced.

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift (L)

With this exercise on my L leg, no see saw technique with the NWB and I was very unstable. I felt my L foot was working very hard, and my hamstrings and gluteals weren’t, which is the whole point of this exercise. I could only manage a few poor reps here. Are you seeing a theme yet?!

Reverse Lunge with Hip Flexion (R)

I felt reasonably ok with this exercise, my R quad is quad strong and I felt I was using a lot to create the movements I needed. However, this is the example of where I noticed my L foot felt like a brick through my flexor hallucis longus. My L big toe could bend as you can see, but if I didn’t have the strength in my R leg, I wouldn’t have been able to bring myself to the start position. I could feel I didn’t have a good purchase on the floor from my left foot, which is something I needed to address.

Reverse Lunge with Hip Flexion (L)

Again can you see a theme here! Very unstable on my L leg, relying on my arms to regain my balance. I didn’t push the reps here, I tried to do each rep as well as I could without the need to fall over!

I chose these exercises as I felt I could achieve a lot from them in terms of gaining information about my current condition. The main observations are L leg strength, balance and getting more mobile in my left foot. After these exercises I focussed on gluteal, hamstring strength. I did some basic exercises which I knew I could perform with good technique, to help promote the strength I need.

With the exercises in the videos shown, these are relatively difficult and do require a certain level of skill, balance and strength. There are several regressions/easier versions of these exercises. Before attempting these exercises, make sure you have no injuries, aren’t recovering from an injury and have the skill to perform them well. This is a disclaimer!!

I recorded these videos in the earlier half of this week, towards the end I ran again and went to my first Yoga class! I was like bambi on ice, and not elegant in the slightest! But I took a lot from it, got some more information about how my body is and isn’t working, which will help me with my plan to get running again!

Looking forward to the next week, looking to push on as I have lots of information, things to correct and things to promote!