He made some really good points, that really supported a lot of what we try to accomplish with physical therapy and rehabilitation.
- Quality, not quantity. Sometimes you can achieve your goals with less work than you think you need. A therapist could give you hundreds of exercises to strengthen your quads, but can also give you 3-4 that target the specific activities that you need help with, and get you back in the game just as fast. Jarrod told us how during his college track/cross country years, he often ran about half as much as his teammates, but was able to beat them in races!
- Know your body and how it responds to different circumstances. If your knees hurt when you run on pavement, then try to run on dirt paths, or if your ankles are wobbly, try to avoid trail running. Jarrod’s knee/iliotibial band would bother him if he did too much running on a track, so he did a lot of his training on straight roads, and still won races on the track!
- It all starts with the feet. If the part of your body that touches the ground the most frequently is weak or imbalanced, it can affect anything from your knee to your back or your shoulder. That is why physical therapists often look at your back and legs with any injury assessment. Sometimes, we can help your back pain by supporting your feet correctly. Jarrod had an abnormal foot strike on his right side, which changed his torso rotation, which tightened his shoulders up when he swam. So, he had pain in his shoulder swimming which was corrected by a biomechanical analysis and correction of his running gait. And he won a world championship!
So, not that I think that we are all going to run out and win races or world championships, but these are really important things that we should all keep in mind as we try to rehab any injury or return to whatever sporting event/activity we are working towards.