Loss of coordination in leg - Official runner's dystonia / focal dystonia discussion thread

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I think I have something similar going on. It started last Summer during a long run. My left upper leg seemed to lose function and it was difficult to bring my foot forward. Stopping and stretching my quad seems to help. My left foot is also clipping my right calf as it comes forward which tells me something is out of alignment.

Chiro hasn't helped and I've made an appt with an ortho.

Are the exercises discussed above helping anyone?

Just found this thread - thought my problem was pretty unique untill I started reading up on it recently, and now it seems like a lot of Letsrunners have similar issues.

Started with bit of sciatica after a couple of hill sessions, which I self diagnosed as piriformis syndrome and spent weeks trying to gure with stretching. This did eliminate the sciatica but there was a constant niggling discomfort (wouldnt call it 'pain') in my hip and buttock. Eventually went to see a physio a couple of weeks back who found SI joint was rotated so that right hip was 3.5cm higher than the left, and that glut med on the left hand side was very weak. I was sort of correct in my initial diagnosis in that the left piriformis was very tight and had developed a few trigger points. When we tried standing on one leg I was rock steady on the right but couldnt even manage a couple of seconds on the left.

Cant remember the name of the technique used, but after a bit of pulling around my leg the physio was able to correct the SI joint there and then and there was instant improvement in forward bend. Also accupunctured the piriformis which brought pretty instant relief from the buttock discomfort. Was given a whole list of exercises to do to strengthen the glut med.

Since then things have been going fine, and last week I managed a couple of really good track sessions at 800/1500 pace with no probs. However, I've noticed that I am now getting different pains in and around the buttock which are hard to pinpoint as they move around a bit. These are typically worse at the start of a steady run and then wear off as it progresses. Also worse when running slowly than fast. I'm wondering if I am overdoing the strength work as if I leave off it for a few days the pain seems to disappear again. Obviously it is doing some good as I can now hold a one leg balance on the left for a pretty long time, although it is still a bit 'wobbly' compared to the right. Anyone else have experience of going overboard on the rehab? I would imagine that it most be fairly common in runners who are a pretty compulsive bunch. Or any other possible causes, things I could be doing?

Cheers

Has anyone noticed a difference between their sprinting stride and normal distance running stride? My coordination is much better when I am up on my toes sprinting without any heel striking. For the past month or so, I have been running 4x200 all out in spikes on a track in hopes that it may improve my coordination during normal distance running. I usually do not have any problems during this session, other than the warmup and cooldown feeling a bit awkward due to either heel or midfoot striking.

Anybody in this thread mentioned the possibility of spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal due to calcification) in connection with loss of limb function?

If there is a gradually-worsening or continual numbness in conjunction with loss of coordination of limbs, it's possible spinal stenosis, spurs in the vertebral column, or subluxation might be indicated.

i've been working on improving lower back felxibility and hip flexor flexibility with my PT but I am still having problems and this may be due to the fact that my right hamstring has a lot less girth than my left. i guess thats the next step.

???? wrote:

explain dangling leg lift

What you do is stand firmly on the leg with the weakened glutius medius, on a step of somesort, (this is generally the leg with the higher hip bone when standing in front of the mirror.)

For me, the left side is my weaker, taller side, so I stand on my left leg to do this exercise.

Lower your whole leg and hip (right side, in my case) simultaneously, from the step. You only need about 5-6 inches of step room. Now for the actual muscle exercise: Bring your hip and leg back to horizontal, only using your glutius medius muscle.

Make sure you don't use your oblique from the strong side to lift your leg and hip. You will be able to tell after a while. Place your finger dead center on your tail bone and move it directly left or right to find your glutius medius. When doing this exercise you should feel only this muscle contracting. At first you will start to feel fatigue of the muscle after only 10 reps, if one side is truly weaker than the other.

Here is a link descibing the exercise as the "hip hike":

I also keep stetching and stregthening my whole hip region, which I had never done before. In my opinion, continuing to run in very minimalist shoes has helped me quickly recognize my imbalances and weaknesses and smooth them out.

Amazing so many people have this same problem - I thought I was the only one. No pain, just can't run long on the road or in a race on the road beyond 5k without my leg cramping up. It is very frustrating to have to stop, stretch and walk in the middle of a race without being tired. The advice I've received which all makes some sense:

1. Stretch hips, hamstrings and lower back, my guess is most people with this problem are relatively inflexible.

2. Strengthen muscles right above the knee and correct any muscle imbalances - you might need a PT to tell you how if there are imbalances.

3. Stay hydrated - I don't think it's this because this problem only happens on the roads, but it can't hurt to stay hydrated to prevent cramping.

4. Try new shoes or orthotics - perhaps incorrect shoes are not giving proper support which causes problems farther up the leg.

Accessory navicular? How many of you on this thread have an accessory navicular? I do.

My point: I've got problems with my hips, including most recently diagnosis of my rotators as well as my adductor being shut down, but I think these issues are the result of another underlying problem: my feet. I think my severe left foot and knee splay are a result of an accessory navicular in my left foot. Go figure if something about the size of a gobstopper/large gumball is wedged up into my arch, it would force my foot to supinate over the years, and/or compress the tendon/nerve/artery under it. Over time this extra bone has sort of forced my foot into chronic external rotation, where I'm stepping on the lateral part of my foot, and my leg sort of tips open to the side when I'm running uptempo. The left foot and knee splay have jacked up my hip, I think, rather than my hip causing my foot and knee problems.

how do you know if you have a accessory navicular?

I don't know if I have an accessory navicular, but what you describe sounds very similar to what I experience with my right leg. 5 years ago a chiropractor told me my right foot was 1/3 of a clubbed foot, if that makes any sense.

Do you have any calf muscle imbalances? My right gastrocnemius is visibly shorter and more defined than my left. My right tibia is rotated outwards so that a neutral position for my right leg results in my right foot pointing outwards about 20-30 degrees.

I had my right accessory removed in 1998. I tried everything for nearly a year before having surgery as a last resort.

I turned my foot really bad one day and the eventual diagnosis was that I had dislodged the accessory navicular so that rather than resting comfortably against the true navicular, the acc. was now shifted and the two bones were bumping into each other every foot plant. Eventually, they started to fuse together. Running became more and more painful and like I said, after trying every conservative measure for nine months, I had surgery to remove the accessory nav, reconstruction of two tendons associated with the navicular, and insertion of a screw in my ankle so that I would be less likely to pronate and damage the reconstruction.

At the time of the diagnosis of the accessory on the right, the ortho identified an accessory on the left as well. He said it was of no consequence unless an incident happened like on the right that caused me pain and then debilitation.

mlbfan24 wrote:

Has anyone noticed a difference between their sprinting stride and normal distance running stride? My coordination is much better when I am up on my toes sprinting without any heel striking.

I've had this problem (going on 4 years now), and I have noticed something similar. If I am running up a steep uphill, I have no problem at all. Interestingly, my problem--which consists of my upper hamstring and adductor cramping up under fast steady paces--is at its worst when I am running hard on a gradual uphill. Why the difference between gradual uphill and steep uphill? My guess is that, during steep uphill segments, I am forced to run on my toes, which requires the calf muscles (as opposed to the hip muscles) to drive me forward. On a gradual uphill, on the other hand, the hip muscles are doing all the work, and my cramping/spasming comes on quickly.

From worst gradient to best gradient, my list goes: gradual uphill, flat, downhill, steep uphill. As others have noted in this thread, my condition is worse on a paved surface than on a softer surface (e.g., grass, soft dirt).

If I'm doing short intervals, I never get a problem with my coordination. For instance, if I was to do your 200's with you, I'd be cool. But when I'm doing say 1000m repeats and I try to pick it up the last 200, I DO get a problem with my coordination. So essentially, if I'm doing something short and start out on my toes, my coordination is a-ok. But, if I try to get up on my toes at the finish of a longer interval, my coordination starts to go and I'm literally incapable of rising up on my toes to sprint.

That's exactly how it is for me. Longer, hard efforts waste my quads and I end up "kicking" at the same average pace overall.

update:

i've had this problem in my right leg for 2 years and it affects me in races and fast tempo workouts longer than 1600 meters. i've read through this thread, and i don't have "uneven hips" when standing in front of a mirror etc.

my last two races went as follows:

3200- 9:37 -leg problem kicked in horribly with 600 meters to go, very frustrating, wasn't dying aerobically at all.

i saw a chiro 2 days after my race, just curious to see what he had to say about this problem. after i described the problem, he had no idea what i was talking about, but did routine tests to check muscle strength/coordination. surprisingly (i say this because i thought there was no hope) the chiro discovered my problem was an extremely weak and uncoordinated right hip flexor.

To test this, stand against a wall with heels, butt, and head touching. relax. now lift your "good leg" up so that if one were looking at you from the side, your quad would form a 90 degree angle with your body AND your ankle is directly below you knee. now try this with your bad leg- without significantly shifting your weight. any difference?

The chiro gave me hip flexor exercises, and said that there are 3 hip flexor muscles; the two minor ones are working properly, but the big main one is not working at all, and the purpose of the exercises is to target and train the main one to do its job. He said while racing, the two minor muscles poop out at a certain point (for me its around 1.5 miles depending on the surface) and hence the feeling of a "loss of coordination".

So i did the hip flexor exercises for 3 days- I raced another 3200. Time was 9:23, and the loss of coordination never occured. The sad part is that i was waiting for the problem to occur- three days of corrective exercises is not enough time to fix a problem for a race (i thought). During the race, laps 7 and 8 where the problem usually occurs, i could feel my bad leg driving forward, when it usually flops around with "half power". I do not know if the problem is gone for good, but I definitely think the hip flexor exercises are a step in the right direction for me.

What were the hip flexor exercies?

good question.

stand tall against a wall with your ankles, head, and butt touching and quickly lift your knee straight up up so that if one were looking at you from the side, your quad would form a 90 degree angle with your body and your ankle is directly below you knee. total of 10 times on each leg.

the next exercise is similar- stand against the wall like the previous exercise. position your leg so that it is in the 90 degree angle that you were lifting up to in the previous exercise. now lift your knee up towards your head (the angle between your body and your quad should be around 70 to 80 degrees), and then return to the 90 degree starting position without dropping your leg down any farther. ten on each leg.

i don't know how clear this sounds and i would happily draw this out on paper or on ms paint if anyone needs it.