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

Well I thought I was on the right track and even put together a string of 15 consecutive days running, which is a lot for me these days but yesterday I felt completely off balance for the first time in a while, so I'm taking today off.

I'm still following the PTs advice and work on strengthening my hamstrings. Every other day I am doing 4-5 sets of leg curls using a physioball and still follow the neck exercises.

The more I think about it, the more I think that he may be right about my quads being too strong and "taking over."

Foomiler - I apologize for not responding to you earlier...I didn't see your message until now. If I still have the sheet of exercises that my PT gave me, I will scan and post them when I get a chance, if not I will write a description.

Track dude,

Its ok, take yr time.

Regarding yr problem, did yr therapist ever considered that it might have something to do w yr spine? If you have some sort of trauma or compression there u might experience some loss of coordination.

Usually u might not even feel any pain or discomfort in yr back, but only in other parts of yr body, like fingers, elbow, shoulders, neck, hamstrings, quads, etc, all of wh also feel somewhat chronically tightened. I think they call it "referred pain".

I know an elderly man who had these symptoms and the doctors did all sorts of tests on his nerves and muscles b4 realising that his spinal column is damaged, and his neck bones have some sort of compression within. This was so even tho he had felt no pain in his back nor did he experience any problems in that area.

He was told to perform all sorts of strength exercises for the back muscles and instructed to lay off carrying heavy loads. He's a botanist who also enjoys lots of gardening work and so he squats a lot (but I believe w/o adopting proper posture and control) in this activity. He's also a runner who enjoys hill training and heavy weight lifting and his doc believes all these also did his back in (again I think my friend probably overdid his training and didn't have good core strength/stability and running/lifting techniques were probably questionable.)

He eventually had to have surgery to insert some metal plates into his spinal column to hold up the spine till his discs grew back again (wh as of now they have).He related his story to me after learning that I had hip/pelvic problems in addition to tightness in the neck and shoulders. I believe this loss of coordination has very much to do with the nervous system also. In this case strengthening the TVA and back muscles might be the keys, where all the glute work has failed to help.

Wonder if this relates at all to yr situation?

What kind of shoes do yall wear?

saucony shadow

I've had this problem for a long, long time...extremely frustrating...tried everything. It appears to originate from my left hip where I had a steel rod inserted in my femur through my hip after breaking my femur. The problem became much worse after the rod was removed. At times the problem would go away for weeks at a time. It would then strangely return. I tried stretching, strengthening, short sprints barefoot on the grass & running up steep hills. It always seemed that the less material I had between my foot and the surface on which I was running the better. Barefoot running was about the only way I could feel comfortable/coordinated. Road running was the worst. I did a lot of barefoot grass perimeters...up to 17-18 miles at a time. I would drive for miles to find a large neatly groomed grass field. Golf courses became my haven. If I had to run on the road I would use racing flats.

At last I have finally come across a solution, quite accidentally. It seems that after I do some cycling the problem goes away completely. If I don't cycle for 2-3 weeks the problem starts to re-appear. I've read in these posts about hip alignment and tendon/muscle stretching. It seems that cycling can facilitate this. Now I feel foolish and sad about all the time wasted suffering. I never really put the cycling effect together with the improved condition until recently.

I have not read every posting, but has anyone else had this experience?

explain the type of cycling you do.easy riding,90 rpm standing up.

Generally pretty hard after warm-up...paceline & hills, sitting & standing on hills; road & mountain bike. Even easy rides, however, have the same benefit for my running coordination.

Jaycee,

How often and what duration do you cycle for? Is it your primary training now or just a small supplemental thing?

Check out this link. I've not read all 19 pages of this thread but my current doc is going to test me for the above. The symptoms are very similar to what many of you are reporting.

i have posted on here before, but if you read this thread you would realize that there are symptoms of pain. Here is the first paragraph from your link.

Chronic exertional compartment syndrome is an exercise-induced neuromuscular condition that causes pain, swelling and sometimes even disability in affected muscles of the legs or arm

after having three unsuccseful operations for this form of compartment syndrome I would advise you to stay away from the test. I too was tested and doctors like to think they know more then they do.

i meant to say there is no symptom of pain

Exactly. From what I've read, compartment syndrome is extremely painful and I have not experienced any pain while running since I have had this condition, so I don't think it is a possibility for me and the others on this thread.

ive been doing different workouts since high school, and thus far in college, ive run four 8k races. my leg has gone bad in one of them- only when I went out really hard.

Well hell now I have to go back and read the entire post. Maybe my doc is barking up the wrong tree. Thanks for your insight.

I have been following this post since my massage therapist forwarded me the link in August.

I have all of the symptoms described (particularly those by Track Dude). I've been dealing with this issue for 7 years now with no relief, except for running on gravel trails. I've seen every type of doctor had 3 MRIs(including one to rule out MS) and too many nerve conduction tests to count.

Just wanted to say that I had compartment surgery release 2 years ago (I never had any previuos pain but the doctors thought it would be a good idea because the pressure was elevated in my left leg.

I wouldn't recommend this surgery to anyone with this symptom. A waste of time and just more scar tissue to work out!!

Good luck.

While there are periods when I cycle several times per week, currently I am only cycling a few times per month. I find, however, that cycling hard once a week for 2-5 hours is the best mix for me. Cycling much more than that takes away from the perceived quality of my training runs. I try to incorporate a few days per week of fartlek runs on the road and trails to feel complete.

It is amazing to read the similarities from many of the posts on this string about how much more comfortable it feels to run on uneven trails, as opposed to the road, with the uncoordinated leg syndrome. This was so typical of how I felt. Until finding this string, I thought I was the only runner who suffered from this.

Has anyone else found that cycling cross-training helps the uncoordinated feeling go away.

TLD - are you currently working on anything to try and correct the problem? You've had this for 7 years now, did you ever take a long break from running and all other training? I took almost 3 months off from running, but cross trained on the elliptical daily. The last PT I went to speculated that my problem would go away if I did absolutely nothing for a few months. He thinks it's a muscle imbalance (weak hamstrings) and that the elliptical trainer only made my problem worse by focusing on the quads. He said I could also work on strengthening my hamstrings and continue running daily.

While my hamstrings are definitely getting stronger, I'm not sure to what extent this will make a difference. I feel ok most of the time just running easy, although I still need an off day every week or two when I start to feel totally off balance. Sometimes when I feel like my left leg is about to quit, I pick up the pace and actually feel better for several miles which I hope is progress. However, there is no way I could run race pace yet for more than a mile, unless it was on gravel or natural terrain.

Beyond this, I don't know what else to do. I may go back for more MRIs like you (so far I've only had a brain MRI), but I doubt they'd pick up anything.

Track Dude - When this problem first occurred, everyone thought it was a herniated disk (or some sort of disk/ nerve impingement) and therefore to avoid impact, I pool ran for about a month. No improvements. Last winter I developed really bad plantar fasciitis and took most of January and all of February off and did intervals on the bike for the entire time. No improvements there either. People have also suggested that I try slowing my runs down (I tend to run my distance runs at a fairly hard pace – around 6:40-6:45 miles (I’m a girl)… that always helps (i.e. I can run a lot longer symptom-free), but doesn’t solve the problem of the symptom happening in a race or when I’m trying to bust out track intervals.

I’m not sure if taking time off would really help. I think it would be more a question of re-training specific muscles. Many therapists/doctors have claimed that the problem is related to muscle imbalances and glute weaknesses (I had a muscle firing test done and apparently my left glute doesn't fire either). Everyone has given me glute and core strengthening exercises, which I did religiously, but nothing seemed to help. It’s almost like noone can identify the muscle or group that is truly weak. If it was a muscle imbalance, you would think that someone (at least one of us!) in this group would have been given some exercises by some physio that would address the issue.

By the way, do you notice any weird wear pattern on your shoes since this problem developed? I have always been a toe runner and usually wore out my shoes right under the toe box. Now, my left shoe wears down dramatically on the left lateral side – almost like someone took a razor and sliced an entire layer off the sole. I think it’s a result of basically not being able to control my foot upon landing and therefore the foot just “crashes” on impact. I notice this wear pattern even after 1 run with a brand new pair of shoes. Does this happen to you?

Keep me posted on any progress. – you guys give me hope. Before I found this post, I thought I was a head case!!

Hi all, you can count me in as another that is having trouble controlling a leg. In my case it is my right ankle in particular. I just noticed it last week and it hasnt worsened much since it started but every few steps it feels like my ankle is really loose and impossible to control. When i am standing on my left leg and i can jiggle my right ankle quite a bit, but not my left when i stand on my right. I only notice it slightly when i walk. I haven't suffered any ankle injuries ever really so i dont know what it could be. But my right leg is definitely growing out of control. I would appreciate any help if any one had any specific ankle out-of-controlness.