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

Your shoulders are off because of the compensation of your legs. Not only is shoe goo right (may not about the part of not fixing it) once you loose your glute medius muscle you have to use your lower leg muscle such as your shins to keep your balance. Any one of us try to stand on 1 foot with our eyes closed would have a hard time. this can cause your Achilles tendon to be sore, planter to be sore, shin splints, tarsal tunnel, and tons more from over developed shins. A great way to check if I did not already convince you is try this. Get something you can kneel off of about 2-3 feet high. Kneel on your left leg putting your right leg in front of you on the floor. Try to simulate a running motion with your arms and at the same time lift your right foot off of the floor. What you are doing is taking your shin muscles out of your balance. You are basically using your glute medius muscle. As soon as my foot comes off the floor my left TFL kicks in and after 2 seconds either I fall over or I put my foot down. All the message therapy and chiropractors will never adjust this. You need a great physical therapist. Who can treat the cause not just the problem?

I'm in orange county, california.

Matt Walsh, are you anywhere in cyberspace?

Andy B wrote:

Kneel on your left leg putting your right leg in front of you on the floor. Try to simulate a running motion with your arms and at the same time lift your right foot off of the floor. What you are doing is taking your shin muscles out of your balance. You are basically using your glute medius muscle. As soon as my foot comes off the floor my left TFL kicks in and after 2 seconds either I fall over or I put my foot down. All the message therapy and chiropractors will never adjust this. You need a great physical therapist. Who can treat the cause not just the problem?

bump

hey guys. well its been some time since I made this thread and i feel like I have made significant bounds since then. On my runs, my right leg has been feeling fine and I just had my first track race in 9 months--no trouble and I ran a good time. What I've been doing: stretching, stretching, and more stretching. I'll do a 5 minute jog before every run to get a little warm-up, then spend a lot of time stretching out my IT band, hip flexors, and hamstrings; I also stretch after the run. I've become completely anal about stretching, but I think you have to be. I've also been doing pilates and a yoga class--I feel like the yoga class helps a lot with the tight IT band. As far as running goes, I've been doing nothing but steady long runs with 8 x 100 meter strides 2-4 times a week in addition. I feel like the strides help a lot to get some neuromuscular work on keeping my stride even. Good luck to everyone with this problem, it takes time and work, but keep at it.

SO how this shoud be treated?

Stretching glut.meds. antagonists and synergists,Realign si-joint and spine+ankle strength?

I think this has something to do with right handness.My lef side is also the weaker one.

That's great to hear!! I've also been progressing quite well. Today I was able to run 10 miles on a flat bike path without any trouble, something that I would have failed at a few months ago. On Wednesday I jumped on the track and ran a clockwise 1600 at a quick pace....all summer I couldn't even jog more than 3 laps before the problem acted up. There were times that my leg did feel a bit awkward during the 1600, but I didn't have that loss of control feeling. I know I'm not 100% cured yet, I just need to be patient and realize it could take several more months before I get there....baby steps.

I was never a big fan of stretching, but I do active isolated stretches on my hamstrings daily. I also bought a foam roller and massage ball and use it daily. I don't know to what degree it has helped, but I am certainly looser in my IT band and hips now. With this condition, you just have to keep working at getting better, it doesn't come easy.

track dude,

what hamstring stretches do you do? I think mine are affecting me greatly. I attempted a 6 mile tempo run with my team today and my legs, and in particular my hamstrings, crapped out on me big time at 3 miles.

See the "Straight Leg Hamstring Stretch" photo and description, although I don't pull my leg nearly as far back as the guy in the picture. Do it about 10 reps, and only hold for 2 seconds.

well i tried going on the treadmill today, my right leg started acting up around 5 miles. i guess i'mm stick to the roads because i haven't been having any problems there. I just went for a nice 12 miler on a pretty even surface on the roads with no problems, but for some reason the treadmill gives me trouble.

What was your incline setting on the treadmill? During the peak of my problem, running on a treadmill at 0% incline was worse for me than any other surface. The problem would kick in even earlier than it would on a flat road.

Don't know exactly why, but it was enough to scare me away.

I got blood work done earlier this week and got my results back yesterday. My Dr. pretty much freaked me out because one of the tests she ordered was a CK test, and my levels were 4.5 times higher than the upper range (883 with a range of 24-204). I guess creatine kinase leaks out of muscle cells when the muscle is damaged. What worries me even more is my CK-MB levels which deal mostly with the heart muscle, because my level was 8.3 and the range for that is 0.0-3.3

She didn't even mention that one to me though which is strange. I asked her if running 8 miles (with 6 at tempo pace) the day before the test along with lifting weights about 10-11 hours before the test had anything to do with it, and she said it could.

Long story short, she wants to refer me to a neurologist to get further testing, probably including a muscle biopsy.

Yikes, I've thought about getting a blood test too, although things seem to be ok right now. I haven't had any major muscle episodes, but every so often I get a weird feeling in my left leg right before my foot is on the way down. Tomorrow I'm going to run a flat 5K as a workout.

Did you have to specify to your doctor what kind of blood test you wanted? Keep us posted on this.

I didn't specify...in fact she called in that test after I had the blood taken for the other tests, so even though my results are most likely skewed from strenuous exercise the day before, it's still not a very comforting result. In the mean time, I've been able to bump up my mileage a bit, but I'm just running, not training. I still can't do anything fast for an extended period of time without my leg acting up.

Well I ran the flat 5K at tempo effort and everything was fine until the last 200 to 300 meters. It's still there, perhaps not to the same degree as before, but I think I have progressed because I wouldn't have made it that far several months ago.

I would like to resume clockwise track running, but unfortunately we have too much snow and ice right now.

That's great to hear! Are you still getting massage treatment?

Not regularly, but I have an appointment next week to see if anything has shifted.

I still feel like there is more that I should be doing. I think I'm going to add some gluteus medius exercises but I'm not quite sure which one's to do.

Has anyone started following the egoscue exercises? I started the program yesterday and I can see where it has potential to straighten out the spine and improve hip mobility. I am going to stick with it for a at least a few weeks.

Thanks for the tip 16X.

I started them a few weeks ago but became lax about keeping it up. I was just thinking about the exercises last night and how I need to get back on them. Have you tried doing any one legged exercises (ie one legged squats) to test leg strength? I've found that my left leg is much weaker than my right.