The Strength Training Conundrum
Seriously. This is getting old. As I mentioned in my last post, both my knees have been very achy lately. A couple readers commented that it could be patellar tendinitis, so I googled it and that does sound possible. The article I read said it could be caused by excessive jumping, and that makes perfect sense because I have been playing a lot of basketball. JUST KIDDING. The last time I played basketball was in middle school PE (obviously.) No, all I’ve been doing is pool running, PT exercises for my hip issue, and a very, very conservative return-to-running program which involves a a mix of walk/run. I don’t know what’s causing the knee pain, but if it is tendinitis I don’t want to make it worse, so this morning I was back to this: I’ve also cut out all PT exercises that could possibly be aggravating my knees- nothing I was doing seemed to hurt, but I’m temporarily banning anything that involves standing and bending- squats, step-ups, dead lifts… which leads to my question of the day. WHEN DID STRENGTH TRAINING GET SO FRICKIN’ COMPLICATED? Does anyone else remember the day where you would go to the gym, do that machine for your quads and the one for your hamstrings, then the adductor and abductors, throw in some sit ups and call it a day? Somewhere along the way that stopped working, because you have to strengthen your glutes, of course, and also machines aren’t good enough and neither are body weight exercises, you have to do free weights, and heavy weights are better, and don’t forget balance and single leg and plyometrics, and then you have to activate the muscles before you run, because just strengthening them isn’t enough, and don’t forget your mobilization exercises and the dynamic warmup. And, even if you’re doing a thousand things, the one thing you aren’t doing will take you down. Like me doing eleven different plank variations, but OOPS! I wasn’t doing side planks, so my glute medius muscles were weak and I got a hip injury. I get it. I get that I can’t just run. I know I have to lift weights and do all the other stuff, and I’m willing to put in the time. I just wish that it would work. If I’m doing strength training to avoid injury, then why am I still injured? Tomorrow I’m headed to the trail for a serious attitude adjustment. I should probably walk, but the truth is, unless one or both of my legs is falling off, I’ll probably ignore everything and just run. Does anyone have a simple strength training plan? Do you have a strength coach? Anyone else struggle with this?