Hip Flexor + Yoga = ???

Because it has been nagging me for about a month now, I’m ultimately forced to talk about my ongoing hip flexor problem.  The dull achy pain lies deep within my hip, just below the front of my hip bone.  Additionally, after I sit to long in a chair, upon standing up too quickly I will experience a massive pop.  This pop is my hip flexor catching on part of my pelvic bone and it is intense when it happens.  Fortunately I am conscious of this and stand up slowly and shake it out to avoid the pop.  At this point, I wouldn’t consider it an injury because I am still able to get my workouts in without a problem.  It’s when I’m not working out that my hip tightens up and goes south on me.  It does wear on me mentally because if feels like trouble is right around the corner.  

One of my best friend’s wife, Natalie, is a PT and recently told me I needed to incorporate Yoga into my training.  She seemed to swear by it and gave me a pretty hard time since I do little stretching, but complain about tightness and pain a lot.  Most likely there are several imbalances working against me, that need correcting.  I’ve had a few injuries that I’m guessing over the years that I believe are were my imbalances began.  IT Band in 2003 and Plica Syndrome in 2003.  I had arthroscopic surgery in late 2003 to remove the Plica and the rehabilitation after that is where I feel things really derailed.  I went to two different PT’s who focused only on rehabilitating my knee, but did not do so with respect to the rest of my body.  I was doing stretches and strengthening exercises only on one leg, which over time threw things off.  My first hip flexor problem showed up in 2006 and has pretty much squatted ever since.  I have no medical background, but I’m pretty darn sure that small muscle imbalances, over time, can grow into larger one and even new ones.  Additionally, they’re not likely to correct themselves on their own, but instead, your body will adapt to them in order to make things work.  The problem is, although you can still workout, your risk for injury has increased dramatically because certain muscles have over strengthened to compensate for their weak counterparts.  Stack on a ton of mileage for that big race your training for and watch out because you can’t be sure you’ll ever get there. 

This is where I’m at.  I can swim, bike and run.  I also just came off of a great season, but I will admit that during the last few weeks while the running mileage was piling on, things got dicey.  In fact, I worried quite a bit and if you’ve ever been injured before, your angry to begin with and then you sink into a depressive state that lasts for a while.  Bottom line… it sucks.

I’m going to heed my friend’s wife Natalie’s advice and give Yoga a shot.  It can’t hurt right?  At this point, I want to make my chances for success and longevity in triathlon to last so I’m willing to try anything once.  I’ve since bought the book the Athlete’s Guide to Yoga by Sage Rountree and have begun studying it.  She focuses on endurance athletes which gives me more confidence in what she teaches.  I’m not going to just really on a book to teach me Yoga though, additionally I have been looking around for a studio that has a history of working with endurance athletes.  It would help if the instructor had experience running and cycling, but not a prerequisite.  Just someone who understands the rigor and demands that we put our bodies through and how Yoga should be used to counter that.  I will also learn better technique from an instructor through them showing me how to properly perform the poses.  The best is that I can start working at this now instead of in the middle of the season. 

I’ve been practicing a few of the more basic poses and moves at home and definitely enjoy the immediate relief the stretching provides.  My hip seems to be under control for the time being, but is still present.  I’m guessing it’s going to take some time to get things rebalanced out, but I’m confident that with an instructor and 3-4 60 minutes sessions a week, I’ll will benefit.  One of the most intense poses I’m doing is the lunge.  HOLY SMOKES! 

It will take sometime, but I’m going to get down a yoga routine that done regularly, will keep my body balanced, flexible and focused.