Early in my practice, I had a client who was an avid runner and had decided (despite constant knee pain) to run the Detroit Marathon. After nearly tripling his weekly mileage he developed such sharp knee pain that he simple could not continue to train. When he saw me, he was hoping just to get back to his normal running routine. But by the time we had finished 4 sessions he was hopeful that he could train for the marathon again. We continued to work together for 10 full sessions and finished his first marathon (he has since gone on to run the marathon several times as well as a few adventure races). Along the way, we discovered that he had a rather larger muscle that had weakened on one side. That his calves and hamstring were too tight for allow for good running form. That he turned his feet turned so far out to the side that he was causing much of his knee pain. And that his back was really tight. We were able to correct most of these habits and give stretches and exercises to keep him in shape and pain free. He continues to run with tune-ups every couple years.

I recently had a client who was very active in yoga but suddenly developed a sharp pain in her hip while walking up the stairs. She had an active practice but her psoas wasn’t working properly so her hip flexors were working overtime. Eventually, they wore out and she lost support in her hip, this can be very painful when trying to lift your leg for something as simple as one stair. In a few sessions, we got the hip flexors lengthened and were able to do some work to strengthen psoas. She was quickly able to not only walk up and down the stairs without gripping the railing for fear of falling but also got back to her full yoga practice.