Week Two of PT

I had another PT session today.  I’m making progress, but it’s uneven.  Within a day or two of my last appointment, I started to notice a difference.  It didn’t take quite as much effort to get normal hip rotation while walking.  There was even one day when I started walking smoothly without having to think about it.  Most of the time, however, I had to make a conscious effort, or I would fall back on my old habit of walking with rigid hips.  Deb caught me doing this at least once or twice a day.

In general, my daily exercises went well, but on Saturday I must have overdone my hamstring exercise.  My hamstrings are weak and tight, but my quads are still reasonably strong, so it’s easy to straighten my legs too much, putting too much stretch on my hamstrings.  I felt OK at the time, but later in the day I was noticing soreness and tightness in both hamstrings.  The right leg feels better now, but the left hamstring is still sore.  It’s enough to affect how I walk.

As I was walking into today’s appointment, my therapist could see that my hips are still somewhat rigid when I walk.  I really need to work on that.  Eventually, I’ll have a running evaluation on a treadmill, but I have to improve my walking first.  Running on the treadmill is still at least a week away.

During today’s appointment, we worked on static stretches to loosen up the muscles around my hips.  After the appointment, walking felt easier.  I have one new exercise to work on my glutes.  I’ll also continue to do all my other exercises, but I need ease up on the hamstring exercise.

My therapist had me try one other exercise.  To do it, I need to be standing on one foot.  That’s a problem.  Right now, I can barely maintain balance standing on one foot.  As soon as I introduce any motion, I lose my balance.  I’m not ready for this exercise yet.  He also showed me another exercise that he wants me to do eventually, but I’m also not ready for that one.  This is going to take some time.

Besides my exercises, I need to work constantly on improving my walking.  For too long, my hips and pelvis have been completely rigid.  I’m still like this.