Pain in My Thigh

I am assuming that you the read of my blog (bless you for reading some of my diatribes),  are aware that I am running in  the Philly half marathon from my bottom on the side of my blog.  I am excited  to go back to my old stumping ground, and have a philly pretzel (by than I will have finish this bloody sugar detox).  Even though the race is more than three months away, I decide I wanted to start training early.  So I have been increasing my millage rather quickly, which I know is not the smartest idea and goes against popular running philosophy.  But as always why do it the safe way and save myself from developing over use injuries.

So about two week ago, after a 6 mile run, I started to get pain in my hip. Of course did nothing about it, took some Advil and went on with my day.  The pain subsided so I just thought it might have been a slight over worked muscle problem.  The next day I put on my running shoes and hoped to increase my running mileage and pace.  Oh how foolish can I be?  As I started to run, BAM!!! Instant pain in the same hip.  So I cursed myself and took some Advil and prayed that it would go away.  Oh was I foolish not only did the Advil not help but it started to hurt even to walk, and stairs were a killer.  It was time for me to hang up my sneakers for a while, and decided with rest I would be back to normal.  After a week, I was still popping Advil three times a day.  So time to call in the experts.

So  yesterday, I went to a friend's husband to have some Myofascial Release Therapy (MRT) done on my hip.  What is MRT you ask?  It is used to  releases tension from the fibrous bands of connecting tissue (fascia) surrounding the muscle. The goal of MRT is to free constrictions or blockages in the fascia, thereby alleviating problems with connective tissue scarring.   MRT utilizes gentle, kneading manipulation that softly stretches, lengthens and realigns fascia, allowing to removal all tension in the fascia.  Its is a great technique and with only one treatment I felt close to 90% better.  Not that bad for a 30 minute session.

So what is the name of this offending muscle that caused me so much pain.  It is the tensor fascia lata TFL. The TFL works along with the Gluteus Medius to abduct and extend the thigh backwards.  It is located on the outside of the thigh.

If you TFL is tight.  I suggest stretching it right away before you get adhesion (scar tissue) like I did.   It's no fun.  I have attach a you tube video that instructs you how to stretch the TFL