Not Always What it May Seem

Tonight I had a new client evaluation session for some cycling issues he was having.  Going into it I already thought I had an idea of what his "issue may be". This awesome cyclist whom I work with on occasion at La Dolce Velo bike shop in San Jose, had already asked me questions and shown me what his cycling form looked like and what his concerns were.  Based on this I formed what I thought was causing his issue in my head, which seemed pretty straight forward.  Another tight hip flexor causing him to rotate through the hips thus causing his knee to wave at you if you look at him from the front while pedaling. 

We met up at the gym I rent space at, Evolution Trainers in Mountain View.  He brought his awesome cool Jamis Xenith SL carbon road bike and we began by setting him up on the stationary trainer.  I went through my typical routine, questions followed by remind me what you are coming to me for.  After a few minutes of watching his form on the stationary bike and getting more information from him I had him hop off and put on his regular shoes, as opposed to the top raised cycling shoes he was standing in.

The next step was to go through an orthopedic assessment of his body, how he moves and what his body does during certain movements.  Trying now to dial in where the hip tightness I though he had was coming from or whether it was just a nagging tight hip flexor.  Well this man was not my typical assessment.  He threw me for a loop for a bit.  Some of the evaluation moves were giving me results of tightness on the opposite side he had complaints on.  Then it showed its nasty little face...during a lunge motion (with special equipment, only to be seen when in the gym with me) his right ankle decided it didn't want to flex properly...and then look there goes his forefoot, and whoops next the knee starts going haywire and wait a stinking minute there goes his hip now. 

Based on what I saw I felt that trying to loosen up his ankle was the best place to start, so I had him do a few quick mobility maneuvers and then had him do the special lunge again only to see a little less ankle complaint and also to hear him say it feels better.  I knew I had it.  I figured out this little bugger who was not quite what I had expected to find.  Not that I didn't think I could figure it out, but I was so wrong when I assumed earlier what I thought it was.

So now he has a few months of ankle and foot mobility exercises and some stretches that I assigned him to do to help his ankle, and we will continue to monitor his progress and adapt as we go.  Thanks RJ for the GREAT session tonight, and Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

I learned tonight that its not always what we think it is just because everyone else had that same complaint and the answer was the same.  So in the same way I learned you cant assume you know, as should you when you think you know whats wrong have another set of eyes or ears help you out, you just might be amazed at what you find.

Thanks for reading.