- The first thing I would say is STOP FREAKING RUNNING. There was a debate on Mike Boyle’s blog about exercising in pain a little while ago so I won’t hash this out again, but suffice it to say that I think some people are built to run and others aren’t.

Mike basically said that when people come to us for advice they’re often looking for us to tell them what they want to hear instead of what they need. I’m of the same opinion. I’d tell her to take up another hobby.

- Assuming she won’t do this (they never do), I’d do some muscle testing for glute med on both sides. If they come up weak I’d check for various reasons it could be testing week and retest.

- I’d pay extra attention to the left side because that hip appears higher which might indicate weakness. Check that adductor too which may be tight.

- As Snipppets said above, check the slump test too. I don’t agree with treadmill running for assessment as I think this changes our gait.

The lady also says, “oops” quite a bit so, as SportSpinePT mentions, seeing the foot/ankle would be helpful too. The “oops” comments seem more possibly related to balance deficits – maybe? Can’t tell.

Running is basically repetitive movements. With runners, I also like to see stepping down from a step without upper extremity assistance; I like to see hopping; and then I like to see hopping basically in a 4-square kind of thing – forward/back, side-to-side, diagonals. Running on a treadmill can also be helpful for me to observe to get a feel of how she moves – frontal plane views and sagittal plane views. Videotaping them with camera phone can help too so patient can see the potential movement patterns that are problematic. (Also great way to capture change to help provide positive reinforcement to desired changes.)

Another piece missing, the description of her pain. Obviously, the pain isn’t stopping her. Sometimes, even when runners have obvious poor hip control and stabilization issues, they can have what might also be conceived as neural irritation – think (+) slump test or whatever peripheral nerve. Besides eliminating the poor movement patterns and improving balance, she may also need some type of neural mobilization activity.

~Snippets

“she has poor hip control and stabilization. Need to have specific training of the posterior gluts, and then higher level training”