Hey, this is Dr. Gangemi and in this Sock Doc video I want to talk about a
couple really important neglected muscles that help to support and
stabilize your entire lower leg as well as your knee and even your hip when
it comes to moving freely and with a nice strong base of support as well as
helping you move forward efficiently and effectively when you run.
So the first one I want to talk about is your glute medius. Most people
know their glutes as their glute max, their butt muscle. But the glute
medius is actually super important to stabilize your hip and even your knee
when you're standing on one leg. And since essentially running is a series
of balancing from right leg to left leg and back and forth, the glute
medius is really important when it comes to keeping your body really strong
in this base of support. And if you stand like I am right now and put your
hand right on the side of this front bone here of your pelvis and then you
come down and touch over your greater trochanter which is your hip ball and
socket joint there, and if you move your hip like this, your leg like this
you can feel it.
Basically right in between that area is your glute medius. So your glute
max is back here giving you power to push yourself forward and squat and
all those things. But your glute medius is going to help to stabilize your
leg as you stand on it so I can feel it contract as I come on one leg like
this, as I stand on that same leg as well as ab-duct. Bring your leg out
like this and internally rotate your hip. So if you do this, if you bring
your leg out and turn it in as in this motion, your lower leg, your whole
leg essentially even your foot, you'll feel your glute medius contract
really well. And that's how you can isolate it to the best of your ability.
If it's sore on one side and not on the other, if you notice that, you
know, as you bring this one up on one side it's a little bit more weak then
look for a trigger point in that area that you might be able to release and
give you more range of motion or more support and stability on that side.
Or especially if you're having pain in the hip or in the knee then look for
trigger points in the glute medius like I've taught you in other videos.
Work it out in there. Hold it. Work it out in a circular motion or even
just deep pressure for just 20 or 30 seconds in the glute medius.
So it's deep in there. You've really got to dig deep in this one and see if
that frees up some of the support and helps with any lateral knee pain.
Because it works with your tensor fascia latae which we talked about in
the Iliotibial band syndrome video to support the outside of your knee. So
even though your knee's down here obviously think glute medius up here.
Short little muscle, big time important for support.
The other important muscle that is often neglected which I talked about in
the Achilles tendonitis video especially is your soleus. Your soleus is one
of your two calf muscles coming from the back of your lower leg and
eventually making up the tendon insertion behind your heel bone, your
calcaneus as your Achilles tendon. So your soleus is more down here below
the meaty part of your gastroc and where your calf sort of thins out. And
you're going to look for any trigger points in there by pushing up and in
with your thumbs to see if there's any tenderness in here.
Now your soleus pretty much plantar flexes your foot like so. So if you
notice any problems with stability or even knee pain or pushing off and
powering you forward whether it's up a hill or up stairs, think calf but
especially think soleus. And I want you to look for trigger points in there
and as I've mentioned before, pretty much stay off the Achilles tendon if
your Achilles tendon is a little bit sore. Go a little bit more up towards
the soleus and look for trigger points in there to relieve anything in the
Achilles.
But even more importantly I see a lot of soleus problems, calf problems
causing knee pain. So if you notice that if you do a little bit of a light
knee bend like this and your knee hurts anywhere but especially over the
patella tendon in the front of your knee or your knee feels weak and
unstable, don't just necessarily look around the knee like I've addressed
in the knee video. A lot of times it can be there, but actually you might
have a problem in the soleus way down here or even in the glute medius way
up here. So we're thinking now way above in the hip and way below towards
the lower leg and the ankle.
Your soleus is a highly aerobic type muscle. It's anywhere from 60 to 90
percent or more aerobic muscle fibers. These are the slow Type I, highly
oxygenated red muscle fibers that basically help support your or developed
through aerobic metabolism. So the more you're overtraining or the more
you're stressed out and training too hard and using anaerobic type energy
systems, the more you can throw off that balance between aerobic and
anaerobic that I talk a lot about on the Sock Doc site. And then you can
end up with an Achilles tendonitis issue, knee pain, or all coming from a
soleus issue on either the right side or the left side of the body. So
think about your training and think about overall stress in your life
whether aerobic metabolism and soleus issues.
So next I want to talk about a few little exercises you can do to help
support and basically stabilize these muscles. And one real simple that you
can do is basically just stand on one leg. I've shown this before with some
ankle mobility and stability exercises but this one's great for your glute
medius here.
And if you're really good at it the next thing you can do to take it up a
notch is close your eyes as I am right now. And notice how I'm still
staying pretty straight, little bit wobbly, but I'm not falling over like
some people do. I should be able to do that for a minute and then even you
can turn your head like this. And again I shouldn't fall. I can turn it up
and down and do all these different things and even do it with my eyes
closed like I am right now. And there I go. So a little something to work
on.
Do the same thing with my other leg. Left, right. And you can try both
sides and see how you do and basically keep on bringing up the complexity
of the exercise. So first with your eyes open, then your eyes closed, then
turn your head, turn your head with your eyes closed, and see how well you
can work that. You'll really feel it in your glute medius and your soleus.
The other exercise you can do we've talked about before is a deep squat.
That's keeping your heels down, your back as straight as possible,
shoulders behind your knees. If you tend to come forward like this you
don't want to go as low. If you're having trouble getting that low you can
put something underneath your heels like a book or a board to help keep
your back straight.
Obviously if you have any pain in your knees don't go down as deep, but you
want to go as low as possible while keeping your shoulders behind your
knees, as tall as possible with your heels on the ground. And ideally you
should be able to come down this far, all the way, so you bottom out. And
this is great for mobility of your ankles, your knees, and your hips.
So the last exercise I want to show you if you can do the single leg
balances pretty well and if you can do the squat pretty well then I want
you to try what's called a Single Leg Romanian, some people call it a
Single Leg Romanian deadlift, but an SLR. This one is great for the
stability of your entire basically posterior chain. So your glute max, your
glute medius, your hamstring, your calf, as well as it's really good for
balance. But it takes a little bit of work.
And what you're going to do here is you're going to stand on one leg. I'll
stand on my left first, then I'm going to contract the right glute first.
And I want to bring my body down like a pendulum in a way, everything in
line rather than sort of throwing my leg up and my torso down at the same
time. And ideally I want to, so I'm balancing here on my left leg and I'm
contracting this right and I want to bring it down like that. And bring
this leg as straight up and flat as possible, okay?
So I can really feel this calf and this hamstring contracting and even the
glute max and this glute max is staying straight. So I don't need to hang
out here that long. It's harder the longer you do it. On the other side, so
now I'm on my right leg and I'm staying flat like this, contracting that
glute and I'm coming down like this nice and straight without touching the
floor. And again, keep your arms and your torso straight, your hips
straight, and I should be pretty flat up like that. So do a few of those on
each side until you're basically going up and down and then you can do them
with them with a weight a kettlebell if you choose to once you get good at
these and you're coming up and down like so. Up and down.
So you'll feel that really well. It's great to develop these muscles.
You'll be a much more efficient runner, much more efficient athlete
regardless of what your sport is. And then if you notice some fatigue in
there you can always check out the soleus, check out the glute medius or
any other instability you might have in the area per the other videos that
I've shown. Thanks for watching.