I Can Touch My Toes!

I turned 44 last month. It was no big deal. I’m used to being in my 40s. I like being in my 40s. I’m in better shape physically than I’ve ever been. It’s amazing what a motivator middle age has been for me to get off my ass and work on my fitness.

I’ve been working with a chiropractor for a couple months now and I’ve learned a lot about movement patterns. I’ve seen that I have muscle engagement issues. The first one the chiro helped me identify was my glutes. I wasn’t using them while running or walking. My legs were doing all the work. It seems we’re on our way to fixing that, though. I feel them when I’m running, now, and I think about them. It hasn’t become totally unconscious for me yet, but it gets closer every time.

Sort of related to that was that I always had issues touching my toes. I assumed this was due to inflexibility in the back of my legs. Actually, it just turned out that I wasn’t doing the movement correctly. I wasn’t swinging my hips and butt back, but was just reaching for my toes and stretching out my hammies. After some corrective exercises, I can now touch my toes easily. It was just a matter of learning to engage my hips and glutes in the movement.

Last night, we started looking at my balance problems. My chiro noticed that when I’m balancing on one leg, I don’t engage my big toes. The arches of my feet are doing a lot of work to compensate for this. He gave me an exercise to do, balancing on one leg while writing the alphabet with the other foot. The difference when I actually spread my toes and get that big toe engaged is phenomenal.  It’s amazing that such a simple adjustment could make such a huge difference.

I wish I had known some of this stuff years ago, at least before I started running. Better late than never, I guess. If it ends up keeping me more or less pain and injury free when I run long distances, I’ll be a happy camper.