Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › One leg-standing to exhaustion causing pain in right leg

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    • 01/24/2014 at 9:00 am #70744
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      I’ve been standing on one leg to exhaustion 3 times for each leg every evening before bed.

      This activity has resulted in pain going from my right hip, down the right side of the thigh and right below the knee.
      Pain increases when trying to build torque before going for a squat. The same pain pattern arises after doing squats as well.
      I tried smashing my buttocks to no avail. Feel like there’s a lump of tissue close to where I believe the piriformis should be attaching to the sacrum?
      There’s also a single crack in my lower back when I sway from side to side. Resetting pelvis didn’t help.
      When I lay flat on my back with my legs up and swaying knees from side to side, there’s a very noticable protrusion on the right side where this lump of tissue is felt.
      I do sit a lot at work, but I’m currently working on this by using a standing desk or a Pilates ball when sitting down.

      Any ideas?
    • 01/24/2014 at 10:46 am #73920
      AvatarAnonymous
      Guest

      If your upper body is not in an organized position this could be an impacting factor.
      Has anyone looked at your squat mechanics?
      Have you had the lump of tissue looked at to determine what it is?
      What caused the lump of tissue to develop?

    • 01/24/2014 at 11:28 am #73921
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      and also why are you standing on one leg until exhaustion for 3 times? it would seem to me that training for a single leg pistol squat would yield better benefits than a non-moving stance exercise.  if it’s just balance, i would make it harder by using a balance board or similar for less time….

      if it is causing pain, i would stop until the pain goes away and/or figure out what is causing it.
    • 01/24/2014 at 12:27 pm #73923
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Kaitlin,

      I thought I was organized. Braced at the very least.
      Had the lump before, but it disappears from time to time.
      Noone has looked at my squat mechanics.
      David,
      It was something I read on quantifiedself.com about better sleep.
      Recommendations on more tiring, easy exercises to do with no warmup is welcome.
    • 01/24/2014 at 12:34 pm #73924
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      hey glad to meet another QS guy!

      i personally like relaxing the QLs/lower back and sometimes the front before sleep, also i roll my t-spine with a gemini so i don’t feel all jacked up in my spine.
      for more QS type stuff try:
      UVEX orange glasses – orange glasses from around dinner time, as early as midafternoon, help preserve melatonin – blue light destroys melatonin and can make for not so good sleep
      also not sure if you read Dave Asprey’s blog, but he’s got good info here:

    • 01/24/2014 at 1:20 pm #73925
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Calling myself a QS guy would be stretching it a lot.

      Basically I wanted to figure out how different each of my legs were.
      Left leg: 1m 50 sec
      Right leg: 50 sec
      Sleep part was just an added bonus 🙂
      I’ll check out the links. Thanks.
    • 01/24/2014 at 3:39 pm #73926
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      If you want to see how different your legs are, there are different ways that do not result in pain as you’ve discovered. The Functional Movement Screen (http://www.functionalmovement.com, see: http://www.functionalmovement.com/files/articles/116a_fms%20pb.pdf for a summary) has a good test called the inline lunge which can show imbalances between your two sides.  If you want to give it a try, the FMS Home Study manual is here: http://www.functionalmovement.com/content/Media/HSC.pdf.  The Hurdle Step test is another good one to try.

    • 01/25/2014 at 8:44 am #73927
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Thanks David. This was quite an interesting read and lots to get into.

      I’m already aware that I have rotated torso as my right foot sticks out when standing up.
      The clue is to clear both sides of pain and get both sides up to as equal strength as possible?
    • 01/25/2014 at 10:21 am #73928
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      it is possible that you’ve somehow made some muscles very tight in the butt and this could be hitting on some nerves there sending pain down to your knee.  it may be that your standing on one leg may have done this, it may be something else in your form as kaitlin says.  i’d focus on first removing pain – it could mean you should see a PT – and relaxing those tight muscles.  Take some time off, smash gently not so vigorously in the first few sessions to let the muscles relax and return to normal, instead of hitting them hard in workouts and with a massage ball.  

      i’m not sure what that lump of tissue is – could be a bruise or swelling due to smashing. might want to get that looked at before you run a ball over it and make it worse.

      work on your posture in both standing and sitting. this most likely had a not so little effect on why this happened in the first place. switching positions from sitting to standing while work will help, but you should be acutely aware of what your posture is in both situations. switching around but sitting/standing with a bad posture won’t help you!
      good luck!
    • 02/13/2014 at 3:30 pm #74135
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      I’ve been looking at the functional movement self screen and I fail hard at straight-leg raises. Got any tips on what would be most effective for hip separation? I can just make a bit over 45 degrees between raised leg and ground.

      Cheers!
    • 02/13/2014 at 6:54 pm #74139
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      re: straight leg raise.  need a bit more info. try this first: brace strongly in the core. suck your stomach all the way in, like you want to try to get your belly button to hit the ground behind you.  then (before you run out of breath!), do a straight leg raise.  how high does it go?

    • 02/14/2014 at 3:16 am #74142
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Seems to be around 50-60 degrees from the ground, and the thigh of my other leg raises from the ground. I feel a stretch behind the knee.

    • 02/14/2014 at 5:10 pm #74145
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      I did some voodoo flossing over and below my knee during squats. Some improvement. I can get my vertical leg to 90 degrees, but my horizontal leg raises to a 10-15 degree angle from the ground.

    • 02/14/2014 at 10:46 pm #74146
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      so as you have found out, a straight leg raise is not simply a physical issue, it can also be a neurological issue. if your body is braced correctly/strongly, your hams will release because the body perceives it doesn’t need to contract to protect itself.

      proper form is to keep the other leg laying flat on the ground. it should not rise at all. this also shows you have proper control of your core, keeping it stable while the other leg is raised.
      there are a few ways to practice for better active straight leg raise.  here are 3:

      one of them is the turkish get up which fixes a whole bunch of problems if you do it right and often.

      there are more, but for some reason those guys don’t do a good job of putting some behind a login wall and some not.

      certainly smashing and mob of the posterior chains: glutes, hams, calves, heel cord will help. i would also look to smashing the psoas in front and quads for rectus femoris as they are hip flexors and help to lift the leg. if they are tight, then they are not a optimal muscle length for strength.
    • 02/15/2014 at 5:37 am #74147
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Thanks. I figured something similar to the first exercise on that page would be one way to do it, but I wasn’t aware of the neurological effect.

      Are you familiar with the supine groin stretch frequently used in the Egoscue Method?
    • 02/15/2014 at 7:13 pm #74148
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      it’s been a long while since i’ve encountered Egoscue.  i have not tried this:


      but i think it does work – there are a ton of systems and methods out there and every one seems to help in some form.  lots of ways to accomplish the same goal.
    • 03/19/2014 at 9:32 am #74336
      AvatarEric Kirstein
      Participant

      Came across this today. Very impressed by the improvement in ROM for one-leg raise.

    • 03/19/2014 at 10:38 am #74338
      AvatarNathan Richer
      Participant

      Yes KBs from the Ground Up 2 is a great resource, and the FMS crew loves the TGU for its inherent corrective capabilities.  When people do a lot of TGUs – they don’t even have to be heavy – they find that a whole series of movement patterns often get corrected in order to do the TGU correctly.  Things open up, loosen up.  

      There are many pieces to the TGU and you can see the beginning position used here as an opportunity to provide a corrective exercise.  Each position of the TGU has corrective value.  
      A lot of people will use or prescribe it as a warmup to other exercise, thereby automatically introducing “corrective value” to the entire body every time they work out.
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