The GAiT-way Explained And The News Is So-So...

   This afternoon I made my way back to SoleScience at the Fowler Kennedy clinic so that I could sit down with Dr. Colin Dombroski and discuss the results of my 3D GAiT assessment.
   Fortunately, Colin loaded the results of the assessment on to a memory stick so that I could sit down at home and more slowly go over all the info and what it meant.

   In his office, though, he was able to explain to me that out of the three main areas of my lower body which work together to make me run--the knees, ankles and hips--the most problematic one of them was the hips.


Dr. Colin Dombroski

   This didn't take me entirely by surprise--prior to the onset of plantar fasciitis, if you'd asked me what the most dysfunctional area of my body was I would have said my hips. There have been times in my past when, in the morning, my one hip would not actually propel me across the room anymore. My wife begged me to go see her chiropractor but, being a man, I waffled mightily.
   Eventually, though, the pain became so intense that I finally acquiesced. I have never been so glad that I did. Several adjustments later and I was right as rain. Occasionally I go back when I feel it's necessary. Lately, I've been feeling it's about time so it was really not totally surprising to find that the GAiT assessment indicated the hips as a problem area.


Low numbers are bad...

   Colin went ahead and gave me a set of exercises to do to strengthen my hips, this by way of e-mail so that it can be accessed quickly. In about six weeks, I'll return for another follow-up and see if the exercises, in conjunction with the orthotics, have made a difference, both with the p-fash and the mechanics.
   On another interesting note, when Colin first met me he took a look at the wear pattern on the Asics I'd been running in and said he'd never really seen one quite like it. Because of this, he actually offered to waive the assessment fee, if I turned them over to him! Which I did!


The offending wear pattern

   Well, off to do some exercising...