Survival of the Fittest

In February 2003, having just returned from an intense (but incredible) 18-day tour of Fiji and New Zealand with the U.S. women’s 7s rugby team, I started to develop sharp, stabbing pain just below my left kneecap when I ran.

We were leaving for the Hong Kong 7s tournament less than a month later, so I got into physical therapy right away. I was first diagnosed with tendinitis, and later tendinosis and chondromalacia. (Look for an article on the difference between tendinitis and tendinosis in the May 2008 issue of Experience Life.)

As recommended, I worked on strengthening my vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) muscles, and though the pain diminished somewhat, it by no means went away.

It wasn’t until two years later, when my right knee developed the same condition and I resorted to getting regular hyaluronic acid injections to lubricate my knee joints, that the other cause of my predicament was properly diagnosed.

That cause turned out to be weak and inactive gluteus muscles. I’m probably oversimplifying matters, but essentially, having weak glutes meant I didn’t have full control over my femurs, leaving my knees to dive in toward one another when pushing off or landing.

Due in part to our skeletal structure, women are more prone to this condition, called valgus knees, than men. (Lucky us!) But all is not lost — there’s plenty you can do to fight nature on this point, as Krista Scott-Dixon explains in EL’s September 2006 article “Weak in the Knees.”

Bottom line is, strong glutes are a must when it comes to femoral control, and I have to say doing exercises that activated my glutes made a world of difference in my recovery. I won’t regain the cartilage I lost to chondromalacia (R.I.P., old friend), but I’m pretty sure I stopped digging out brand-new grooves.

YouTube link tolink to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5kUsOQWKjo

The video above, graciously provided by my friend Aaron Manheimer of Body By Manheimer, shows a couple of rugby dudes demonstrating how to do my all-time favorite glute exercise, the lateral band walk.

Done properly, it activates your gluteus medius quite nicely. (If you prefer a written description of how to do this exercise, check out “Band Practice,” available in the October 2007 EL archives.)

Aaron also suggested something called a “retro cowboy” to activate lazy bums, and although that phrase conjures up all sorts of stylish images, he really just means you should walk backwards with a resistance band tied around your lower legs. Cowboy hat optional.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out “Go-To Glutes” in the current issue of Experience Life.

(Photo credit: Kim Magrini)

Over the last few years, I’ve grappled with injuries, motivation and the dawning realization that I might be entering the twilight of this particular phase of my athletic career. That is, I may eventually want to find a sport that isn’t full contact. Eventually.

Since the 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup, where I was a traveling reserve for the U.S. squad, I’ve been playing less rugby than I used to. Prior to that, I often played year-round; sometimes on as many as seven teams, counting select-sides and national team events.

But looking back, I can see where I sacrificed my fitness to avoid burnout, and over the past three years, I’ve basically ground to a halt on the fitness front.

That’s disappointing to me on a personal and professional level — I constantly delve into the world of fitness on behalf of the magazine, and I love learning about new concepts, so it’s time I start applying them to my own life again. After all, one cannot subsist on practice and games alone.

I suspect the trick will be in the reinvention process. I’m not done with rugby, by any means, but I’ve got to find something else I can’t wait to do — something that will get me in prison shape, preferably.

I’ve got friends who have broad interests and are masters of reinvention, whereas I tend to throw myself into my chosen sport with a single-mindedness that comes in handy when attempting to reach a specific goal, but is less valuable from a diversification perspective.

So the real question is, what else can I be? (Accepting suggestions….)

So far, two potential options:
1) A martial artist? A sign about a submission grappling class captured my attention the other day. (So much for finding a sport that isn’t full contact.)

2) Or maybe a trail runner? I’ve been tempted to hit the trail more often since we published Dimity McDowell’s article on the topic in April 2006. I’ve enjoyed trail running the few times I’ve done it, and if it holds true that this version of running is kinder on the joints, I just may have a shot.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The trick for now, I think, is to just try a bunch of things and see what sticks.

To that end, on Sunday I went for a long walk in the woods alongside gorgeous Wissahickon Creek, part of Philadelphia’s 9,200-acre Fairmount Park. Last night I ran — well, shuffled — a couple miles around South Philly, and on the docket for tonight is at least part of the Pavel Tsatsouline DVD From Russia With Tough Love: Pavel’s Kettlebell Workout for a Femme Fatale (Dragon Door, 2003).

I have a hunch the woods might stick.

(Photo credit: Samantha Hawkins)

As I was paging through a women’s fitness magazine the other day, I came across an article offering a plan to melt 10 pounds of fat from my frame in a month. I felt a frisson of annoyance. Don’t get me wrong — I think it’s crucial to maintain a healthy weight for your general well-being, not to mention your energy level and day-to-day functional capabilities — but the topic of weight loss with the end goal of zipping into your skinny jeans is so ubiquitous that the very thought of it makes me want to bare my teeth.

Sure, I want to look svelte, but I also want to do something with my strength. And I don’t see fitness information presented from that perspective nearly often enough. (A pointless aside: I couldn’t settle on whether to use the somewhat lifeless word “information” in the previous sentence, but when I searched for synonyms in an online thesaurus, “hot poop” was suggested. I stuck with “information.”)

Although the content of men’s mags tends to be closer to what I’m looking for in terms of training perspectives, it mainly caters to — duh — men. And there, still, the angle is often geared toward aesthetics. Meaning, I don’t always want to wade through articles on building size to get to the stuff that interests me more.

While losing weight and gaining muscle mass are both extremely worthy fitness goals in their own right, I often feel like I have to choose between being a matchstick or a meathead, and neither category suits me particularly well. I find myself wishing for more information with a practical, performance-oriented bent.

Sure, there are Web sites populated with articles written by those with advanced fitness degrees, but sometimes the lingo is as advanced as the degrees, and I’m left with less workable knowledge of a concept than I’d prefer.

I do my best to deliver interesting, practical fitness content in my domain of the print version of Experience Life — namely, in Form & Function, Fitness Fixes, Full Speed and the fitness features — but my responsibility to our readership as a whole means some topics are outside the scope of what’s important to enough people.

I realize I’m starting to sound like Goldilocks: “This one is too hot, this one is too cold …”

So. When my editor in chief asked each of the Experience Life editors to start our own blog on this spankin’-new Web site, I figured this might be a way for me to compile the right — “just right,” if you will — mix of fitness data for me, and for any other fitness Goldilocks out there.

To that end, part of the territory I’ll cover here is fitness for sports, from an athlete’s perspective — and I use the term “athlete” to encompass everyone from members of an adult soccer league to those who get paid to play.

I’ll also be seeking answers to the most critical of questions. Such as, is it true that chocolate milk is a viable recovery drink? And if so, can anyone else hear those angels singing? (There’s good — no, great — news for choco-milk lovers on that front.)

Before we commence, I want to be clear about something: I don’t have a degree in kinesiology or nutrition; just a degree in professional editing. Nor am I a personal trainer, although I’m toying with the idea of getting certified.

What I am is a fitness journalist and a lifelong athlete who has followed some of the most challenging fitness programs around, and asked a whole lot of questions along the way.

Far better, wielding my title of fitness editor, I have access to some of the most knowledgeable fitness experts around the world.

I’m looking forward to sharing said experts’ opinions (plus my own experiences and lessons learned the hard way) about how to get faster, stronger and more agile. About how to avoid and treat the most common sports injuries. About the fitness lore we’re not sure whether or not to believe.

Along the way, I’ll probably also try a few silly fitness fads, test out some gear and explore whatever other ideas this blog generates.

Every couple weeks, I’ll check in here and talk to you. Offer up relevant topic suggestions, and I’ll do my best to cover them, here or within the pages of Experience Life. Or, feel free to submit ideas to me at jsinkler@experiencelifemag.com.