local press

I have had the opportunity to work with some pretty special clients over the past dozen years as a physical therapist. One such person lately has been Wilson Komen. Wilson is a local marathoner and aspiring running coach (http://www.coachkomen.com/). His street cred as a runner is solid. I would say you achieve this status when you run a sub 2:20 marathon. And certainly when you do that multiple times, well even better. Wilson came to me during a transition period. He was recovering from a leg injury which he felt had hindered him from running at his full potential for longer than it should have. I notice right away that for as fast as he was, that Wilson had lots of room to grow with his strength. His core strength and hip strength were hardly in line with his world class speed. So, for the past few months Wilson and I have set out to change this. Once or twice a week we work out together with a focus on exercises for running. To me this means an emphasis on leg and core strengthening. I started him with double leg exercises, like a basic squat. As he has become stronger, I have challenged him with single leg exercises. Next in the progression will be using unstable surfaces. I use this progression with all of my runing clients: groove the motion double leg, challenge the motion single leg, see what you are made of on an unstable surface.

One point of emphasis with Wilson is to always control his patterns of movements with the exercise. This enables him to dictate alignment of his leg and overall posture. This focus allows him to isolate the muscles we want to strengthen, and minimize substitution patterns. When he first came to me he ran with form which allowed him to compensate for his hip weakness. See the video below which provides footage of Wilson running. From the posterior view you can see how much he shifts his shoulders side to side. If you are having difficulty seeing it, watch his head relative to the pipes which are above him. The reason he moves so much with his shoulders is because his hips can't hold his pelvis level so he has figured out how to compensate. While he has used this style of running to run incredible fast, my thought is that if he wastes less energy side to side he will have more to propel himself forward. A more efficient running style means a faster Wilson. Our goal is fir him to run a 2:15 at Baltimore in the fall. Go Wilson go! Attached is a link to a recent article about our efforts.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8091-DC-Running-Fitness-Examiner~y2009m7d15-Never-get-hurt-Georgetown-physical-therpist-on-injuryprevention-for-runners