Mel

I had a trapped sciatic nerve from poor posture, caused by weak glutes and a weak core. I experienced severe pain through my thigh and down to my calf, which affected my ability to walk comfortably, run, and to be active with my children.My rehab focused on correcting my posture through better pelvic alignment, strengthening my glutes, building up from very small focused exercises, e.g. clams to larger more challenging exercises like jumping lunges.At the beginning of lockdown I wasn’t able to walk with my children without experiencing pain, 10 weeks into lockdown, and after 8 weeks of physio from Denise I was able to start running again. I started out with some short sprints to ensure I kept the correct posture, this also gave me the opportunity to focus on my technique. Since then, I built up my running stamina over the summer, ensuring that I kept up with strength training for my glutes and other leg muscles, and for the last ten weeks I have been completing a training programme for a half marathon, and can comfortably run twenty kilometres.When the pain first started I didn’t understand where it was coming from, or what was causing it, I genuinely thought I wouldn’t run again. Looking back this was rather melodramatic, but I didn’t know otherwise. To be so much more informed about my physiology, and how to better train and take care of my muscles, posture, and joints, is empowering, and I’m just going to keep going, and see what else I can achieve. The furthest I had run before was ten kilometres, I feel curious now to see how far I can run, and then try other sports that I’ve written off, too!