10/24
I saw a physical therapist. She's supposed to have been good at "sports medicine", but had no idea about powerlifting until I explained it to her. The good thing is that even though she actually specializes in dance, she does squat and has a good grasp on a lot of other things.
She has read Supple Leopard and wrote down Low Back Disorders and Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance when I told her about those. She intends to read both of them. She said she wants to learn about powerlifting and intends to do some research on it. She wants me to bring my briefs in next week so she has a better idea of what I'm doing in those. I love the fact that she is interested in learning and doesnt pretend to know it all.
She said my air squat is the best she has ever seen. She identified the fact that my ITB is messed up, concurred with my chiro that my gracilis and sartorius are messed up, and identified that my left glute medius is not firing correctly. She wants me to do 30 side lying leg raises and 30 clamshells on each side daily. I've done a lot of both of these in the past. She showed me a couple things that will make my form better.
She also suggested that I do self-graston (IASTM) on my ITB. She said ART and rolling would probably be better on the gracilis and sartorius because those are so deep and hard to reach with IASTM.
After attempting to squat last week, I knew something in my posterior chain was not right. She figured out what exactly it was.
I did the PT work before lifting yesterday and my glute medius's were very pumped. I spent extra time rolling the gracilis and sartorius and did IASTM on the ITB.
squat w/briefs, nothing wrapped around knee, no sleeves
155x5
245x5
335x3
425x1x4
I focused on tight upper back and good neck position, so the neck is fine.
No knee pain. Some of the reps hit depth. No knee pain today so far either, but I can feel some DOMS from squatting.
Life is good.