Road to Recovery

On Friday I had my first physiotherapy session on Friday morning. Naturally, this is physiotherapy offered at Google. I had been waiting for 6 weeks for my initial appointment, which I scheduled the day after I originally hurt my knee during the photo shoot. Although my knee has since improved, it still gives me occasional trouble, so I was excited to get some expert advice.

Within a few minutes of simple physio tests (lift this, bend that, etc), the physiotherapist had a fairly certain diagnosis: I have zero hip strength. This is not what I was expecting. The turnout for our dance posture is pretty dramatic, and I have no idea how one does that without hip strength to keep one's legs pried apart. Apparently, the other way to do it is to put a lot of torque on one's knees.

I've been given one simple set of exercises: clam shells. This is where you lie on your side, with heels pressed together, and lift the top knee off the bottom knee while your legs are bound together with a theraband. I was started off with the wimpiest theraband tension and I can still barely get my knees apart. This is me trying my most hardest:

We'll call this The Before Shot

Note that that shot was taken on the 3rd day of doing exercises. The therapist says that it will take a couple of weeks to notice a difference, and by 6 to 8 weeks I shouldn't have to do them anymore since once the muscles are activated I'll be using them all the time in dance. I'd say this is very good news, though it would have been nice to have 6 weeks ago.