A Lesson From the Olympics
Stretching for Skating Can Help Avoid Injury By Lee Borowski The Salt Lake Olympic Committee claimed that the
athletes and coaches had access to the best medical services possible (as well as food, lodging and transportation), and I have to concur 100 percent. As you'll see from this article, I made full use of everything they had to offer and wouldn't have been able to fulfill my coaching obligations without their help. In addition, I've never seen a group of volunteers so friendly and giving of themselves. Many worked their normal jobs and then put in another 8 10 hours for the Olympics. And, of
course, some were up all night on the graveyard shift, as the entire Olympic Village never sleeps. These people manned the dormitories, the cafeterias, drove the shuttles and vans, marshaled the events, provided information and provided the health services. These were the true gold medal performances of the games.  As I stepped out of the shower, I looked down and could hardly believe my eyes. There was a lump, the size of a large egg, just above my right kneecap on the outside of my leg. To make matters worse, the entire side of my leg, from the ankle to the hip, was locked in a spasm. And all I could think was "Oh no. Here I'm at the Olympics, having the time of my life, and I've just discovered that I have cancer."
I quickly put that out of my head and tried to get back to plans for the job at hand, coaching Isaac Menyoli, the one man cross country ski team from Cameroon. I knew something was drastically wrong with my leg but right then, there was nothing I could do about it. A little background: This leg problem had not cropped up overnight. For
the last year or so, the outside of my lower right leg would spasm occasionally at night and was always tight as a banjo. It was something I could live with, and other things had always seemed more important. I knew stress during the recovery phase of skating, as the leg swings out to the side and back down again, was the cause behind the tightness. I dismissed it as a minor overuse injury. My solution had been merely to increase calcium and potassium intake. But then came Soldier Hollow. Long, unrelenting, steady climbs were the norm, some 1 kilometer long. And in order to coach Isaac, I was forced to ski them on a daily basis. Our trails back home in the Midwest feature more undulating terrain, with shorter climbs followed by relief on the downhills. The long ascents of Soldier Hollow were a perfect prescription for overuse. By the end of the first week, my leg was completely spasmed.
The purpose of this article is to outline how this skating overuse injury was finally cured, but more importantly how you can avoid it in the first place. (See sidebar.) Along the way, I learned how valuable massage therapy can be and how important professional physical therapy is to fully recovering from an injury.
But when I stepped out of that shower, my only thought was, "How will I ever finish my coaching duties if I can hardly walk much less ski?" And I
had to be able to get around the course to help get Isaac ready for his next race, the sprints. I had to be on the trail itself, as I couldn't see any other way to help Isaac master the nuances of the course, especially cornering and the downhills. Gimping around in street shoes wouldn't do it.
So I was pretty discouraged when I stepped out of the shower. After dressing, I decided to limp out and try to find a present for my wife in the
Olympic Village almost a bigger challenge than competing in the Games themselves. Any decent item of clothing was gone early each day, while I was still on the slopes coaching. Bjorn Daehlie might have been one of the most determined skiers of all time, but the souvenir shoppers of the Salt Lake Olympics were just as persevering in their pastime.
Then one of those moments of serendipity happened. On the way to the International Shop Area, I stopped to talk to one of the many volunteers
easily identified by their Mountain Shadow blue jackets in this case, a massage therapist. Discovering her specialty, I said, "I'm coaching a cross country skier from Cameroon who has a slight problem with muscle tightness"( actually true his shoulder). Well, it didn't take long for me to admit that I had a more serious problem, which she could certainly see by the way I dragged my right leg. She guided me over to the
massage Trailer and set up an immediate session. (Massage therapy was a first time experiment at this Olympics like a demonstration sport. The trailer was very popular and, as you'll soon see from my experience, filled a need. While the bigger nations have their own medical personal, most of the smaller countries are not so lucky.)
While I had been skeptical of massage therapy before that night, I emerged from the trailer a believer. After one 15 minute session, I could
walk normally. The leg was still a little tight, but not spasmed, and I still had that ominous lump on the knee. I was hoping it only was a spasmed muscle, but it still looked too much like a tumor to me.
I visited the massage trailer twice the next day, as we took a day off from skiing, and it really helped my leg. By the end of that evening, however, I had a new problem: I could not walk normally up and down stairs because of severe pain under the front of my kneecap.
Then came lucky break two. My son in law, Dave Schimp (a chiropractor) suggested, during a call home that I go to physical therapy and get a knee brace. He said it was common for kneecap "tracking" problems to develop from iliotibial band syndrome. (He didn't even know I had already experienced pain under my kneecap.)
On Dave's advice, I headed for the PT unit, conveniently located in the lower level of the building in which we stayed. The therapist began by
applying ultrasound to my swollen knee. This was followed by electrical stimulation and an ice wrap around the knee. When she was done, I stood up and looked down. THE HUGE LUMP WAS GONE! Tears welled up in my eyes. No tumor just a swollen muscle.
I tried desperately to think of a way to express my gratitude, then I remembered my Cameroon Olympic pin. I thanked the therapist profusely as I presented it to her. This may seem like a small thing, but
these "butterfly shaped" pins were the hottest things with the in collectors, selling for as much as $80. And I only had two at the time one for me and one for my wife.
For the next week, I shuttled back and forth between the massage trailer and the PT unit. Each day was pretty much the same: I'd restress my knee during the cramped ride of over an hour up to Soldier Hollow, strain it on the XC course, and aggravate it on the long drive home to the
Olympic Village. Then back to therapy. In fact, each day the next therapist seemed to take my recovery one step further.
There was one volunteer therapist who I feel deserves special mention. Her name is Pam Stuhr, and she normally works out of Gundersen Lutheran (Sports Medicine) in Onalaska, Wis. Her special contribution was discovering that I had a loose knee (my words) from a previous injury. Pam fitted me with a knee brace that not only stabilized my
kneecap (with its patella tracker) but also protected against further injury. This brace allowed me to ski with Isaac for that last week. Without it, although the knee and outside of my leg felt better with therapy, skiing was impossible. In fact, the brace saved me from serious injury when my ski tip buried in a bank of snow on the side of the trail system.
Conclusion: My daily trips between massage therapy and physical
therapy were an effective one two punch. While I did develop patella tracking problems, continued rehab back home eventually brought my knee back to normal but it did take two months for total recovery. I'm certain that if I would have been able to rest for several days at the Olympics, instead of restressing the leg daily on the mountain, recovery would have been rapid as each time I left physical therapy, my knee and leg felt perfect, but then each day I'd redo the damage.
The overall lesson? You can teach an old dog new tricks and this "old dog" will no longer be cavalier about stretching; it's become a daily part of my routine. (See sidebar for details.)
Stretching the Lateral Skating Muscles of the Leg
While there are many stretches for the outside of the leg (which includes the iliotibial band), this one is my favorite. It seems to be more effective than the others I've tried. The area being targeted is indicated by arrows.
Directions: Stand with your legs straight. Cross the leg to be stretched (the left in this illustration) behind the other. Extend the hip to the outside as far as possible, then flex the trunk laterally as far as possible to the other side. Hold the stretch for 10 20 seconds, then stretch the other leg. Repeat this sequence twice more.
The reason I prefer this stretch over others is that it also stretches the lower leg. It was in this area, below the knee, where I first noticed
tightness well before the injury became debilitating. The pain I felt after a skating workout (both on snow and roller skis) was similar to "shin splints," but located more to the outside of the leg. I applied ice to my lower leg during the final stages of therapy and it seemed to help, reducing a slight swelling between the ankle and knee.
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