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Author Topic: Training, medical specialist for bow legged, kyphosis??  (Read 59 times)

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Offline Query

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Training, medical specialist for bow legged, kyphosis??
« on: April 20, 2024, 01:32:10 PM »
My unforced standing pose in athletic cross training shoes with normally elevated heels, but with my feet together, is somewhat bow legged, with 1/8 to 1/16" between my knees, and a somewhat forward curved spine on top.

These symptoms go away in bare feet.

A trainer said to train more outside of legs than inside, more back (gluts, spine, neck) than front of body (though he said to train chest too), to compensate. But he didn't seem very experienced at this. Does this make sense? Should I see a medical specialist and what type? Sports podiatrist? PT? (My health insurance would only pay 1/2.)

Maybe just need to strengthen all my muscles, so foot point wouldn't affect body shape as much? I'm still pretty weak.

Should I move to neutral heels? I tried to find them, but my shoes are orthotic, to slow osteo-arthritis (bone spurs), which limits choices.

I'm tempted to get custom skates with neutral heels too - but that's a big investment that might not work, and I might need different length blades, with a different custom profile. Any thoughts?

Offline Query

  • Asynchronous Skating Team Leader
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  • Joined: Aug 2010
  • Location: Maryland, USA
  • Posts: 4,114
  • Total GOE: 113
  • Gender: Male
    • mgrunes.com
Re: Training, medical specialist for bow legged, kyphosis??
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2024, 01:54:13 PM »
I also have forwards spine curvature in figure skates, which have relatively high heels, and a substantial upwards bend.

I tried rental figure skates (with much lower heels, less upwards bend), and hockey skates (no heels or bend) yesterday. They fit so badly (only a few points of contact on the sides, front and back), I couldn't really tell. My favored rink throws away skates that are at all broken down, so they were too stiff to conform to my feet. I could try other rinks...

I couldn't spin at all well, not that I'm very good at it anyway. And the toe picks were so dull, that both forward 3-turns and spins were awkward. But maybe with better toe picks and better fit??

At this point I can do very low bunny hops, waltz jumps and half rotation flip jumps, on both feet. I'm doing these very conservatively, with as little air and arm motion as possible, because I'm still weak. But even at my best, I never managed more than 1/2 rotation jumps on the ice, and my style is terrible.

In the rental skates I was literally afraid to jump. I managed a couple bunny hops off my stronger foot, but otherwise my body just said no. With such poor fit, I don't have enough control to be confident.

So that test was worthless.