I’m back from my first ever visit to a physical therapist.  I saw the boys at Altitude Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine, conveniently located just a few blocks from my house.  The PT suspects the same as I do, my pain is coming from old abdominal scar tissue.  He suggested a couple of things for me to do to address the pain and hopefully recover.

The PT frequently pointed to a model of the hip bone area, much like in this picture, to illustrate his advice.  He noted both my thighs and hip flexors are overly tight.  He believes stretching these muscles will mitigate the pain.  He demonstrated some stretches that are new to me.  Stretching a hip flexor is not straightforward.  The same stretches might also directly help the scar tissue too.  The trick he said with scar tissue is to slowly, gently stretch it, rather than tearing it from not warming up.

I intend to stop after the first mile of my runs to stretch this area, based on the PT’s advice.  And then continue with the rest of my run.  For the Bolder Boulder next weekend, I’ll warm up with a mile or two before the start.  For my marathon in two weeks, I’ll simply start out super slow.  If this works, then I’m good.  If not, he suggested I visit an MD and relate my attempts to alleviate the symptoms with stretching.  This could also be from a hernia of some sort, although I don’t think so.  Time will tell.