How I cured my adult pigeon toe

When I was a kid I had really knobbly knees and serious pigeon toe (pen toe, in-toeing and other names). My brother still laughs at this photo!

Like most kids, I grew out of the worst of it although I was still left a little pigeon toed as an adult At 31 years old was absolutely sure I was stuck with it permanently. It was blind luck that I fixed it!

I was on a first aid course and the instructor explained that when rolling older people in to the recovery position that you should be aware that they may have stiff joints. The instructor kindly 'volunteered' me to be his casualty. Embarrassingly, the instructor proclaimed that my shoulder joints were so stiff that rigor mortis had set in and this casualty must be beyond saving!

I have always been sporty and play Ice Hockey, hit the gym etc and regularly do stretching. I was browsing the net and found a workout site called Crossfit where they publish a WOD (workout of the day) and I also found my way to an associated site called mobility WOD. http://www.mobilitywod.com/ .  This is a great blog by a physical therapist which aims to optimise joint mobility for sports. Given the embarassment at the First Aid course this greatly appealed to me!

I followed this general advice and made good improvements. After just a couple of weeks my mickey taking brother coincidentally laughed 'remember how pen toed you used to be?' and I replied 'still am!' he said 'no you are not'. After a few basic walking tests and a mobile phone video recording I realised that my pigeon toe had completely gone!

Here is what I did and didn't do

I owe the improvements to working on mobility of my hip joints and specifically by working on external hip rotation. Stretching (15 years of trying) doesn't have the same benefits because it only focuses on tight muscles rather than fix all the joint structures that might be limiting range of motion. Yoga never realy appealed to me and I don't have time to commit to going to a class or going through an entire DVD which just have no variety of exercises and become repetitive anyway.

At some point through the day spend a few minutes on one upper body mobiliser and a few minutes on one lower body mobiliser. I do a quick mobility routine after I work out and I might do something extra if I've got muscle soreness. This has unlocked my joints and I got lots of other benefits.

My shoulder flexibility has improved and I can now sleep with my arm up under my head like I used to when I was a kid. That is my most comfortable sleeping position for me and I drift off really quickly.

I spend a lot of time at my desk and I drive about 25,000 miles a year for work and I used to get stiffness and soreness in my hips and back. Since I've been following this really simple routine that has gone away too!

For pigeon toe

If you are pigeon toed then work on external hip rotation. Using mobility training it literally unlocked my hip joint. I thought my range of movement was fine because I was always stretching and I assumed that the limits of the range of motion was literally the bone on bone limits of the joint structure. I was pleasently proved very wrong!

I always thought that my shin bone was twisted too much and this was the cause of my pigeon too. Again happy to have been proved wrong!

Techniques and equipment

The mobility WOD blog is a good place to start but might not be everyones cup of tea. It can be a bit tricky to find exactly which item / body part you are after so I bought this awesome book (in link to right) and put together a tailor made program to work on my issues systematically and progressively.

I use a yoga mat if I work on the floor. Mainly for shoulders I use an open (not looped) stretch band becuase you can easily tie a knot in one end and trap it in the door hinge as above left. The flexibility in the band adds beneficial tension but the stretchiness helps avoid overstretching your body.

I also use practice lacrosse balls for sore spots and loosening sliding surfaces of muscle and connective tissue (sounds complicated but this is simply what massage does!). These lacrosse balls are the right amount of firm but not hard and they have a grippy surface which helps them do their job.

You could also check out trigger point therapy ifyou have ongoing issues / painful spots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_point. This stuff is magic on the sore spot I still get in the hamstring that I tore back in 2007!

Check out the direct links to the cheapest and best stuff I could find. Hope it helps you out too!