johnwang wrote:kreese wrote: I have a weird nerve pain in my right leg that developed a couple of years ago. It's much better now.
Kreese,
A friend of mine also have this problem. I'm thinking about to suggest him to start running. Please share your experience on your case. What kind of "nerve pain" do you have? What did it cause to happen? How did you feel about that running help you? What was your feeling on your 1st running, 2nd running, ... How long have you done your running so far? Thanks in advance. May be your experience can help others too.
The pain is in my right leg. If you imagine the cross section of the leg as a clock, with 12-o-clock as the front of the leg and 6-o-clock as the back of the leg, the pain starts from the hip joint, at the back of the leg, maybe around 4 to 5-o-clock, follows the groove on the right of my hamstring muscle, behind the knee still at around 4 to 5-o-clock, then goes down the calf to the 3rd or 4th toe. Sometime I just feel the pain from the back of the knee down the calf to the toe. Sometime I'll just get a burning pain in one of my toes.
I've always had a problem with flexibility in my right hip. I've always had a problem sinking into my right bow stance. My right leg tends to turn outward, whereas my left foot always points forward. I figure this is because some of the muscles on the inside of my right leg are weak. I also cannot do a toe-touching type stretch on the right side as far as on the left. This might also be a tight hamstring, but it really involves the hip and even some of the muscles above the hip. I also have a harder time turning my waist to the right.
What started to help me with this problem was doing lunges (step forward, sink, rise up, step back). Bow stances did not engage the muscles on the inner side of my right hip as much. What really started to help was doing dead lifts and lunges with weights. Not super heavy weights, because I only have access to dumbbells, but the weight adds some stretch to the movements, especially if you keep strict form.
I don't know if running alone would fix this type of problems, unless you ran with correct form, especially not striking the ground with the heels. Maybe stretching and weight training would be faster. And maybe all this person needs is more exercise, so running could be the ticket.
I don't recall running having any difference on the pain until I started running with correct form, striking the ground with the middle of my foot and letting the weight roll off the toes. Maybe this stretches out and works the back of the leg. The thing is, I was also doing the weight training at the same time that I started running, so it's hard to say which exercise made the difference. I guess I've been running off and on for about 6 months. These days, not so often, maybe twice a week, 1-2 miles at a time. I try to do strength training, some qi gong, taiji, xingyi, and swimming too. In terms of energy and just feeling good, running and swimming are probably the best. Strength training just makes everything better, as you know.
I hope that helps.
