Personal Training Client: Betty Bernard
Age: 39
Occupation: Personal Trainer
Personal Trainer: Nelson Chong
I have been doing fitness for more almost 20 years now and started running some 15 years ago and became quite addicted to running. I was training at least 3 times weekly for about 1 hour, running on the streets mainly. After performing several 10km, then 15 km, I ran my first half-marathon in Paris in 2007. Then we moved to Hong Kong, and after my pregnancy I started running again. I was thrilled by a new challenge: trail races and there are plenty in Hong Kong. But that’s when my problem started, during which was supposed to be a 30km, with a lot of stairs, I had to stop after 15km as the pain in my knee was becoming unbearable. I saw a physiotherapist who diagnosed it as ITB-band problem, prescribed me some rest and stretching, which I did. I could feel this pain on the outside of my knee only when running. During any other activities I would do like swimming, body-building, salsa dancing or yoga, I feel no pain at all. So after about 6 months without running, I started running again, but then my knee would hurt after 30 minutes. I saw another recommended physiotherapist in Singapore, as we had moved here in the meantime. She advised me to put some physio-tape and indeed it was giving me a bit of relief but the problem was not solved, if I was running for more than 30 minutes the pain would come back. That was 2 years ago. In the last one year, I noticed the problem worsened as the pain was starting earlier and earlier, 25 min., then 20 min. and when I finally decided to ask and see Nelson about it, I could run only 10 minutes before my knee start hurting a lot.
I attended the DZMR workshop by Nelson in July 2016 and was amazed by the different cases he has solved. But at that time I was too busy with other challenges at work. That’s only in January 2017 when he organised a “Rehab-Reunion” for those who had participated in his workshop that I decided it was the right time for me to ask him about my health issue.
So I went to see Nelson, he made me run on the treadmill, took videos of the way I was running, checking posture, alignment, etc. He first diagnosed that my gluteus medius and my hamstrings were weak and not firing when necessary which was causing my quadriceps to work more. No wonder my quadriceps was so tight! He made me do some releases of all the tight muscles with the DZMR balls, and then made me do couples of exercises to retrain my gluteus medius and hamstrings and gosh it was not easy. Then I started running. It was a bit better but still I could feel pain in my knee after 15 min. And finally he noticed something nobody had spotted before: I was running with long strides with high impact, which was tiring my knee quite fast. So Nelson told me at this speed, 10 km/hr, I should run with small strides instead, more like walking fast, and that’s what I did, I ran again for about 15 minutes without any pain. At the end of the session he advised me to always start with some release of specific thigh muscles, do the “retrain” exercises he had shown me and then go running.
I have been training for almost 2 months now as recommended by Nelson and it worked! Very fast I could see improvements, and for the first time in 2 years now I can run more than 30 minutes without feeling any pain in my knee. I was so impressed by what Nelson did and I am so grateful to him for making this possible again for me. Especially as I am a Personal Trainer and one would think that I surely know how to train. But that doesn’t replace years of experience and the whole understanding of how our body works that Nelson has. Couple of years ago I had in mind to run a full marathon, thanks to Nelson I have hope again and I am confident I will soon be able to achieve it!
I definitely recommend FTI to others, whether you are experiencing some physical pain or you are out of shape and want to make sure you’ll go back to physical activity doing the right thing for you, all trainers there know their business. And the trainings are always fun, wait the unexpected!