In the life of a professional triathlete you have your good days and your bad days, for Peter Reid he has had a bad year and a half. Peter made the decision to retire not because he was completely fulfilled with all he had accomplished in triathlon; he retired because of a debilitating injury in his lower back, butt and hamstrings.
“Over the last year and a half I have tried everything to give me some pain relief, I went from being the best in the world to only being able to jog once or twice a week,” Peter explained. “The pain had gotten so bad I didn’t want to start an easy jog with my girlfriend because I knew how much pain I would be in towards the end of the run and for the few days that followed,” said Reid.
Peter missed the lifestyle, he had become a real runner while in the sport of triathlon and now he was not. Frustrated with what all the doctors, chiropractors, and other specialists had to say, Peter contacted Cassidy Phillips of Trigger Point Performance Therapy. Phillips and his company concentrate on redefining an athlete’s biomechanics through products and education, empowering people to implement therapy within the comfort of their own home.
In the following paragraphs Phillips recounts his time in Squamish, BC with Peter Reid.
When I met with Peter it was obvious that we had our work cut out for us. Peter had been cycling hard over the last year and a half so I knew that we were going to have to address his bike position, being that he had been riding a lot more than running. After this, we could begin to address his running form. I tested his biomechanics with our Stability PODs and Block and started working from the lower leg upward all the way to his shoulders. Then we went out onto the road to see what was really going on. Peter went out for a 45-minute run and instantly felt the results, after the first day of using our products and implementing our education on biomechanics. We then went on to make additional changes to his cycling position and addressed his running biomechanics and really went after the muscular component of this equation with our products. This allowed Peter to do a 45 minute run in the morning, of the following day, and a 30 minute transition run later in the day off of the bike.
The important thing for Peter to understand was that the biomechanics are most challenged when you are tired; not when you are fresh. It was imperative that we analyze his biomechanics once he had been running for some time, not only when he was fresh. You have to physically and mentally prepare the body for the challenges it will face throughout activity. We retrain the body’s thought process when feeling fatigued to allow for structural integrity to be maintained. While this may sound complicated, our products do a lot of this without having to put much thought into the process. By creating elasticity in the challenged muscles, we are basically taking all the miles out of the legs so that they can start fresh again. This is something we want you to do everyday when challenging your body during training for multisport events.
This is why we really had to just let our TPT products do their thing and allow some elasticity to be generated through the muscles that were challenging his biomechanics. I was then able to address the areas of pain while running and after. The areas or symptoms felt in the lower back, hamstrings and butt region were all a result of poor biomechanics and adhesions that resulted from years of dehydrated races and repetitive movement. In the end, Peter ran a total of about 5.5 hours while I was in Squamish. I am pleased to give Peter his lifestyle back so he can continue to enjoy the things he loves most….running trails and racing.
Trigger Point Technologies is a company based in Austin, Texas that has established itself as a life enhancing brand, concentrating on empowering people with its revolutionary methodologies and patented products that mirror the feeling of a human hand. It has successfully become one of the leaders in personal performance care by marketing its in-home therapy technology to consumers in the
athletic, healthcare and personal wellness markets. It is a multi-channel company that provides a broad selection of information, media, products and services to customers that value personal development, wellness, positive lifestyles and enlightening media. It offers its customers the ability to make purchasing decisions based on these values while providing quality offerings at a price comparable to mainstream alternatives.
Linsey Corbin of Missoula, Montana (seen at right) ran her way into a 5th place finish of 10:04:19. Linsey posted a 3:10:18 marathon, the fastest run time in the professional women’s division. Trigger Point is proud to sponsor Linsey and help her with any Performance Therapy needs.
