Russell Dinkins
Before Andy
In the fall of 2015 I decided that I wanted to put my all into trying to make the 2016 Olympic team for the USA. I traveled to Kenya, trained at altitude and made an enormous amount of progress.
When I came back to the US in February of 2016, training was going well but I had a nagging hamstring that just kept getting worse. I tried to ignore it but it just kept getting tighter.
Just when I was about to open up my racing season in April, I had to stop training because I was no longer able to run without significant pain.
My hamstring was strained and I could no longer generate the power I needed to run fast. Almost everything I did – from running; to walking; to simply riding a stationary bike – seemed to aggravate it.
April is a crucial part of the season as I needed to be race ready by the Olympic trials in July.
The injury kept me from running for about a month and none of the traditional specialists that I saw could figure out my issue or get me back to the track. It was incredibly frustrating and I didn’t know what to do as I was running out of time and options.
Enter Andy
Right when it seemed like all hope was lost, I was introduced to Andy.
Now I don’t know exactly what Andy did but the best way I can explain it is he was able to pinpoint exactly what was not functioning correctly and then correct them instantly with his touch. From my crude understanding of it, he was able to get my neurological system to function and communicate with my musculature system.
Anyway, I noticed an immediate effect after our 1st session as my body started to move better and the pain in my hamstring wasn’t as significant. After a few more sessions I was able to start running again at a slow pace and soon thereafter I was able to start running workouts again on the track. After a month of not being able to run at all and having no success from traditional specialists, I was finally able to start workouts on May 16th.
On May 22nd, a week after I began running again after the month long injury induced hiatus, I ran my first 800m race of the season in 1:55.65 which is a very slow time for my standards. Clearly the time away from training had impacted me. However I was able to complete the race without much issue from my hamstring.
– Russell Dinkins
Over the next 6 weeks I continued to get Reactivated by Andy and each week my hamstring got healthier and I was able to handle more intense workouts. Each week my times kept improving and my body continued to feel better and to heal. At the end of 6 weeks I had improved my time from the 1:55.65 to 1:47.47, over an 8 second improvement and lifetime best.
I can confidently say that the work Andy did is what got me to 1:47.47 just 6 weeks after I ran my first race of the season. Unfortunately my time just barely missed qualifying for the 2016 trial but I honestly wouldn’t have even been close if it wasn’t for Andy rescuing me from my injury.
The only thing I wish is that I had met him sooner for if I had met him in April when the injury started instead of May, I believe I would have had enough time to hit the trials mark. Still I am incredibly grateful for the work he’s done and I’m looking forward to working with him in the future as I train for the 2017 USA Championships and the 2017 World Championships.