I'd noticed the tell-tale little hint of pain in my shins starting up, and I knew I needed to get a deep tissue (= torture) massage scheduled.
A couple of summers ago, I wanted to take up running.
I got shin splints after the first couple of weeks.
Bad ones.
I stopped running.
Then, later that fall, I went hiking in the mountains with hubby.
I tore three calf muscles.
Badly.
Fast forward to last year, I wanted to start running again.
You guessed it, shin splints.
So, for the last year, I've been to one doctor, one specialist, and three physical therapists.
Nobody was able to fix it.
Well, no one until I went to the last PT. She fixed it, lickily split!!!
Unfortunately, the shin splints were caused by a couple of different things.
1) my pelvis was slightly out of alignment
2) my calf muscles still hadn't healed correctly and completely
So....in comes deep tissue massage.
(And, before anyone who's never had a massage starts to get fearful....deep tissue as a normal massage, vs deep tissue for therapy...two different animals. One hurts like no other pain, and one feels magnificent!!)
In my case, the therapist runs their extremely pointy fingers (do they file those things down?) up and down the insides of my calves.....straightening the fibers of my messed up calf muscles.....AND increasing blood flow.
This is what it looks like the morning after.
Can't wait for those puppies to start turning black and blue....then green and yellow...then eventually fade away.
(sigh)
It probably goes without saying, I didn't run this morning. It was sprinkling a nice cool rain....but just walking to the bathroom hurt like a son-of-a-gun. Running 4 miles...I just couldn't work up the "umph" to do it.
I'll run tonight though.
At least a mile or two, if not the whole amount. :-)
6 comments:
OUCH! I had that done earlier this year and can definitely attest to the difference between a basic massage (with soft flowing music and candles) and a deep tissue massage (finger nails imbedded into whatever they can get a hold of). But it works! I'd probably be going for that right now, but I can't afford it, so instead must rest and do what I can on my own.
Hope you heal up quickly. Those are some nasty bruises!
It's amazing how much good it does...but darn, I know they take classes to make their fingers as pointy as possible. :-)
I keep hearing everyone talking about foam rollers and such. I've never done it...am thinking about researching it some.
The power of a little rest is amazing!!!!
Wow! That's a double ouch, 1 for running in the first place and 2nd for the painful massage. I use to run when I was much younger but from a car accident I have a leg that is one in longer than the other so anything high impact ends up hurting my back. So I'm stuck doing bikes, swimming, yoga, weights, and the elliptical machine. Hope you heal fast.
Bike, yoga, elipticals, and weights...you rock!!!! Bummer about the car accident, but it sounds like you are making the best of life, and that's what counts!!!!
I'm glad that will fix it-I am currently a firm believer in preemptive strikes when it comes to making/helping our bodies work right and good massage therapy is high on the list.
@ Brook - Preemptive strikes are good!!!!! Now, I need to schedule a relaxing massage....no where near my legs!!! :-)
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