Saturday, July 29, 2006
SPORT MASSAGE NOT EQUAL TO SPA MASSAGEI have gone for a few spa massages previously and the experience was generally enjoyable. So when Derek (my therapist) said the doctor had ordered a massage for me (for my ITB problem), I was plesantly surprised. I should have suspected something was up when Derek claimed he had nothing to do with the doctor's decision for me to do the massage.The trainer explained to me the massage was going to hurt. Hmmm okay, but it can't be that bad right? It's massage after all. He explained to me that the lack of stretching and heavy running has caused the muscles along the side of the thigh to be very tight, thus contributing to the ITB problem. What he was going to do can be compared to ironing - he will iron out the knots/lumps of muscles. It was basically one movement down the side of my thigh, and when he came to a knot/lump, he will increase the pressure there and rub for about 10 seconds. Sounds ominous...I was sqealing in pain before he was even one third down the thigh. It hurts a lot! When he reached the first knot, my body jerked in pain. I had not even realise there was this tender spot along my thigh! Turns out that there were actually 4 such knots along my thigh. He turned to me and showed 9 with his fingers - 1 down, 9 to go. OMG... After he was done with the 2nd one, my body was shaking. He gave me time to take a breather and to brace myself for the next 8. Seems an eternity. After we were done with the 3rd one, he explained that the first 5 was done with the thumbs, but the next 5 were supposed to be done with the elbow. Are you kidding me? There was no way I was going to survive that.After he completed the 5th one, he agreed with me that there was no one I was going to survive the elbow, so he used his thumbs for the rest of the treatment. After the 8th one, it seemed that my body had numbed to the pain. Then he started moving upwards instead (previously it had been one downward movement). And that hurt! We finally completed all 10 rubs - on my left thigh. I asked if I was behaving like a baby but he assured me that others (men and women alike) had the same reaction. Phew. I exclaimed that there were definitely going to be blue-blacks over the area he rubbed and he agreed, saying it was normal. Oh okay...So now there are these big patches of blue-black marks over the side of my thigh. According to S, it looked as though I had been knocked by a motorbike.I asked Derek how he though my treatment was coming along and whether it was possible for me to take part in the stanchart run at the end of the year. We agreed that the full was nearly impossible, the half is a risk, but we can give the 10km a shot. So here's the announcement: I have signed up for the 10km run and will take part. If my knee is not ready, I will simply walk the entire 10km. Can't wait for them to give the go ahead for me to start training.Dream It. Plan It. Do It.
Just The Girl @
7/29/2006 01:01:00 PM