"Hey baby, it's you,Come on girl, now it's you, Sink your teeth right through my bones, baby, Let's see what we can do, come on and make it up..."
I went to see the local massage therapist today. She specialises in sports remedial massage, myofascial trigger points and dry needling. I expected some serious pain!
First we talked about the pain I was experiencing in the front of my hip and the tightness in my butt (where else can you talk about such things??). Then she had a feel of my hips, standing and sitting (first talking dirty, then feeling me up! Lucky she's a professional...). At first she thought one of legs was longer than the other, as one hip was higher than the other. As I bent down, my left hip was not moving well.
But the funny thing ("mmm, that's interesting"....can never be a good comment), when I was laying down, my legs were the same length - so that meant it was muscular, rather than structural! Making progress!
Then she tested my hamstring strength. Or lack of - both are pathetic, but my left leg is virtually non-existent!! This is the leg they took hamstring tendon from for my Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction! And, I have to sheepishly admit, I never really did those hamstring strengthening exercises 3 months after the operation 8 years ago....and I'm paying for it now!
She did lots of trigger point massage and also dry needling which apparently works quicker and is less painful than manual massage. So bizzare - at times it even felt a little electric current through my muscles as they twitched and carried on.
My hips were more level after that and had better motion. And I am free to run - listening to my body, walking when needed. Lots of hamstring strengthening. Keep on stretching my hamstrings, hip flexors, quads and glutes, so the muscles don't shorten up. She recommended using stairs (lucky we live near the beach and there are some doozy sets of stairs) focussing on using the hamstrings to push me up.
She was SOOOO good! I felt real confidence she knew of what she was speaking and she was very confident we can 'fix' this and get me running!! "Everyone should be able to run", "Running makes the rest of your life better", "How good do you feel after a run" - she won me over!
So, a little pain, a lot of gain! See you out on the footpath, baby!!!
"Hurt so good, come on baby, make it hurt so good, sometimes love doesn't feel like should, make it hurt so good"
