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The machine can be fixed!
Jul. 24th, 2013 12:25 amI saw a really excellent therapist this morning about my somewhat chronically tweaked hamstring. He's a pain in the ass to get to, in Watertown, but I knew he'd be worth it when he was recommended to me by another bodyworker.
Neither of us is too worried about my current hamstring tear; it's in the belly of the muscle, a very vascular area that will heal up reasonably well. I know how to heal it up... stretch, foam roll, ultrasound therapy, repeat. Seeing this guy for cross-fiber frictioning will also help, but I don't need him for that. The pattern of why I keep pulling it, though... that's a mystery to me and is why I really wanted to see a pro.
He described a pattern that's all too familiar and recognizable: hip flexors tightened all the time, antagonistic inhibition loosening the glutes, anterior pelvic tilt, slight lordosis in the slower spine, slightly lengthened hamstrings as a result. Yeah yeah yeah I know, but why?
He had a theory that I might be overusing my hamstrings when my glutes (a much larger muscle) should be firing instead. So he had me lie on my stomach and raise my leg off the floor, keeping it straight. I did. Then he put one hand on my hamstring and one hand on my glute, and had me do it again. VERY perceptibly now, I could feel my body flex into the hamstring hand first and then into the glute hand.
HEY! That's backwards! The glutes are supposed to fire first! So I practiced tightening the glute first. The glute alone. The hamstring alone. The glute and then the hamstring. He encouraged me to keep playing with this and try to incorporate it into acro or whenever I exercise.
Then, the muscle tear. He knew many clever little stretches and exercises to help us locate it precisely, and in the meantime we determined that my adductor is totally fine. (Side note: I felt a nasty little "give" in there during my pancake workout two weeks ago, and stopped immediately and haven't done it since, but apparently the last two weeks of resting it have healed that up. I suspect it was a fascia thing or something rather than a real muscle tear. Yay! Back to pancaking I go! I will have lost ground, I'm sure, but in general with that one I gain the ground as fast as I lose it. So, if unusual pain doesn't show up at the far end of my ROM, two weeks should see my chest on the floor again.)
Some cross-fiber frictioning, some myofascial work, and he sent me on my way feeling MUCH more cheerful about things. He knows many tricks, and speaks of deep pelvic work to get at my psoas and really work on the anterior pelvic tilt as well as just the obvious current injury. I can't wait. I'm serious about breaking the pattern so that this stops recurring.
Did I mention I did some great acro tonight with Scooper, and also kicked into a handstand in the middle of the room that held for at least 30 seconds? Yayyyyyyyy! The machine can be fixed and it works pretty damn well already.
Neither of us is too worried about my current hamstring tear; it's in the belly of the muscle, a very vascular area that will heal up reasonably well. I know how to heal it up... stretch, foam roll, ultrasound therapy, repeat. Seeing this guy for cross-fiber frictioning will also help, but I don't need him for that. The pattern of why I keep pulling it, though... that's a mystery to me and is why I really wanted to see a pro.
He described a pattern that's all too familiar and recognizable: hip flexors tightened all the time, antagonistic inhibition loosening the glutes, anterior pelvic tilt, slight lordosis in the slower spine, slightly lengthened hamstrings as a result. Yeah yeah yeah I know, but why?
He had a theory that I might be overusing my hamstrings when my glutes (a much larger muscle) should be firing instead. So he had me lie on my stomach and raise my leg off the floor, keeping it straight. I did. Then he put one hand on my hamstring and one hand on my glute, and had me do it again. VERY perceptibly now, I could feel my body flex into the hamstring hand first and then into the glute hand.
HEY! That's backwards! The glutes are supposed to fire first! So I practiced tightening the glute first. The glute alone. The hamstring alone. The glute and then the hamstring. He encouraged me to keep playing with this and try to incorporate it into acro or whenever I exercise.
Then, the muscle tear. He knew many clever little stretches and exercises to help us locate it precisely, and in the meantime we determined that my adductor is totally fine. (Side note: I felt a nasty little "give" in there during my pancake workout two weeks ago, and stopped immediately and haven't done it since, but apparently the last two weeks of resting it have healed that up. I suspect it was a fascia thing or something rather than a real muscle tear. Yay! Back to pancaking I go! I will have lost ground, I'm sure, but in general with that one I gain the ground as fast as I lose it. So, if unusual pain doesn't show up at the far end of my ROM, two weeks should see my chest on the floor again.)
Some cross-fiber frictioning, some myofascial work, and he sent me on my way feeling MUCH more cheerful about things. He knows many tricks, and speaks of deep pelvic work to get at my psoas and really work on the anterior pelvic tilt as well as just the obvious current injury. I can't wait. I'm serious about breaking the pattern so that this stops recurring.
Did I mention I did some great acro tonight with Scooper, and also kicked into a handstand in the middle of the room that held for at least 30 seconds? Yayyyyyyyy! The machine can be fixed and it works pretty damn well already.
