Hello and welcome to this weeks blog, the third instalment in June – Have an Injury Free Summer. It’s about how to have an injury free summertime so you can make the most out of the word being open again.
Most injuries occur when people rush to do too much too soon, after doing too little for too long. Last week I talked about how to introduce, or reintroduce, regular activity without snagging an injury along the way. But…
What about if you’re already very fit and active?
Then you don’t need to worry about building up a strong foundation, because you already have it. But what if you keep hurting yourself and you’re not sure why? What if you can go strong for a long time, but then something happens and it lays you up and away from your sports and activities for several weeks, maybe months?
If that sounds familiar, you could possibly do with a postural assessment and chat with me to discover why that could be happening, and to put a plan into place to prevent it.
I regularly treat runners, and one such runner is a marathoner and ultra-runner. I first met him due to calf pain in his right leg. But when I was massaging his calves, it felt as though I had two different people on the table. His right leg was strong and firm in the muscles, and the left leg felt almost like jelly… The muscles were not as strong and weren’t reacting in the same way to the massage.
Have an Injury Free Summer
After a bit more exploration via conversation with the runner, it turned out that he was left-handed but right foot dominant. Did you know that people can be right or left footed as well as right or left-handed? Interestingly, a person can be right-handed AND right footed. This can cause all manner of issues because the body loves to work in opposites. In fact is most efficient working in opposites. Take a moment and think about how you walk, how you swing your arms as you walk. See, opposites.
Back to my runner
It turned out that he became so strong so fast on his dominant running foot, that the less dominant side was having trouble keeping up, but why then was it his right leg, the dominant leg, that was hurting? It was because it was so strong, it was taking so much of the load, that it just could not cope anymore and so something had to give. The muscle hurt in order to get the brain to reduce the load on it. I say this because it was hard to find an actual issue within the muscle, and the brain is a clever bugger and will create pain in order to create a desired outcome, not always because there is something inherently wrong in that moment.
Believe me when I say though, it’s these small pains you want to listen to, before something really wrong occurs, and your body screams at you to pay attention.
Come and see me to find out why your body might be nudging you with little aches and pains, before you can’t ignore them anymore.
Don’t forget that alongside Sports Massage, I still offer Personal Training for you, tailored to your injury recovery and movement needs. Contact me on [email protected] to find out more.
See you soon!
Chloe