Put ‘em On, Put ‘em On Me

by Emilie L. David, 6 February 2012

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with massage.  Some people love it – it relaxes them and makes them all smiley and liquidy.  There have been times when I’ve come out of the “spa” feeling more tense than I did when I went in, with the words “man handled” on my lips.  A couple of years ago, what I thought was a knee injury sidelined me for two months.  When I couldn’t take it anymore, I went to a free chiropractic assessment at my local running store.  The chiropractor torqued my legs around and bent me around like a pipe cleaner in an effort to make me yelp.  I didn’t.  And then he spoke these magical words to me:  “You don’t have a joint problem.”  I nearly kissed him.  But then he said:  “you need to see my Physical Therapist instead – I think you have an IT Band issue, and she can massage it back to normal.”  The “M” word.  Gulp.

Luckily for me, “she” was an accomplished runner who was never going to tell me to give up running.  And, she wasn’t going to let a little (of my) crying stop her from forcing the kinks out of my legs.  She did battle with my injuries, and I never felt creeped out.  It was more of a competition.  Was I going to get out this time without hissing?  Every time I left her office I left feeling better.  In a month I was adding miles to my run.  She fixed me.  Then she did a completely despicable thing.  She went on maternity leave.  It was like losing the one hair dresser who understands how your bangs behave (I lost her too, but that is for another blog).

Since then I have tried a couple of replacement PT’s with varying success.  Much of that has more to do with my inability to get into therapy with any regularity, but part of it is that I just haven’t found the right replacement yet.  It is as with any caregiver that you pick – the fit has to be right, and you have to believe in the healer and his/her program.  I believe in massage now though because it’s worked for me, and recently, scientists have found that massage after stressing the muscles does result in reduced inflammation and may help rebuild damaged cells by promoting mitochondria growth.  So schedule that post-race massage!  Go ahead and have both quads done.  You’re worth it.