The big event this week was my trip to the Osteopath. I've never been to one before and was a little wary of what was going to happen. As his services had been recommended to me by a close friend, who claimed she had been 'fixed' by him on numerous occasions, I arrived for my appointment on Tuesday morning.
After talking to me and getting me to bend and stretch into a variety of weird and wonderful positions, he concluded that my hip was slightly out of alignment and thus was causing my back pain. The way my back muscles were being over stretched would also have been causing the tightness in my hamstrings and calf. Great, so all we had to do was fix it and I'd be back in business.
I was lulled into a serene calm by a ten minute back massage in order to loosen the muscles and allow the manipulation to occur. My arms and legs were then carefully moved into a position which I thought would be used to stretch out the problem area. It was a bit of a shock when he then told me to breathe in and literally jumped on me, thus producing a huge cracking sound from my back. After he assured me that that horrific sound was the intended outcome we swapped sides to deal with the problematic right. I was in position and ready. He jumped on me again, nothing happened so he quickly repeated the jump three times, nothing. I was moved into a new position and stretched out a bit. We then went back for a second 'crack' at it!! This time he jumped with more pressure and purpose. But still no crack. Again he tried twice more with more force. I was praying for it to crack, the position was uncomfortable to say the least, but rather than pain I was hit by a feeling of nausea. The back's a fragile and quite important thing, with all those spinal cords running up it, so to have a strange bearded man I've known five minutes messing about with it, intentionally hurting it for a greater good made me feel a little sick. I stared at his certificates to reassure myself he knew what he was doing and then, finally, there was a small but ever so pleasing crack and I was released from my contorted position.
I was reassessed and my hip had moved closer to its normal position and advised not to run for two weeks, which fits pleasingly into my end of season break. All he advised was to stretch the area and swim and cycle to keep up a bit of my cardio fitness. But I wasn't to over do it, so as to give the back time to recover and mend. Which again all fits in perfectly with me taking a break from training.
It's been a relief to have been given an explanation and something of a cure for my problem. And the Doctor's advice to not run and do minimal exercise has meant my feelings of guilt for not doing anything and losing ground on where I ultimately aim to be will not surface. I can sit back and relax under the umbrella of rehab. Happy days!
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