I don't know whether I should be mildly annoyed, really pissed off, or slightly relieved...
The last few times I've been to the chiropractor, he's told me that after he adjusts my hips, my leg lengths are comparable enough that there's really no issue. He also says that my hip doesn't have a major structural issue, it's likely just being held out of position due to tight muscles/tendons and guarding. This has been the case the last three times, which means that for the 15+ years of going to my previous chiro, he was treating me improperly (well, based on an erroneous conclusion). The hip and leg length issues he said were congenital actually weren't; the heel shim I've been wearing in my right shoe for well over a decade has actually been jamming my hip into misalignment & causing me to walk improperly. Based on comments from my new chiro, and based on his adjustments, I started to feel the truth of that, so today, I took out the heel shims from all of my shoes. Walking at work today felt better, but I really noticed it with deadlifts today, and especially the 2 mile walk afterwards. I felt like I was actually stepping down properly, being able to extend fully, and my hip didn't hurt anywhere near as much as it usually does. I'm pretty pleased to have discovered this, but am really annoyed that I wasted so much time with the previous guy when I could have spent those years healthy(er).
Also, during my last conversation with him this past Wednesday, something he said clicked, and I made an interesting connection. He said something to the effect of "Your (spinal) muscles never get out of 'guarding' mode" which is why I'm not improving. He again told me my spine was very mobile, and that I'm in the top 5% of all of his patients for spinal quality/health.
Well, the 'never get out of guarding mode' made me realize that I've probably been causing that myself, with the tennis ball I use to improve/release my back muscle tension. I've likely been doing it too aggressively, and even though it's been loosening them up, it's also been forcing my spine out of place, which made me think that what's probably happening is that overnight, my spine muscles are tightening up again to 'protect' me. So, yesterday, I committed to not using them again until after our holiday next weekend. It was fairly miserable yesterday, but I was continuously doing stretches in my seat at my desk, and while I slept terribly again last night, I actually felt better this morning, and I feel like I was only doing maybe half the amount of stretches today that I did yesterday. I think this was a good step.
Another thing it made me realize is that all of my guarding is probably why I can't run for shit. My spine/back/rib cage can't fully relax, which means that not only is my stride restricted and awkward, I can't take full, deep breaths, which explains why I get winded so easily. On my walk today, I did a hill sprint (like I have before) but today, not only was it fairly easy, I caught my breath before the end of the next block or so, when previously, it took me maybe 1/4 mile before I felt reasonably recovered. I'm a bit excited to see how these changes might improve things for me!
I think there's more to write about (ugh, grammar!) but I've written too much already, so maybe I'll address other things this weekend?
5:22 p.m. - 2021-05-21
Recent entries:
"This is 'Ice Man' Wim Hof"... - 2021-06-05
The bad news, explained. - 2021-06-03
Visit from Bo, and prelude to bad news. - 2021-06-02
Massage and Spine progress - 2021-05-24
Great, long ride today, and a new N/A beer - 2021-05-22
My profile
Archives
Notes
Email
Random
others:
elusive-you
silver4
comebacktome
linguafranca
loveherwell
dangerspouse
catsoul
misfitstray
fairybones
annanotbob2
warpednormal
life-my-way
swordfern
kelsi
ahopeinhell
stepfordtart