This South-Eastern girl taking on the Western mountains left me in so much pain! My legs were stiff, my sciatic nerve pain in my hip was inflamed and angry, my shoulders were tired, and my upper back felt like it had been pounded on by fists. It was an incredibly windy day up in the foothills, and Colorado natives had mostly stayed in from the gusts. I took a hot shower and some Advil and went to bed. Getting up on Monday was torture!
This was where my week went East. Far East. I scheduled an appointment at the Acupuncture Lounge. I'd been for acupuncture several times here and I like the atmosphere. It's a "community" healing environment--the idea is that your "qi" (life
force/energy/chi) can work with other people's-- and that when we're in
the room together, you heal faster. It's in a cool old building in Denver
with natural light, paper lanterns, exposed bricks, and wooden surfaces.
You stay clothed and the healer inserts the needles and checks on you
throughout an hour-long session. There's Eastern music (some Native
American flutes, some gong and chime music too) playing and there were
maybe 5 other people around. I consulted with Hong, then selected a massage table to relax on. She checked my pulse, then started inserting needles. There were probably two dozen! It's weird, because it doesn't hurt-- a pinch when it goes in for some, nothing for others. I guess it had to do with the size of the needles. After a while, I could feel my body's circulation increasing; there was a sense of warmth and energy surging down my back and legs. I napped a little and just kind of concentrated on deep breaths and having a peaceful mind.
After my hour was nearly up, she came and felt my feet again, she noticed that they were still really cold. She asked if my hands were cold-- and I said, "No, but my feet almost always are." She took the needles out and did a 10 minute massage-- I think it was considered a Thai massage. There was chopping, pounding, and prodding! It didn't feel bad...but it wasn't relaxing either!
Moving on to Tuesday...on my journey of East vs. West, I had a massage appointment on Tuesday at MassageLuxe. It's a similar business as MassageEnvy-- you schedule with them and they may or may not have the therapist you like. I've had a therapist there who utilizes acupressure in her deep-tissue massage, named Sabrina, who was excellent at helping my back and sciatica not be so tense. She wasn't available, so I had Dagen instead. I explained about my sciatica, and he requested to do "glute work" through the sheet. He asked multiple times about if the pressure was too light or too deep (more, Goldilocks, more!), but it was the BEST back and body massage I've had in years-- particularly for my lower back/hip/sciatic nerve pain! However, I felt like he was standing on my ass with his elbows a couple times-- or maybe that's just how wound up all the crazy muscles in my body are! It's a good hurt, but it definitely still hurt the next day!
And Wednesday, more East. I attended my second or third Dahn Yoga class. To be completely honest, it's weird to me. There's some louder music, "brain-body" connection, tapping, patting, counting aloud...all that seem like a strange version of yoga to me. You also don't use a mat, and you wear socks. I like barefoot yoga. I wanna be in touch with the earth, what can I say. So, I went to the yoga class-- one of the postures is similar to "happy baby pose," where you are more or less rolled into a ball on your back and you wiggle around. This usually eases a lot of sciatic nerve tension for me-- but, after the Thai massage Monday and the Deep-tissue massage on Tuesday, the hard floor against my spine and "sit bones"-- were slight torture.
So today is Thursday. I'm home from work. I think I'm going to pop back
over to the West here today. Not going to tackle any of these beautiful
snow-covered Rockies, but instead, my Netflix Queue. That's Western
right? Relaxing, zoning out, laughing at some network television comedy?
I'm pretty sure after three days of Eastern therapy to soothe my aching
bones, I might need to veg out, 'murrican style. My couch
is pretty comfortable...and an early bedtime is calling my name. Maybe
I'll order some Thai take out...just so I don't detox too hard from all
this Eastern stuff! How about you...anybody else have any good remedies for over-doing it on the trail or the track?
