Straight Up Pain
Previously in my quest for the vaunted single Axel, I experienced an unpleasant series of injuries and MY GOODNESS did those injuries become the bane of my skating pretty much over the course of the last two months.
It turns out that you can't drop hard on your hip as an adult, twice, without repercussions, which is a shame, because like all reckless, young men (I'm not sure I can keep claiming I'm 'young' but hey ho), I like to think of myself as indestructible.
In the weeks following my injuries, I endured pain in my hip whenever I climbed stairs or tried to do basic stroking on the ice. Life was sad and skating was making me miserable. I had no motivation to try anything because I was in pain and not trying anything meant I wasn't progressing, which made me not want to come in and practise, which set my progress back even more. I confess that the reason my blog's posting rate suffered lately is almost entirely because I just haven't been in the mood for skating.
Eventually, after multiple weeks of rest that didn't stop me the continued pangs of muted pain, I decided to see an osteopath, mostly on the continued urging from the skating mums to "do something!" I actually didn't know until after I booked the visit that osteopathy is technically considered "alternative medicine" (i.e. 'less scientific' from Western medicine's point of view). Personally, I'm a little sceptical of anything alternative, but I'd made the appointment already and, if nothing else, I was trying something new so off I went.
The osteopath was, frankly, lovely. She was delighted that she was finally getting to treat a figure skater as she mostly helped rugby players and "eventers" (a branch of competitive horse riders that're rife where I live). She rolled me around - manipulating various limbs as she went - before finally performing the traditional back-cracking exercise. She commented how wonderful my range of movement was and, after some time of feeling around my back, noted what a "fascinating case" I was. I'd never known that being so injured could lead to being so flattered!
Eventually, she rolled out her full-size skeleton model and pointed at a whole bunch of muscles and bones. She explained the various aspects of how they worked and what I needed to do to improve myself, but, honestly, I understood perhaps one word in ten. The main gist I got was as follows:
It turns out that you can't drop hard on your hip as an adult, twice, without repercussions, which is a shame, because like all reckless, young men (I'm not sure I can keep claiming I'm 'young' but hey ho), I like to think of myself as indestructible.
In the weeks following my injuries, I endured pain in my hip whenever I climbed stairs or tried to do basic stroking on the ice. Life was sad and skating was making me miserable. I had no motivation to try anything because I was in pain and not trying anything meant I wasn't progressing, which made me not want to come in and practise, which set my progress back even more. I confess that the reason my blog's posting rate suffered lately is almost entirely because I just haven't been in the mood for skating.
Eventually, after multiple weeks of rest that didn't stop me the continued pangs of muted pain, I decided to see an osteopath, mostly on the continued urging from the skating mums to "do something!" I actually didn't know until after I booked the visit that osteopathy is technically considered "alternative medicine" (i.e. 'less scientific' from Western medicine's point of view). Personally, I'm a little sceptical of anything alternative, but I'd made the appointment already and, if nothing else, I was trying something new so off I went.
The osteopath was, frankly, lovely. She was delighted that she was finally getting to treat a figure skater as she mostly helped rugby players and "eventers" (a branch of competitive horse riders that're rife where I live). She rolled me around - manipulating various limbs as she went - before finally performing the traditional back-cracking exercise. She commented how wonderful my range of movement was and, after some time of feeling around my back, noted what a "fascinating case" I was. I'd never known that being so injured could lead to being so flattered!
Eventually, she rolled out her full-size skeleton model and pointed at a whole bunch of muscles and bones. She explained the various aspects of how they worked and what I needed to do to improve myself, but, honestly, I understood perhaps one word in ten. The main gist I got was as follows:
- I'd bruised the bone I'd landed on
- I needed to go to the gym to improve the small rotator muscles in my lower back in the hopes that would make the fall less painful if I did it again in the future
She then did the human equivalent of foam-rolling my injured leg, which was a deeply satisfying, if rather intense, pain, and I walked out feeling a good deal better.
She also mentioned that I'd never recover from this injury. Not ever. I even asked "what if I quit skating?" but nope, that too would still leave me damaged for life. The good news is, several weeks after that appointment, I can confirm I'm basically better again. I can still feel pain if I poke at where I fell, but it's not doing me any harm otherwise for now.
Back to practise! The blog goes on!
She also mentioned that I'd never recover from this injury. Not ever. I even asked "what if I quit skating?" but nope, that too would still leave me damaged for life. The good news is, several weeks after that appointment, I can confirm I'm basically better again. I can still feel pain if I poke at where I fell, but it's not doing me any harm otherwise for now.
Back to practise! The blog goes on!
Sounds like good advice, any osteo/physio/chiro that actually gives you advise to rebuild muscle in the gym is one worth keeping. The worst advice would be to completely rest that's for sure. I think after reading this if I ever get to attempting jumps, I'll be investing in a lot of padding..
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