Rehabilitating Yourself
This one is for all you parents out there that often put your own needs on the back burner to help out your kiddos. You are awesome!
Sometimes your meal is the scraps they left behind as you throw them and yourselves into the car. Sometimes you never make it out of your pajamas and the dishes start to lean in a Pisa like manner. Sometimes your workouts are chasing after a toddler but sometimes they aren’t.
But when the parental aches and pains start to affect your workout it’s time to start treating your body more like the temple it is. Because if you go down, so does the household.
I’m not referring to the everyday aches and pains that come and go. I’m referring to the lingering things. That aching shoulder complaining each time your arm tries to reach higher than your neck or your back that spasms each time you bend over to pick up yet another toy. Stop ignoring those pains hoping they will just go away on their own.
When should you seek help? Generally speaking if stretching combo’d with ice, heat and ibuprofen don’t get you well it is time to look a little deeper. Being completely and helplessly stubborn I usually wait a month or longer before I start getting more irritated with my body’s lack of self-healing powers.
Where should you start? Massage therapy might be a good option, a chiropractor or a sport specific bone and joint specialist if need be.
What can they do? Massage therapists, good ones, may be able to find the root of the problem and relieve it. In my experience I have deep rooted knots around and under my shoulder blades. They can be hard to reach and painful to break up. However once they are targeted and destroyed I feel like a new person. Chiropractors may be able to re-align your body, relieving pressure points and pain. Specialists can diagnose deeper issues, tendonitis for example, and prescribe you a therapy route to get you back to being you.
Whichever path you choose is better than standing at the fork. We all know no course will create no change. Do something for yourself so you keep doing things for your family.
Stay well and keep swimming!!!!
