Skip to main content

Needle in My Rear & Fun Facts Friday

Needle in My Rear
I have mentioned my physical therapist suggesting dry needling a few times. I've scheduled and canceled the appointment a few times as well. I really really don't like needles. I can tell you the number of shots I've had in the past 10 years even. But, the pain from my piriformis and gluteus medius area is severe enough that I really knew I needed to give it a try.

I did happen to talk with a local (badass) runner who had just happened to have had it done the same morning we were talking. After just one treatment that morning, she noticed a difference. She also told me a little more of what to expect which is nice to hear rather than just read.

So, yesterday I went for it. I did my best to just breathe and stay relaxed. I had visions of me jerking and causing permanent glute damage somehow. When he inserted the needle into the triggerpoint, I felt just the tiniest prick. I thought that was probably the worst of it. I knew that he would manipulate the needle to trigger the muscle response that is causing the pain, thus I'd experience the pain I've been feeling.

But to feel a needle actually hitting the muscle, um, not so pleasant. I really have no words to describe how it felt. Very strange sensation. It hurt, but more of an ache, but not quite the same ache that I get from sitting or when sleeping. More shooting, but not excruciating by any means.

Once he stopped manipulating the needle, my muscle were twitching and jumping, and then the deep ache I'm familiar with did set in. He left the needle in and put a heat lamp  (can't remember if it was infrared or what, I was trying to breathe and relax when he told me) and left the room for about 5 minutes or so.

Then it was over. He removed the needle (that hurt more than the insertion) and said I was done. He did re-check my rotation strength, which was embarrassingly weak at my last visit. And surprisingly, it was quite different this time. In fact, there wasn't a huge difference between my right and left side now. Crazy right?

I was definitely achy for the next several hours, more like I'd been hit in that spot rather than the pain I'm used to. I actually was able to sleep through the night with no piriformis or glute pain. This was something new. The big test was going to be my long run.

Fighting for 10
I guess that brings me nicely into this morning's long run. Jason and I got up just after 5. It was already a nice, humid 80 degrees out. The first mile was a slow one. I think we were both still asleep. In fact, we didn't speak until just shy of 2 miles.

As we did last week, we headed towards the river. What's nice about this is that it's a gradual decent. Gotta love that...until you have to do the return part of course. We made our way through the River Market area, down along the river, across a bridge and back (holy hills, lots of cursing and I actually told Jason at one point I was having an out of body experience), we made our way by the Heifer International Building, somehow managing to hit more hills again, then started to wind our way back home.

I felt pretty good, despite the hills starting to kick my butt, up to mile 8. Then the breakdown started happening. My piriformis/glute started to get really achy, which hasn't happened during my runs in a while, the energy spent on the hills along with the heat was definitely zapping me. And of course we had to contend with a constant, gradual ascent to get back home.

I was sweating so much that my shorts were pretty much glued to me. Jason said it looked like I had just jumped in the pool. And it felt that way minus the refreshing cold water part. Even the sprinklers I did go through weren't cool at all. But at least it wasn't sweat.

I will admit that I stopped at 9.5 miles. I thought I was done. And I was ticked at myself. I told Jason I felt like I was failing somehow because I just couldn't get to 10. He suggested jogging easy for a few minutes. So I did. And I finished 10. It wasn't fast. It wasn't all that pretty, but I got it done.

I think this quote pretty much sums it up. Even when I was saying "I can't" quite clearly I could.

Fun Facts Friday - Random Thoughts
I thought that I might have a plethora of ideas for Fun Facts Friday after yesterday's dry needling appointment. I mean, surely that's some funny shit when you think about it - willingly going in to have a needle stuck in your butt. Sounds like a great time huh?

But, I was so concerned with the pain and breathing and relaxing, that I didn't quite find as much humor in the situation as I had thought I might. So how about some totally random thoughts from the dry needling and the morning run?

  • You know you're desperate when you willingly let someone stick you with a long needle on the mere premise that it'll help.
  • At some point you no longer care how many people see your rear end. 
  • Your perception of what hurts changes tremendously when you've been injured. 
  • I hate running over bridges and am convinced Jason loves them and purposely wanted to run over this particular bridge out of shear meanness. 
  • Never forget that when your run starts downhill and you're doing an out and back, you will have to run up hill and it shouldn't surprise you every single flipping time. 
  • Bananas are not good when they start to come back up.
  • I am certain I get runner's amnesia otherwise I wouldn't look forward to running again so soon after a tough run. 
  • I love sprinklers.
So, what are some totally random thoughts from you today? I'll take anything. Would you ever try dry needling or have you tried it? 

Daily To-Enjoy List:
It's Friday
Morning run
Relaxing evening

Comments

  1. AC/DC music spans multiple generations. I saw people ages 4-70 yrs old dancing and singing to Shook Me All Night Long at a wedding. Who would ever think that?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout  I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package