Strange But True: Netflix Therapy
My mother recently informed me that I was born with a hip abnormality and that our family physician briefly considered putting me in a corrective brace like Forrest Gump. She told me this after seven years of me battling chronic hip pain.
In 2017, I suddenly and dramatically lost 30% of my strength as measured by my deadlift and back squat maxes. Apart from aggressive lease negotiations upon which the future of the business depended, there was no inciting incident. Because I have a history of disc issues and my symptoms were consistent with bulging or herniated discs, I was sent to the spinal unit at VGH, but all tests turned up negative for spinal issues, and I was sent home with no answers, just pain.
Sitting is out. No driving, no long seminars unless I can stand at the back of the room. Running hurts, as do back squats. There have been stretches of time when walking became unbearable. But most of the time, it is uncomfortable but manageable. But at night, when I lie down to sleep, the pain radiating down my leg from my right hip to the outside of my right knee is excruciating. It takes a while to settle down before I can actually sleep. And when I wake in the morning, it is tight. Often my walk to work starts as a painful shuffle, but it eases off by the time I reach the gym.
About a month ago, HeeHee and I were watching Netflix, and I absent-mindedly fiddled with my right toe, which is perpetually stiff and sore. We break a lot of toes in judo, and I remember one or two years at UBC judo that I competed all season with a toe that kept breaking. We learned to ignore toe pain and carry on. So, no surprise if it is arthritic and painful now after the abuse I’ve put it through.
For the first time in months, I had no pain in my hip and knee and when I woke to go to work
But as I massaged the toe, I felt the pain radiate up to the outside of my right knee in the very same place it burns at night when I go to bed. Now, I am aware that the fascia wraps from the big toe to the outside of the knee, but it had never occurred to me before that the pain in one might be linked to the other. With curiosity, I continued massaging and manipulating the toe. To my surprise, when we went to bed, for the first time in months I had no pain in my hip and knee and when I woke to go to work, pain did not greet me on my morning walk.
Was I cured? Did my hip pain disappear as suddenly and mysteriously as it came? No. Next day the pain was back. In fact, on busy days when we do not have time to watch a bit of Netflix, I go to bed in pain. But, on days when we can relax and watch Netflix, if I remember to massage the big toe, my hip and knee feel so much better.
It is not 100% better, maybe 80% and it is a transient relief lasting only until I do something to irritate it again, but it is relief. It is great to have some agency in managing this persistent pain though I should mention that the toe massage itself is very painful. But at least I get to choose which pain I want.
The fascia that runs through our bodies is all connected
The idea is that the fascia that runs through our bodies is all connected and that tightness or adhesions in one area may result in dysfunction or referred pain in another. We are only just beginning to understand the complexity of fascia and its role in health and performance. Perhaps over time I can undo the damage caused by years of abuse to the tissue or maybe the best I will get is temporary pain management, either way it is an interesting exploration.
Given the weirdness of it all, I was not even going to write about it until this week I stumbled upon the video below. I don’t currently have any shoulder pain but boy does the fascia between my fingers hurt when I massage it! There remains so much to learn about our bodies.
The workout for Friday, July 4
Warm Up
5 min AMRAP
10 Full Body Rocks
50 Single Unders
Tech
WOD
4 Rounds:
2 mins DU
2 mins Burpees
Burpees are an explosive plyometric exercise. To derive the intended stimulus of the movement perform as many fast burpees as you can in the first 10 seconds and then perform the same number every 30 seconds (4 sets per round). It will get challenging.
