Wednesday, March 16, 2011

More Harm Than Good?

So about two weeks ago, I treated myself to a deep tissue massage.  I am a big fan of massages in general, but I tend to stick to the more relaxing, Swedishy ones.  I was a little apprehensive about the deep tissue, but sometimes I leave the spa feeling like nothing has changed in terms of the massive knots in my upper back.  I figured it was worth a try.  Well, the experience was ...painful.  Here's a little snippet of my session:

Me: I have a lot of tension in my upper back.  It's sore sometimes and it feels really tight.
Massage Therapist (MT):  Cool, we'll work on it.
(Massage starts.  MT starts kneading my shoulders.)
MT: Wow.
Me: I warned you.
MT: You weren't kidding.  This is really bad.  (Continues to beat me up for my fifty minutes.  As I'm leaving...)  Do you sit at a desk all day, is that why you're so tight?
Me:  No, I'm a teacher so I walk around a lot.
MT: (nods knowingly)  Oh.  You're a teacher.

Nuff said.

But I digress.  So during massage and after while I'm relaxing in the sauna, I'm feeling good and thinking this is going to be the end of my back woes.  Not so much.  Now I have this pinching pain in the middle of my upper back anytime I am standing up for a long period of time (like say, when I'm working out on the treadmill).  I'm trying to be really mindful of my posture (not easy with these DDs hanging off my chest), but the pain has not gone away.  The MT recommended I come see him again in about another week, but hello, what part of teacher was unclear?  Money for massages is not in the monthly budget.

I was hoping this was going to relieve some of my pain to make it easier for me to workout, but so far it is making things worse.  And really,  I don't need another excuse to not work out, I can come up with those all on my own :o)

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