Last week I had a sports massage at the JCC. I’m not Jewish, but I’ve read The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt, and boy are we similar! But I digress.
I asked for a feel-good (rather than good-for-me) massage, but my massage therapist was an actual CMT, so in addition to providing an enjoyable rubdown, she also went over the state of my body as she experienced it.
Short version? I need to roll and stretch a whole lot more. My glutes were tight. My IT Bands were tight. My entire back was full of knots (old shoulder injuries), which can refer down to the movement of the lower body. I think something was wrong with my hips. And last but not least, my calves were very tight, she said. The sides of my calves were tight too – that’s a new one.
But to her surprise, you know what was not at all tight or “overdeveloped”? My shins. Tight calves almost always lead to hard-working shins, followed by shin splints and worse. But my shins? Relaxed as a baby’s! Not because I have a perfectly well-adjusted body, but because despite all that tightness, running with good form keeps the pressure off the shins. I knew that! Now it’s official.
Oh yeah, she also said I had “strong, healthy” feet, where by comparison everyone else’s feet feel weak to the touch. Just sayin’