I wasn’t sure that anything would help my leg, which, after a three-year old hamstring tear, still had a big cramped knot in it. I had been told by at least two orthopedic surgeons that I probably could not expect it to heal much more after about 18 months. One of them--presumably in an effort to console me--asked why anyone would ever want to be able to walk more than a mile.
All I really wanted to do was get enough strength back so that I could get some real exercise and get back in shape--and I knew that, at 45, with every month that slipped by, it was less likely that I would ever get back in shape. But no matter how faithfully I stretched and curled, I couldn’t seem to get past a slow jog for 100 yards.
So I had nothing to lose when I began massage therapy. After just the first session, I knew that there was a lot of progress I could still make. And I realized that I had had more to complain about than just not being able to exercise. I really had been in pain for three years, and the massage had loosened things up well enough that that horrible stiffness was gone for several hours.
Two months later, I was actually able to slog around the track for a mile. (Running may never be easy, or even a good idea. But it still seems worth trying.) And soon thereafter, I managed to hike more than 10 miles three days in a row!
Charlotte
