Having been running injury free (in terms of mechanics and muscles) since I begun my recent half marathon block, and making good progress it was frustrating to injure my one / some of my hamstring muscle group on Thursday. Exactly why it screamed at me could be a number of things – overload from too much work at speed or change in gait / posture from working on my right shoulder – probably a mix of the two. Either way I was please to listen to the pain coming from my leg as I reached the end of the stride, stopped running, rested and tried to listen to what my leg was telling me. Too often I’ve ignored pain, or not engaged with it and just reacted to it, shied away or hidden from the pain as something that JUST NEEDS TO STOP. Interesting how applying a judgement of “bad” to something uncomfortable (though understandable) immediately removes the most important aspect of the pain itself – a message from your body (or maybe emotional and to your spirit / soul) that something needs addressing and changing. In this light pain is either good (again a judgement) or simply an objective overview of something that is happening, which your body / brain / mind needs support to work with or through. I suppose I simplistic terms the pain I felt was like the parking camera in a car, the beeping getting louder as I was reaching the point of collision. Listening to that signal, engaging with that signal helps avert the crash and issue. In my case, allowing me to continue to run yesterday and today, whilst hopefully gradually strengthening the area that become under too much pressure, in danger of tearing dangerously.
I’ve begun to read this – a wonderful (if not quite technical) book all about how we breathe and the problems that can occur through breathing pattern disorders. The beginning of the book has covered the mechanics of breathing and the relationship between disordered breathing and posture / compromised posture and disordered breathing patterns. Alongside which covers the 3 main functions of the diaphragm – breathe, stabilise and digest. As always the integrated reliance on many different working parts, to ensure a healthy, functioning system in the body is fascinating. I’m a little overwhelmed by everything I’m reading – underlining text at parts is helping, however I know that this is a book I will need to come back to again and again to really build my understanding of how our breathing mechanism works and what to do to help support this when it breaks down. Recognizing and Treating Breathing Disorders – a hard but fascinating read.
