Acupuncture

Day 3 of recovery, a visit to the Acupuncturist, no workout...

Went to the acupuncturist for my Calf(s) this afternoon. I went to her 4 years ago for a shoulder/back problem that she cured in 3 visits (after multiple traditional doctor visits and medication). She's a petite lady (Allison Dunn) but down to earth and common sense type stuff. We talked about my running and calf issues and the tightness and pulls/strains. She gave me some advice on supplements (calcium/magnesium at night before bed) and a banana a day (I hate bananas).

Then we started, face down, calf's up. She put about 8 needles in each calf and 2 in each wrist/forearm. A couple of them reallytwinged and she and I both said "wow". One in particular in my left calf, where my recent tightness/pull was from last Saturday was really active. She said it kept twitching for a long time. So she left me like this for 5 minutes till they calmed down. Then hooked up electricity to 4 needles on each calf (2 outer and 2 inner). These felt like tapping or spasms almost. She cranked it up till I felt it and then left them in for 10 minutes. She came back and switch to 2 needles on each calf in the middle of the calf. I really felt these pulsing, felt like a dance party in my calfs.

She took the needles out and again some of them twinged. She said the muscles don't want to let go, it feels so good. She put some Chinese liniment on them and told me some I should buy from whole foods and put on them every day. "Truameel" (from Whole foods).She told me not to run, stretch or massage them today, they've had enough work for one day, but should be good to run on tomorrow andfor the race (if it works, no guarantees). We discussed, if this works, it might be good to do a treatment every once in a whilebefore they get bad (keep doing the massage and stretching), also a couple of days before a big race (marathon etc.). And after myOctober 3rd marathon take 2 weeks for a full recovery and treat myself to massages and another treatment, to really let them healbefore running again.

She said they might be sore for a day or so and they are, but in different spots than before the treatment. Makes sense, time will tell, I guess.

I plan on an easy 4 mile run tomorrow to test them out and see if I can race on Saturday.

She said to write down how I feel after the treatment and let her know for next time. I told her I have a blog, so no problem there.