OMG, I destroyed my psoas muscle — or at least it felt that way — because I went out and played league soccer like I was still 25 years old or something (hint, we now have independent verification that I’m definitely not!).
The psoas attaches to your hip girdle. And let me tell you, when you injure, hurt, pull, or even talk badly about that muscle, you get downstream ripple effects causing problems (and pain!) across all the hip muscles connecting to your lower back, hips, etc.
Ugh.
The only solution is a sadistic ritual called … physical therapy. I was to gently stretch out those muscles over time with a routine that opens the hips forward, opens them backward, then toward the midline and then finally away from the midline. Trust me, no avenues of pain were omitted.
But I knew that the only way to get mobility back was to do the work, and be consistent about it all.
For me, mornings are an awful time, because I’m in New Zealand which is 8 hours behind EST and one day ahead (wrap your head around that). This little geographical oddity means that I need to start my day at 6am and get working by 7am. And once the day gets rolling, it’s just easier to keep moving than to wrench may legs around, and set up my IV drip tube of ibuprophen.
So, the only time that works is right before bed. Now I take 30 minutes each night, after Ozark/Reacher/Friends/Peaky Blinders to run through my PT. At first it was tough, but now I find that it actually helps me sleep better! And it’s a good thing too, because this is the best time for me and my crazy schedule.
Bottom line, everybody’s got crazy schedules bumped around by this and that. You just have to get your time that works in your particular kind of craziness. This gets you to be more consistent, which is really what’s needed if you’re going to heal, get back on your feet, and start acting your age again 😉
