Hocus pocus and other magic

Through the magic of the internet, Bam and I met up with Jo Lynn and her super cute dog, Boomer, for a hike on Tuesday.  When we met at Garin we realized we had seen each other 'around' before, which makes sense as we live a stones throw from each other. Well, not quite that close, but pretty close.  Bam had a great time romping with Boomer, and following his lead, she even worked up the courage to walk right towards the cows standing on the trail and make them trot away.  I think she slept the entire day away once we got home.  Okay, it's true, that isn't *that* unusual for her....but she was definitely worn out!  A good start to the day for sure.

This morning I finally got in to see my PT about my shoulder problem.  After talking about what's been going on with it, he did some tests.  This involves him pushing and/or pulling on my arm in various ways as I try to resist. It starts as a pretty pathetic effort, I have to say, since he's not using much force at all.  Then he does some hocus pocus where he has me reposition my posture/head/some part of my body and we do the test again.  And it's just amazing what a difference it makes.  Biomechanics...simply amazing.  My problem wasn't the shoulder at all.  Well, maybe a tiny bit, but it was really in my neck.  See, I sit all day long behind a computer.  And I have bad posture.  And I slouch...which I guess is the same as bad posture.  Anyway, what's apparently been going on is that I've been slouching and my head is kind of slouching forward, not up nice and straight and tall, and it's affecting the nerve coming out of my C6 (cervical vertebrae #6).  Which, not so coincidentally, runs down the clavicle, through the pecs, down the arm, and innervates the last two fingers on the hand.  The ones that have been tingling.  There was some fairly painful deep tissue/ART work on my neck and some work around my clavicle.  My *favorite* is when he hits a particularly nasty tight spot, evidenced not only by the pain that I experience, but also by the "Ewwww" or "Ick" he utters as he digs in.  The sound effects are awesome.  And of course, there was homework issued.  Which I fully intend to work on this time.  I do *not* want to get back to the place I was a few weeks ago.  After all, it's not something that requires weights or equipment.  I just have to 'reset' my head position and work on getting my muscles to learn their new job.  Or the job that they should have been doing to begin with. All this just reinforces the fact that maintenance really is the best policy.

Anywhoo....the week is wrapping up and I can almost feel that Sunday rest day!  Happy weekend all and best of luck to everyone racing this weekend! Wishing you fast feet!