A.R.T.
So, for the last 8+ months, my hamstring has been hurting and aching and giving me problems. The intensity of injury decreased when I started stretching regularly, but it's still there. After hearing from the triathlete who trains with us on Mondays at Velocity Sports, and from Ryan, both who pretty much said, "Nothing I tried helped until I had A.R.T. done on my" whatever injury she/he had, I finally looked again for an A.R.T. practitioner, and signed up for an appointment.
Previously, when I looked, the nearest practitioner was in Santa Clara. This time when I looked, however, I found one who worked right around the corner from me, all of maybe 400 yards from my house. Well, duh, how could I not go now?
"Expect to hurt," was the warning I received by everyone I know who has had A.R.T. done. Expect to be in pain, expect to be bruised (an easy thing for, given that I bruise just looking at a table I could walk into, no need to actually walk into it), expect to be sore afterward. Great, I knew what to expect, I was goin' in.
What I wasn't expecting, however, was the immediate, "Let's get to it" nature of the appointment. Having been to chiropractors for 20 years (ugh, did I just say that?), and a runner for those same 20 years, I know that a warm body is a lot easier to stretch. So, when I walked into the exam room, and he said up on the table, and immediately started stretching my not-warmed-up, not-stretched, quite-stiff-from-sitting-all-day leg, and by stretching I mean pushing my foot over my shoulder because it does go that far, I freaked.
I mean, come on, sure, I'm flexible. I usually warm up to that flexibility, though.
The whole appointment didn't last more than 20 minutes. Other than a lot of skin pulling, there was no pain with the process. Other than having to pee really badly, there was no discomfort. I was able to move around better, and the constant pain with my hamstring insertion point was gone (I would later discover, "for the moment"), but I didn't have any of the bruising I had expected, or lingering pain.
Maybe there's something else going on, maybe a practitioner's proximity isn't the best way to choose a healthcare provider, but that "expect it to hurt" advice?
Bunk.
Or all my friends are pain wimps. That could be.