Robots are cool

I went to see a sports physio today. It was extremely interesting and uncovered a bunch of little things that I would never have thought of. After a whole load of strange stretches and positions she thinks that she’s nailed down what the recent troubles with my ankle and knee are all about. It was pretty funny in a way – we’d do a stretch and she’d say:

“You know, you’re really flexible”.

Then we’d do the same stretch on the other side and she’d say

“That’s strange, you’ve got a lot less movement on this side”.

“Ah yes, I broke X/Y/Z a few years ago.”

Repeat.

We did one exercise that highlighted something strange happening with my right leg, that exactly mirrored what Dave had spotted the first time my knee got sore mountain biking. Then there was a bunch of other stretches that showed me what effect the position of my back had on my legs – the difference was eye-opening. For a fairly long time after breaking my back I was getting strange shooting nerve pains down my thighs from the extra pressure on my spinal cord. Over time these have improved so that I rarely get them now, but it seems that I haven’t totally healed. The physio thinks that all of my little tweaks are back/nerve related and that the pain is coming out in my ankle because it is already weakened from when I broke it. Referred pain – strange stuff.

This was highlighted when she stretched my ankle while I was lying down – it didn’t hurt. Into a strange position, stretch, still no pain. Then another strange position – leg out here, back twisting and stretching, the other leg up – then the same ankle stretch, ow! She likened the nerves to a garden hose. The more you twist it and bend it around things, the more it complains until it just stops letting the water through. As I twist and turn, I’m putting more pressure onto my nerves which is hurting my ankle. I was starting to worry that I’d be told to take a rest, but she said what everyone who’s into sport wants to hear, “You don’t want to rest it, just keep doing what you’re doing” – big smiles.

To be honest, I haven’t really thought all that much of physiotherapy and stuff in the past and if someone had told me that I would have to go for several sessions and spend a few hundred pounds, I would have laughed (politely). But a lot of what I found out today made a lot of sense and, while I’m not about to start singing the praises of physios from the rooftops, I’m starting to wonder why I haven’t though much of this in the past (actually, that answer is obvious – I got duff NHS physio after my broken ankle). Of course, the real test will be if I actually improve after some of this stuff, but I’m not as sceptical as I was when I woke up this morning. I think it’ll be interesting.