The healing powers of massage!

For the past few trainings now, I've been feeling rather frustrated during jigeiko for not being able to do certain things, or that those certain things are much harder to accomplish than before. I tried to shrug it off, thinking that perhaps it's all in my mind.

It occured to me last night while doing jigeiko with Taek that the problems maybe related to my body. These days, my glutes (read:buttocks) get tensed easily at training. My left calf muscles has been feeling the strain too. This year, I've only missed one training at the start (due to illness). I average 3 to 4 trainings per week (plus 1 hour of iai each week), including the almost weekly kyu squad training. The trainings have taken a toll on my body. I don't feel physically weak - quite the contrary in fact - but I need to loosen my muscles up more. It is possible that tight muscles have severely limited my range of movements. That would explain why my men cut seems to lack reach lately, or that my movements have slowed considerably.

Accordingly, I made a 1 hour appointment with my trusty massage therapist at Sydney University's sports clinic. The aim is to loosen up the lower body i.e. glutes, hamstrings, calves and quads. Besides noting that my glutes were really tense ("hard as rocks"), he made several observations about my body which are quite insightful on how kendo affects one's muscular physiology:

1. Left glute was tighter than the right glute. That is expected as the left leg (using compound muscles) is used to push off.
   
2. Left calf was tighter than the right calf. Same reason as above.
3. Left hamstring was tighter than the right. Again, the same reason as above.
   
4. Left and right calves are developed differently. Some parts are more developed than others, vice versa. This reflects on the different role the calves play in kendo - the left does the pushing while the right absorbs the impact of fumikomi.
5. Right quad is more developed than the left. I don't have a solid explanation for that one. Perhaps, when doing fumikomi-ashi, the right quad is used to raise and extend the right leg. It is also possible that the right quad is used to absorb the impact of fumikomi as well as to stabilise the torso

He also offered an explanation as to why my right knee hurts. It's because the right quad and hamstrings are tight, thus restricting and causing some tenderness when moving the knee.

The session was quite painful. I'm quite muscular and there are quite a lot to work on. I've been to him for massage since last year so I'm used to it, but today's was very different. It was the first time (ever) that my glutes, quads and hamstrings were worked on and they were tight as heck. After 10+ years of competitive volleyball plus 1+year of kendo, I'm not surprised that they were this tight. I tolerated and took the pain in, thinking that they were all for my own good.

After the session was over, he said that I should expect an improvement in the range of motions in my legs, and that the legs should feel lighter after a day or so. He's worked with rugby players before and he noted that many of them feel leg-heavy due to tight muscles in their major leg muscles such as glutes and quads.

For $50 it was worth it. Hopefully my physical condition will improve. It's interesting to note that in 2 months I've already been to the chiro/osteo twice and massage once.