27 going on 90

Some of the sayings of old really ring true. Here's one I like, "If you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts you, chances are you're probably dead." This one applies to me on several fronts. I'm 27 years old, and there's more stuff wrong with my muscles than you can shake a stick at.

I've been doing sports all my life. In my teens, I was active in gymnastics, horse riding and skiing. Later in my teens I did dancing and competitive swimming for three years. Finally, when I reached 18, I fell in
love with martial arts, particularly karate, and trained 3-4 times a week until I was 22. I used to think that I was ten feet tall and bullet-proof and pretty much scowled at the other athletes who happened to have knee, back or other physical-related problems.

It all started when I hit 23. Sharp pain in my buttocks that little rascal that connects to the other muscles in your butt. The pain got so bad that I couldn't walk and mostly lay in bed moaning and having muscle spasms. Finally, I dragged my pitiful self to the doctor and then to the chiropractor, sports specialist and a massage therapist. The examinations revealed bunched-up and torn-up muscles in my butt, full of scar tissue. The docs blamed it all on my sports. Great, I thought.

The darn thing was stubborn as a mule to cure, dragging on for years, costing me tons of money. I had to take a serious brake from martial arts, much to the dismay of my sensei, and started doing light sports like yoga and Tai-chi.

Did that cure it? Heck no! Even now from time to time, when these afore-mentioned bloody muscles start to hurt, I have to refrain from my exercise routine. Heck, I paid quite a price for liking sports so much.
 

Just recently, when I thought I am more or less cured, that I can return to karate and start "kicking people in the head again," as my boss puts it, another problem came up. This time my neck decided to give me a hard time.

What happened? Who knows? I just woke up with an agonizing pain in my neck one morning. For the last three weeks I've been on pain pills, muscle relaxants and weekly massages. My neck simply decided to "freeze up" in one position, so for three weeks I went around looking crooked at everybody. Any effort to straighten it up made me screech in pain.

No, I wasn't in an accident as you might think. I simply just slept wrong on it, stretched it inappropriately and pinched some nerves, who knows? All I know that I'm getting pretty sick and tired of these muscle problems. It's like I'm 27 going on 90!

Now my neck is a little bit better, to the point that I can move it a little to both sides. I am facing physical therapy again, as many times before. Well, what else is new, right? I also decided to take things lightly this time and return to martial arts when everything is completely fixed. That doesn't mean I am going to stop doing everything, though.

"Don't baby that neck," my doc told me.

She recommended daily yoga to strengthen the neck/back muscles and to give me more flexibility. I sincerely hope that I don't pull, tear, or stretch anything else as long as I live. You never know, though. Lately, I've been fond of rollerblading. Let's just hope my knees don't give up on me this time.