Monday, July 11, 2016

Tattletale

Guess who has started tattling on me?



Yep.  The little Stinker is a tattletale.  First, I will back up a bit.  I started playing sports when I was in middle school.  I was terrible.  That happens when you grow a lot and lose all coordination.  I stopped growing in 8th grade, and once I started high school the coaches started being more interested in me as a player.  That is what happens when you are a 6'0" tall girl.  Anyway, I started focusing on basketball and had a coach that wanted to win at all costs.  I was expected to play at all costs (I actually got yelled at for not playing with a sprained ankle).  This basically taught me to ignore pain and push through it.  This carried on through college (basketball again).  I was basically a year round athlete plus working on my parents ranch, sometimes doing as many as three practices a day.

He was snorting at small children...

At the time I didn't realize I was destroying my hips and ankles.  I knew my ankles were weak because I kept spraining them, but I wore braces (basically the air cast ones) and was careful outside of practice.  They got taped a lot, but I never went to the doctor or did any rehab when I did injure them.  It was ice and advil to numb the pain to play.  I got really good at hiding limping.  In college, I started having hip problems and this was more serious, but I was just taught to wrap them and mask the symptoms so I could play.  Once I hit grad school my activity level dropped drastically and I started having back problems.  I finally went to the doctor when I was having spasms that rendered me immobile and was having problems walking (super smart to wait that long I know).

Even still I am screwing up my ankles and getting booted (pic from last year).

A set of X-rays later, I was told, "wow you have a lot of wear on your hips even for an athlete." Super helpful dude, but they did send me to PT for a bit.  There I learned that I am quad dominate and have weak hamstrings.  This leads to my hip flexors being tight and when they get too tight they pull on my lower back causing the back issues.  For the most part I am doing better about keeping things in balance, but I still have days where I sit too much and my hips start to tighten up.

He does not look like this when I have tight hips...

This is were Stinker comes into play.  He does not appreciate it when I have tight hips.  And now apparently he can tell my hips are tight before I can.  I had an excellent ride on Saturday and Sunday was supposed to be a light day.  He kept getting more and more anxious, so I decided to give him a timeout.  I got off him and just let him chill for ten minutes.  Typically this helps to reset his brain.

More yoga for you and cookies for me please.

When I got back on things were a bit better, but it took about 40 minutes to get him to where he was reaching and supple.  I worked him a bit longer just to solidify that it was what I wanted and got off.  I promptly started thinking back to last month when I had a tense anxious monster on my hands.  Then did a few other errands and what not and a few hours later I noticed my hips were tight.  I am willing to put money on Stinker's tenseness was due to my hips being tight.

12 comments:

  1. it really sucks to ready about that style coaching that has anything but the young athletes best interest in mind. It doesn't surprise me at all that Stinker feeds off that tightness tho. Yay for horses forcing us to take better care of ourselves one step at a time lol ;)

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    1. Since then I've learned that it isn't uncommon for coaches to be like that. Not to mention when my parents tried to get me to slow down I refused.
      I was surprised he picked up on it before I did. Not so much that he had objections to tight hips...

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  2. Did your PT teach you any useful exercises for helping loosen your hip flexors? Curious because I have a similar issue!

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    1. I have some. You can email me at eventing.saddlebred.style at gmail if you want specifics

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  3. They always seem to know things that we don't. Teenage sports coaches need to get their acts together. An ex from high school was 6'1 and like 140lbs, and his XC running coach wanted him to weigh 125lbs and hounded him for it too. Horrible.

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  4. That they do. He is too smart for me somedays...
    I was lucky to have some good running coaches (XC and track). They never hounded me for having slow days when my ankles were hurting (I had long term pain and wasn't trying to run on a sprain). And they actually taught me how to train properly, rather than the do more faster and better and push through at all costs attitude my basketball coach had. But yes there are so many coaches that don't have a clue or don't care and it's bad.

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  5. Wow that is terrible that you have structural damage from youth sports! No bueno. When you're young, you can't be expected to know when enough is enough, or the effects it might have on your body when you get older.

    That is interesting that Stinker is effected by your tight hips - but it makes sense. Good for you for catching it!

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    1. I never dreamed that I would have lasting problems. As a kid you bounce back so quickly that you don't think about the repeated stress on your body. Looking back now I was incredibly silly to think I could go to XC practice run anywhere from 3-10 miles go straight to a 2-3 hour basketball practice and then in the afternoon have another 1-2 hours of scrimmages 5 days a week and not have damage. At minimum it was 5 hours of hard exercise per day.

      It is crazy how sensitive Stinker is. But it is also really good for me because I can't slack off with my hips so I haven't had much back pain either. He keeps me way more honest than I do on my own. :)

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  6. I'm 6 feet too! I'm so sorry that you were pushed so hard as a young athlete :( Maybe yoga would help with your hips a bit? I hate yoga but I am very crooked and it does help me.

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  7. I knew you were tall but I didn't realize we were the same height. That's awesome!

    I do yoga and it does help and I even enjoy it. I do have to be careful about what poses I do. Most of the hip openers loosen things up too much and it's not pretty. I just need to be better about doing it more regularly. :)

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  8. yikes...you sound quite beat up! BUT maybe stinker can keep you aware and force you to take care of yourself :)

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    1. More justification for the pony getting anything he wants...he makes me take care of myself. I like it! ;)

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