Keeping faith in the power of Feldenkrais
Despite doubts that things were ever going to improve, I've begun to see light at the end of my injury tunnel
I ran three times this week, a total of 15 miles (25km). It doesn’t sound much, but I think I can see the faint light at the end of this Achilles injury tunnel I’ve been in for the past two months. I’ve had a few false dawns in that time, so I’m remaining cautious, but things are suddenly looking less bleak than they were even a week ago.
I’ve been working with Jae Gruenke of The Balanced Runner who is a Feldenkrais practitioner. As with all these things, the minute you delve into something “alternative” and not fully endorsed by science, you carry with you a pocket-full of doubts. I don’t think British Athletics sends its injured athletes to a Feldenkrais practitioner. They most likely have one of their physios give them stretches and strength work. I’m not saying that that’s wrong, or won’t help, but when you go down that route you place complete trust in the physio, and if it doesn’t work, it’s because the injury is really bad, or tricky, and then they may suggest shockwave treatment, injections or even surgery and you’ll probably agree, because, well, science.
So when, after three weeks of Feldenkrais, my Achilles still hurt, it would have been easy to say, “why I am wasting my time with this mumbo jumbo, I should just get real and go and see a physio”. But I didn’t. Despite the Achilles still hurting, I somehow had a deep-seated confidence that Jae was going to fix it.
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