On Your Marks: Being pummelled is surprisingly relaxing

Last week saw Jonathan Gaffney, associate osteopath at David Such Osteopathy, so this week I saw the eponymous David.

And what was good to hear is he backed up Jonathan’s original diagnosis that I had a peroneal strain in my left calf and a proximal strain in my right hamstring.

But the main thing is they both agreed I should be able to run the Run Gatwick Half Marathon on Sunday May 13.

David called the injuries I have ‘niggles’. And to me that is positive. And he said he would not expect anything else as all people training for challenges like this get ‘niggles’ on their journey.

After an initial look at my posture and squatting, David got to work on me.

He poked, twisted, bent and pummelled my body like it’s never been poked, twisted, bent or pummelled before.

He told me all osteopaths have different approaches. I suggested he was ‘brutal’ but he preferred the term ‘purposeful’.

But despite the ‘purposeful’ approach, I bizarrely found the whole experience very relaxing. It was reassuring that when he went deep to the muscle, there was not too much pain.

David did say running is unique in the fact there is nowhere to hide with it. You can try all different techniques, have you gait analysed etc but at the end of the day, it’s basically putting one foot in front of the other again and again.

So the only way to get used to it is to keep running. But you have to look after the rest of your body while doing that and David recommended continuing with the gym work and spin classes but maybe attending a kettle bell class. As I found in this training it is good to keep things mixed up.

From Friday this week, I am going on a cruise and I am worried about slipping again. I haven’t been on a cruise before, but by all accounts you can eat what you want when you want.

But David reassured me, and he is not the only one, that everything in moderation is fine and the key is to keep moving. I will make sure I utilise the boat’s gym and do a few laps of the decks each day. It’s not going to be easy but the half marathon is getting closer and closer.

For more information on David Such Osteopathy, please click hereOn Your Marks: Strains and pains could be down to flat feetOn Your Marks: I’m spinning around, move outta my way!On Your Marks: The challenge is set, Run Gatwick Half Marathon here I come!