Running for Your Life: Off to See the PT Wizards!

For reasons that close readers of this blog (don’t be so naïve, Larry!) know well, my experiences have not been all that favorable on the physical therapist and massage table. The nightmare occurred in Winter 2011, when I was in the care of a physical therapist office, whose sole goal was to assess my slight hamstring tear to determine if it was reasonable for me to rest and then continue my training for the Boston Marathon of that year. But after one deep tissue massage that my therapist insisted on giving me despite my misgivings, I very nearly passed out a half-hour after my treatment with the pain of a full-blown hamstring tear while on a simple errand run in busy New York City traffic.

That was going on five years ago. Now I’m thrilled to report that I’m a PT believer. Why? Thank the good folks at NYU Langone Medical Center, who steered me in the direction of a place called One on One Physical Therapy on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

The first day going to the PT Wizards I got into a funky ’70s-style elevator – think Eastern Europe, the Cold War years – with a fellow athlete who seemed surprised when I told him to hit “6”. (He had just pressed the button for “7,” home of the athletic club in that Eastern Parkway building.) As I was leaving, he said, with all earnestness, “Good luck.”

Which, in the end, is what I didn’t need. From the moment I arrived I felt welcomed – and better than that – understood. G and the team of PT specialists did and do precisely what I was looking for and didn’t find back in 2011. They listened closely to me, to my fears, to my goals, and we immediately started to allay them, and to work toward them.

Under their careful watch, I feel a total, mid-training-style health is only weeks away. It’s been only five sessions (Nov. 24), and I’m back on the treadmill. Only five minutes, the lightest of jogging. But I’ve the tools I need, thanks to a muscle stretching and strengthening program that has me confident again – just three weeks since I thought all was lost when I stumbled home in terrible knee pain after escaping injury on a rapidly moving treadmill.

When I’m off to see the PT Wizards, it’s with a smile on my face. Which is some kind of gift, I can tell you.

Next: Running for Your Life: More Beatlebone !!  


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