Pain is a Gift

Pain is a gift. I have been having shoulder pain lately. I’m not sure if it’s from swimming, computer mousing, or yoga/pilates. Probably some combination.

I took 3 weeks off swimming. I also moved my computer mouse to the left side. That didn’t make the pain go away…maybe it even got a little worse. Maybe that means it’s the yoga?

Since stopping swimming didn’t help, I decided to go swimming on Monday. I felt great and didn’t have any pain in my shoulder afterwards, and felt renewed in my attitude toward swimming.

I was planning to go swimming again today, when I reached to pick up a gallon of milk, and felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. Then my hand went numb and my finger turned white like a ghost. That was freaky. I made an appoinment with the doctor for this Friday. I will post how that goes.

So, why do I say that pain is a gift? Well, I went running today. While running, I held my right arm close to my body as if it were in a sling, to protect my shoulder. While I was doing this, I noticed that without the balance that my arm provided, I had to use my core muscles more. So, I started holding both arms in toward my stomach (holding them as if I had a tummy ache). This made a great drill to really use my core. Also, without the balance of my arms, I was forced to do the Chi Running lean properly. I know I have trouble with leaning from my hips instead of from my ankles. With my arms out of the picture, I really had to use my core. I played around with this feeling, and would go ten steps with my arms held to my tummy, and then ten steps with my arms moving normally, trying to hold onto the proper core/lean feeling. It was really great.

So, that’s why I say pain is a gift…it forces you to make improvements in technique. I hope my shoulder turns out to be something easy to fix with some exercises and stretching (otherwise, I may change my mind about that statement!)