Last night, after snowshoeing, a shower, and some much needed girling up, I got a quick massage. It was a nice wake-up call.

My friend, Johanna, is a massage therapist in Copper Harbor. In the winter, she gives massages upstairs at The Mariner North. During the warmer months, she can be found at her studio, Spirit of the North Wellness.

Happy, exercised, showered, girled-up Di went for a 15-minute massage. I used to get somewhat regular massages, but that’s just not something a poor college student can do, these days, especially since much of my free money goes towards the traditional beverage of the area: beer. However, I’ve been having the usual pain associated with muscle tightness caused by lots of snowshoeing and snow blowing. I was quite vague with what I wanted because I knew that my body was at its worst: a train wreck. It still is a train wreck, but Johanna at least picked up some of the broken glass.

Before we began, she just touched my back to get a feel for what needed to be done (train wreck, I’m telling ya!). The minute she touched me I said, “Ooh, that feels so good…” It did. It felt great. I immediately got a sense for just how bad it was. I think my muscles are verging on a permanent contraction.

Johanna did a great job addressing all of the key areas. Two areas that screamed were my hips and my calves. The minute she pressed on my right hip, I jumped. It hurt! It shouldn’t have hurt. She didn’t even press that hard. She worked on the area and it definitely felt better. My calves didn’t moo quite as much when she rubbed those, but it was enough to make me wince. I definitely had a look of pain on my face.

Normally, one would feel compelled to ask for less pressure, but I knew she wasn’t using much pressure. As I stated, earlier, I’ve also had plenty of massages in the past, so I knew that the discomfort would subside. The fact is, Johanna wasn’t applying enough pressure to cause me pain. She was applying enough pressure to get rid of the tension that was the real cause of the pain. She did a great job.

The reason why this experience is a wake-up call is because it reinforced the idea that the body needs more than just diet and exercise. I’ve found that, as an amateur athlete, activities that may seem like perks to many, such as yoga and massage, are actually quite necessary to me. Pushing hard during training is something I do naturally. I like to push hard when I ride (this is more for mental wellness than physical), but it also leads to tight muscles that pull things out of alignment, causing knee and back pain. The longer I go without addressing this problem, the farther the pain spreads throughout my body, which is where I am, right now: sore feet, hips, back, shoulders, and neck. This is a classic train wreck.