My Butt's Sore

While I was an inpatient at Craig Hospital a couple years ago, my physical therapist spent a lot of time poking me in the butt. I remembered that little factoid because right this minute, my butt hurts in exactly that same spot where she used to poke me.

Lemme share a little more context. When I was at Craig, I was mostly getting around in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk. But I had at least the potential for enough muscle function to be able to, so I spent a bunch of my time at Craig learning how to walk again. My physical therapist watched me closely and realized that the glute muscles weren’t firing the way they should have been, so she kept poking me in the butt as a way to remind me to remind those muscles to start working again.

Fast forward to today. About a week ago, I joined a CrossFit gym. Before I broke myself, I spent seven years working out at a CrossFit gym – so I’m excited to be back at it. Now in a CrossFit gym, the workout is different every day. Some days you get to do the things that you like and are good at – some days you get to do the things that aren’t your favorite and that are not your strengths. Some days the workouts are like what you’d do at home; some days the workouts include things that you wouldn’t choose to do on your own.

Today’s workout included running. Since I was discharged from Craig, I’ve done virtually no running except just a little bit here and there. But the gym had programmed running today in distances that I knew would be hard for me, but that I knew I could be successful at. So I did the workout. And almost immediately I was sore. You know, in that way where you know you used your muscles. Specifically, the muscles in my butt were sore almost immediately.

Which reminded me of my physical therapist at Craig. Maybe I should let her know that I’m finally using that muscle. Or maybe not, because she’ll wonder why I didn’t start doing this kind of thing sooner.

Regardless, one of the things we’ve talked about in my household is that it’s entirely possible that I might still be mostly in a wheelchair if I hadn’t been able to do the initial part of my recovery at Craig Hospital. That place works magic with people who are recovering from spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.

In a few weeks, I’ll be riding Pedal 4 Possible, a fundraiser bike ride to support the work done at Craig to help folks be able to integrate into society in safe and healthy ways. I encourage you to either sign up for the ride, or to make a contribution.

My butt’s still sore … but I think I’m glad that it is.