“I’ve Never Had Anyone Come Here When Nothing Hurt”

Yesterday, a male university student came to see me.

He wanted me to look at a leg he had injured playing American football.

When he jumped or shifted his weight onto one leg, he felt pain.

This was his second visit.

Some time had passed since the first.

I imagine that when his leg began hurting again, he remembered me.

I was genuinely glad that he did.

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Sports such as American football, rugby, and soccer place a great deal of strain on the body.

Running.

Stopping.

Changing direction.

Colliding with another player.

In an instant, tremendous force can be exerted on the body.

In a contact sport like American football, the entire body also tends to stiffen in preparation for impact.

Even when the pain is in the leg, the cause does not necessarily lie in the leg alone.

When one part of the body stops moving properly, another part may compensate and take on the extra burden.

That was why I decided to examine the balance of his entire body rather than focus only on his leg.

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I played tennis for about ten years.

During that time, I threw out my back three times.

Looking back now, I realize that I understood very little about how to use my body.

I was not even aware that my posture was poor.

I thought I was standing and moving normally.

In reality, I was probably relying too heavily on one side of my body and repeatedly placing stress on the same areas.

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Sports such as tennis and golf, in which a racket or club is used predominantly on one side, inevitably create imbalances in the way the body moves.

The ball is struck in the same general direction.

The body repeatedly twists the same way.

The better someone becomes at the sport, the more often those movements are repeated.

While the technique improves, strain gradually accumulates in particular muscles and joints.

That is why time spent restoring balance to the body is needed in addition to time spent practicing the sport.

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With this student, I did not stop after examining his leg.

The tension in his upper body.

The position of his pelvis.

The way his weight shifted from side to side.

The sensation of his feet meeting the ground.

I checked each of these while gradually working to restore balance throughout his body.

At the end of the session, I asked him to jump again.

I also asked him to place his weight on one leg.

He said that, at that moment, he no longer felt the pain he had experienced before the session.

Of course, that did not necessarily mean that his entire body had returned to its original condition.

Once he resumed training, it would again be placed under considerable strain.

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Based on the way he used his body, I explained which muscles were most likely to tighten.

I also taught him how to loosen those muscles himself as part of his daily self-care.

When he continues playing, his body will repeatedly be exposed to the same kinds of strain.

Which muscles tend to tighten?

How can he release them?

Understanding the tendencies of one’s own body is also an important skill for continuing to play a sport.

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As I watched him, a thought occurred to me.

When I was twenty-one, did I take such good care of my own body?

Probably not.

Even when something hurt, I assumed that a little rest would take care of it.

I was young, so I believed my body would always work when I needed it to.

The idea of regularly caring for and maintaining it hardly occurred to me.

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About ten years ago, after returning to Japan, I visited a bodywork clinic near my home.

I was not experiencing any particular pain.

I simply had some free time and thought I would get some general maintenance for my body.

The practitioner looked surprised and asked,

“Nothing hurts?”

“No. I’m here for maintenance.”

My answer seemed to surprise him even more.

“I’ve never had anyone come here when nothing hurt.”

At the time, I simply thought that perhaps this was how things were.

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Since beginning my own work with the body, I have often remembered his words.

Many people only begin paying attention to their bodies after pain appears.

They can no longer move properly.

They cannot sleep.

The problem begins interfering with their work or daily lives.

Only then do they consider receiving treatment.

The idea of caring for the body before it develops serious problems may still not be very common.

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Of course, the student who visited me yesterday was experiencing a clear problem.

He had not come solely for preventive care.

Even so, with many other options available to him, he chose to make the journey to see me.

A session at KaradaNaoru costs 10,000 yen.

For a university student, that is not a small amount of money.

He decided to spend it on caring for his own body.

That made me very happy.

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After I had explained the self-care he needed, he left looking satisfied.

One year from now.

Five years from now.

Ten years from now.

I am curious to see how he continues with his sport and how his relationship with his own body develops.