My girlfriend has been training for months on end for a half marathon. I’m not a runner because of the toll it takes on my body. Nope, I play squash for my cardio workout.
She insists that runner does so many things for her physically and mentally. But a few weeks ago she was starting to get pain in her thighs and hamstrings. Normally she goes to the massage therapist. This time around she wanted to try something new.
She did some researching online. Various forms of care for her sore and tight legs came up. She decided on acupuncture and came across a Victoria acupuncture clinic called Cook Street Health Center.
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese tradition of stimulation certain points across your skin through the use of long needles. This is supposed to correct imbalances of flow of breath, air and gas through your body.
If you ask me, it’s a pretty awful looking treatment to have done. The needles tend to stay stuck in your skin anywhere from a couple of seconds to an hour. I couldn’t imagine having them stuck in me that long.
My girlfriend was also a little bothered and afraid of her acupuncture treatment. But she talked to some friends and found out it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Her friends also suggested that it might help relive some stress as well.
When she saw her Victoria acupuncturist, she was told that it wouldn’t be that long based on her pain points. Since it was in her legs I thought it would be a long treatment as the legs tend to thicker than most parts of the body. This was great news to her.
She said that the needles were not stuck that deep into her skin and left for only 5 minutes. Normally one to be scared of medical needles, she was a little worried but prevailed in the end.
I’m proud of her for sticking through it. A couple of days after the appointment she noticed little pain in her thighs and hamstrings. This was still enough of pain for her take a break and stop running for a while. This was good news for me as I wanted to get her into squash as I feel it’s less stressful on the body.
In the end, you must be like my girlfriend and not afraid of such a different form of medicine in visiting an acupuncturist. Most people tend to take Tylenol. My girlfriend and I stay away from them as they are costly and tend to really knock you out. That’s why we prefer more natural methods of medicine like acupuncture, massage therapy and even physiotherapy. If you’re like us in this regard, please try acupuncture.