scar tissue & racism
As a recreational swimmer, cyclist, runner, I put my body through a lot of stress. And unless you’re superhuman or have a superhuman rest & recovery schedule that is completely in line with what your body’s needs, it will start to call out.
For me this has taken the form of a persistent shin splint injury.
The week before Covid closures I’d finally set up time with a massage therapist. During the appointment I learned about scar tissue.
Basically it comes from repeated muscle stress - when you strengthen muscle it involves creating micro-tears. When the muscle doesn’t have enough time or proper treatment to heal, over time this leads to scar tissue (like a bandaid over a larger issue.)
Some takeaways:
The exercises seemed so simple on the surface.
After our session, she gave me a list of stretches to do at home. It wasn’t like there was anything groundbreaking. If anything I had possibly heard of these before but had been too lazy to research more or apply them to my routine. But it was the repeated practice of these that would create lasting strength.
There would be no immediate results.
There were no shortcuts, no way to combine all the stretches into a 1x / week thing. They had to be done every day consistently, over months. Possibly years.
Even if you did this consistently every day there was the chance it could flare up again.
Oh lord that would suck.
Finally? Listen to your body.
There was a recommended checklist, but “everyone’s reaction will be different.” You’ll know when to stop when the muscles start to reject the massage technique.
What the.
Finally she recommended taking the massage ball and sitting into it. Find these trigger points and that’s how you relieve scar tissue them over time. Sit with the ball, sometimes for 10 min, sometimes 30 min to work out these knots over time.
It was frustratingly vague but it was all I could do.
I had no choice.
Oh and the risk of ignoring the pain or unsuccessfully implementing these practices and just running through it? A stress fracture. Which is far more painful and permanent.
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So I think to this idea of this “racial awakening” our country is having right now.
If our bodies build up scar tissues over just months of improper use, imagine how much scar tissue the country as built up over the centuries.
What is a bit jarring is how much of right now feels like a “trend” - and quite literally one in the social media landscape.
We hear about organizations redirecting funds to other nonprofits as they’ve been just flooded with donations.
We see the spikes of people buying “White Fragility” or “How to be an Antiracist.”
Our apartment ordered food off a “Bay Area Black owned businesses” list last week and my roommate reported back long lines. These businesses were just not suited to handle the sudden influx.
I wonder what donations, book sales, social media and real world activism will look like years, or even weeks from now.
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If we really want to combat this, we’ll have stay engaged even when the social media posts are long forgotten.
It may be years from now before we see signs of progress.
It may lay dormant for a while before coming back up.
It will be frustratingly vague and slow.
But we have to.
Justice, like recovery, is built up ever so slowly.
Bit by bit.
One day at a time.