#13 Hurt SO Good.
This past weekend was the first round of La Copa de La Reina which is the National 7s tournament here in Spain. Pictured here is me getting tackled quite literally by the nipple piercing. This is NOT the hurt so good I am referring to.
There is un montón of things I could write about right now but I’m going to start with my most recent experience because it’s fresh and I am REELING. I just got back from the wildest, most painful, yet also incredible massage of my life. I’ve been wanting to get a massage for the past 6 months and after playing 6 games this past weekend it was the last straw - I needed it. So I woke up this morning, did some googling, and landed on a spot 10 minutes walking from my homestay. The website looked pretty legit and the woman on the phone was VERY convincing - truly selling the Japanese inspired sports massage.
I show up to the address and am surprised to discover it’s in her apartment and I did struggle to enter the complex. But bueno, I’m eager, let’s do this thing. My plan was to go with the 45 minute sports massage… I truly wanted an hour and a half but we’re balling on a budget out here so I went with 45. The room was quite professional with a little mattress on the ground, a massage table, a desk with 2 chairs, and a big ol’ poster of the body’s anatomy. Isabel, the masseuse, was an absolute gem. She had me lay down on the mattress then asked if I liked strong/deep massages. I was like oh heck yes - fuerte fuerte. She was quite the jokester as she started massaging me super lightly and asks, is this good? I nervously laughed unsure if she was joking or not and said ummmm ha a little stronger. Next thing I know she’s twisting, bending, pinching, and cracking me in all sorts of unfamiliar ways.
She bends my left arm at 90 degrees, then starts giving quick jabs with the hard part of her palms as if she was completing the CPR certification course on my left shoulder. Next she finds the source of the pain and starts DIGGING IN. I swear I didn’t even know I had pain in that part of my shoulder until her fingers were pressing deep into this INCREDIBLY PAINFUL location that is still unknown to me (sort of in my armpit area??). Then she sat with her knees on my booty cheeks and slowly made her way up my spine as she was also massaging out the knots in my upper back. She kept repeating “suelta, suelta” which means relax but it was hard to relax when all the pressure on my belly had me clenching my butt cheeks to be sure not to pass gas.
Next she pressed firmly on this tender spot behind my ear towards the back of my head and asked if I’ve been dizzy. The wild thing is, I had to stop practicing last night BECAUSE I FELT DIZZY. HOW DID SHE KNOW? I was astounded. She continued to press this spot on my head and goes feel that? and let me tell you, I FELT IT. Although I was in immense pain as soon as she released the spot I felt immediate relief. I extended my “massage?” to the full hour.
She continued down to my right foot and HOT DOG whatever point she found hurt SO FREAKING BADLY I was starting to sweat from the pain. I wasn’t quiet about my pain either but Isabel did NOT let up. She insisted that we needed to work it out - whatever it was. She also said my right ankle is susceptible to injury and asked if I had problems in the past with it. Yet again, she was correct. I tore a tendon in my ankle when I was like 16 at basketball tryouts (still made the team btw). Apparently I need to start strengthening my ankles more.
Basically Isabel spent the hour discovering all the fricked up parts of my body from 6 months of being in season. She kept using the phrase, “tiene este cogido”… which I’m still not entirely sure what that means but I did know it was not a good thing. I know I made this massage experience sound super painful which yes it was but, I also left feeling REJUVENATED. I feel like I could have used another hour of her torture but, I am definitely heading into the next round of La Copa de Reina ready to RUCK. Thank you, Isabel.