CLAY MOYLE
There is less than a week to go until the beginning of Hoopfest in Spokane and
our quest to compete in the 3-on-3-tournament division for those over 50 years old, and my teammates and I are in a race against the clock to become healthy enough to field a team.
As I revealed in a previous article, Dave Woodman and I both hurt our backs playing basketball two weeks ago against some 19-year-old’s. Woody was a late addition to the team when another former teammate had to drop out as a result of more serious problems with his back.
Since the time of our injuries, it appears we are both following similar paths in our efforts to get our backs in shape in time for the tournament. Woody advised us that he is getting chiropractic adjustments, massages, and popping a steady combination of anti-inflammatory pills and muscle relaxers.
I am essentially doing the same thing, while riding a stationary bike every day. The massages I’ve been getting are along the lines of the Rolfing variety where the masseuse beats the heck out of you with elbow and thumbs with the goal of going deep enough to release muscular tension at the skeletal level.
Woody says his problem is with his Psoas muscle on the left side. It spasms and causes back pain as it pulls him forward. His chiropractor informed him that’s what caused his vertebrae to rotate when we last played. I might be dealing with the same issue as that’s where I have been experiencing all the tightness in my back.
When another teammate heard about Woody’s diagnosis he asked me what the heck a Psoas muscle was and if we all have one. I’d never heard of the muscle either, but the answer to that question is yes, we all have two of them. It’s a large muscle that attaches at the bottom of the thoracic spine and along the lumbar spine then runs through the pelvis down over the front of the hip joint and attaches at the top of the thighbone. It’s the only muscle connecting the spine to the leg.
It’s funny how much more many of us start to learn about our bodies after the age of 50 and we begin to fall apart. I think I’ve learned more about my own body over the past 10 years than I did in all of the previous 46. I hate to think how much more I might learn over the next 20-25 years.
The importance of stretching on a consistent basis to increase flexibility, as well as focusing on exercises to strengthen one’s core, really starts to sink in at times like this. Unfortunately, it’s a little too late now to benefit from that knowledge in time for the upcoming tournament. All Woody and I can do now is stay the course and attempt to get our backs in good enough shape that we can survive the two-day event.
Meanwhile, while we’re nursing our bad backs this past week, another teammate decided to go out and play basketball one last time before Hoopfest. Of course, while playing with some other young bloods he ended up pulling up lame on a drive toward the hoop with a calf or possibly even Achilles injury just before they were going to call it a night.
The next day, his doctor said he didn’t rupture his Achilles, but might have tweaked it pretty good. It wasn’t clear to him if the doctor meant the Achilles or the calf. But, after doing a bit of on-line research he wonders if he might have suffered some micro tearing to his Achilles and if it might be about to go.
Of course, the doctor warned him against trying to play in Spokane and advised him he could be in for a very long recovery process if he went forward with those plans.
But, a day later my teammate reported that the pain was higher up in the calf muscle and not where the tendon attaches to the heel. He chose to view that as progress and said if it continued to improve between now and the Wednesday before the tournament, and he could get the pain to go away, he was going to ignore the advice to forego playing.
On top of the latest injury, he’s been complaining of tiring too easily and suffering shortness of breath and there was some initial thought there may be a heart problem. But, that didn’t turn out to be the case and now they’ve given him some asthma medicine to try for 4-6 weeks to see if that resolves the problem.
He had really surprised me a couple of weeks ago when he told me he was able to jump up and touch the rim. Whereas there was once a time I could jump up and grab it with both hands I don’t think I’ve been able to touch the rim now in at least 25 years and quite possibly longer.
Heck, I need to get a good run at it to get the bottom of the net these days. I was impressed that he could still accomplish the feat. But at the same time, I can’t help wondering if that kind of jumping didn’t set the stage for his injury. But, it could just as easily be all the sudden starts and cuts that are required playing the game.
Not long ago, he and I spoke about doing twice a day workouts over the month prior to Hoopfest. Instead, we’ve been reduced to a regiment of icing and use of anti-inflammatory medicine.
As I told the guys recently, I don’t know whether to find we’re having such a difficult time getting four guys our age healthy enough to participate in the tournament extremely funny or just really sad.
I can’t help but remember a statement I once read in a book written by a former professional basketball player named Bill Bradley who said the human body wasn’t meant to play the sport of basketball after the age of 40.
He may be right about that, because sometimes it seems as though I’ve spent almost as much time rehabbing from injury or surgery over the past eight years as I have playing ball.
As for the future, once we get past this tournament I think I’m going to have to start spending a lot more time stretching so I’ll still be able to put my own socks on and I won’t have to start wearing slip-ons because I can’t tie my shoes any longer.