The New Age Heating Pad...

Today was a typical Tuesday, I wasn't feeling so well last night and again this morning so I slept in, a little more then I usually do. At about 3:30 Adriana, Lynnea and I walked to the palestra (the gym we do weights at), today is our leg day, so squats, leg press, lunges, calf raises, etc. We did a little warm up on the bike, stretched and then headed over to the squat bar. We were doing our normal squat routine and as we were getting done with our reps, one of the men's team members came over and asked us if he could jump in with us (yes thats right, we are squatting the same weight as a men's team member, hhmmm lets think about that one....and I've squatted more in my life then what we were doing).

After squats we went over to the leg press, and thats when it all happened, I was doing my second repetition when my back locked up....yay. This happens every once in awhile because my legs are uneven, but it is usually when I am playing volleyball and hit awkwardly, I have never had that problem lifiting weights, and we weren't doing anything heavy or out of the ordinary. It can usually be fixed by a simple back re-alignment. So I called Guiseppe, our team doctor and he quickly scheduled an appointment. Mean while, when I was waiting for others to get done in the gym, I was asked if I "blocked my back," ummmm. I attempted to explain, in the simple Italian I know, that I un aligned it because my legs are uneven, etc etc. Then when I came home before going to see Guiseppe, Maria told me that Adri told her I hurt my back and that I needed to rest. I told her what happened, and she said the same thing, "oh you blocked the back." Again, ummmm?

So I walked to Guiseppe's office, and told him what happened, he also asked me if I "blocked my back," so at this point, I just said YES. And he did all the tests, cracked my back a couple times, re-alinged it a little, and I did some treatment on it. And he used google translate to tell me what happened, but apparently what he typed in translated in to "blocked the back" so again, not really helpful.

Since it was my day to bring "pasties" or sweets because it was my birthday the other day, I stopped at a little place called "dolce notte" and I bought their signature treat a bon bon with chocolate, or custard-y cream, or both on the inside. I bought 15 for my teammates, coaches, and whoever else hangs around our practices.
I explained to my coaches what happened in the palestra and that my back is really bad, and they told me to not practice, so I laid on the sidelines, yes, laid, because sitting in the chairs was too painful. When anyone new asked them what I was doing they would say "oh she blocked da back," but in Italian, which pretty much sounds the same, but a different word for back. And they would come over to me and say, oh so you "blocked da back," and I would answer yes, but in my head I'm thinking "I don't know what that is, but if it is what this feels like, then YES, I blocked the back."
So after practice, my coach Davide told me to sit against our furnace we have in our rooms to heat the back, so I was thinking oh like a heating pad, good thing Lynnea has one, and we explained to him that we had a heating pad, and we talked about how it was the same thing, and probably safer and he didn't seem to believe it, and just kept telling me to sit against the furnace. So Lynnea and I looked at each other, then looked at him and said Ok I'll sit against the furnace.

the new age heating pad...notice the broken heating pad on the window ledge behind me

So I get home, plug in the heating pad, and it doesn't work, of course, so what am I doing as I am typing this, SITTING AGAINST THE FURNACE, YES, for an hour. Yup its the new age heating pad! Dead serious. 

yup, 10 minutes and counting, "blocked backs" are no fun

Italian word/phrase of the day:  vecchia  "old woman" what I have been called since I turned 23...