“You are experiencing the same exact sensations of pain that a pregnant woman experiences as her stomach grows, but in reverse!” Chris said.
I replied, come again? 😎
Two nights ago I began experiencing what I can only describe as dull aches on the sides of my lower back, my glutes, hips and hamstrings. This began to affect my sleep starting at around 5 am.
The pain sensations felt muscular but my mind didn’t rule out it being some kind of weird bone issue either. The weird part was that I felt it in so many areas of the back side of my body.
I deduced that it must be the result of one three options. One, swimming laps, as that was a new addition added just two days before. Two, all the walking I am doing in the mornings after I cold plunge (but I had been doing this for months). Three, the water fast itself was producing sone strange effect.
Then last night, it woke me up at 3 am and was far worse than the night before. With no chance of falling back asleep, I got out of bed and tried a few things to reduce the sensations. I foam rolled. I stretched. I used an electronic massager. All to no avail. So, I texted Chris - my health advisor at 6 am.
Not surprisingly, as he has two very young children and a baby on the way, he was already up and called right away. He listened to me describe what I was experiencing and then blew me away.
I cannot recount it nearly as well as he described but in a nutshell he said that my body is responding to the large reduction of my decades long tortouis shell of an inflamed gut. Due to my twenty one pounds of weight loss in just eight days, new muscles are forming to support my new body configuration without so much stomach girth. Thus, what I am actually experiencing is muscle soarness from muscles being used differently and adhesions in my fascia from all the years supporting my big gut. It definitely is not the low impact swimming or the walking he said.
This is when he described how pregnant woman go through this in a reverse way when they gain so much weight so quickly during their pregnancy. Their bodies have to use new muscles to support the extra weight and location if their newfound stomach girth from carrying a baby. And, the muscles that are impacted are on the backside of the body, the hamstrings, the glutes, the hips, and the lower back.
Despite being compared to a pregnant woman in reverse at six in the morning, it felt so good to get a proper diagnosis over the phone. He invited me over today to get some deep fascia work done in these areas to release the painful sensations.
What a trip! I hope some of you find this as interesting as I do!
Hey Moms, I would love to hear from you if you went through this during your pregnancies at all?
