Straighten It Up

You couldn't be in your 40s without straining a few muscles, spraining an ankle or suffering from back pain. Next to aromatherapy, you must be very familiar with the smell of Counterpain or Tiger Balm by now. The body stiffened as we aged and the problems mentioned above started occurring. In our group chat, the exercise topic would crop up from time to time as it was supposed to be something we could do to overcome this issue.

I started my Strava time since last October and to a certain extent, it helped. But I had this recurring backache that first happened when I helped shifting the heavy Futures dealing desk probably some 10 years ago. I still remember the soft horror sound only I could hear, it was as if something within the lumbar spine area had broken. So painful that I could barely move.

The pain would come and go since then. We'd get back to that. On a separate but not unrelated track, there was this friend of mine, Alvin. He was many things: a teacher, a cook and also a massage expert. He was academically smart, as we could see from his writings. His drunken chicken and noodles were delicious. I tasted those recently. And then there was his massage skills. 

The pictures of him doing that had been circulating from time to time. Some of our friends had testified that he did wonders. I'd seen it live at least once, when we visited Bakmi Alit in 2018. But it was during his visit to Singapore that I got a chance to experience it myself. And it was one helluva experience. Literally, haha.

It was quite interesting. You see, the term "massage" had been loosely used in Indonesia. What Alvin did, I think, was what we referred to as chiropractic in English. There was no equivalent word in Bahasa Indonesia or at least I didn't know if there was any. 

The initial check began with him sitting behind me, poking my back with his fingers and applying some pressure here and there. When he finished doing that, he said some parts of my bone structure had gone wrong for years. Come to think of it, perhaps it also got to do with my style of sitting. You see, just because the sitting position was comfortable, it didn't mean it was right for the body. It was a bad habit slowly creeping in without us realizing it until it was too late.

Then he did his stuff to correct this posture issue. As he twisted and turned my body, there'd be this cracking sound that felt so oddly satisfying. Quite fun, actually, except the neck part. I couldn't help thinking if it ever went wrong, I'd die on the spot, haha. 

Once done, I asked curiously if this would need to be done on a regular basis. Apparently it depended on the severity. If it wasn't that bad, it could be rectified immediately. Otherwise it might take more than one attempt to get it right.

To be frank, I was kind of surprised. I was under the impression this would be a regular treatment because I vaguely remembered that the chiropractic centre often offered such packages. It was certainly good to know that the bone issue could be addressed permanently. 

But it turned out that there was part two. After he settled the bone, he worked on the muscles. I thought shoulder massage was bad, but the calf massage hurt even more! It was like a torture that I almost cried. And he closed it with reflexology, which was quite bearable, though I wasn't sure if I liked it at all. As he did that, he mentioned that I might want to pay attention to the liver. I acknowledged that the issue could have been originated from my casual drinking habit.

When we wrapped it up, I recalled the testimonies from our friends. I wasn't immediately convinced, but a few days later, I could feel that my back was not as stiff as before. It felt... relieved. Now that I really gave it a thought, it was kind of amusing how he learnt all this. Looking back, the weirdest moment was the time he did his initial analysis. How on earth did he figure out the issue simply by poking my back? But it worked. The man knew his stuff and he sure had a talent that could benefit many. Highly recommended!

The professional massage!

Luruskan!

Di usia 40an ini, kemungkinan anda sudah melewati apa yang namanya nyeri otot, kaki terkilir atau sakit punggung. Di samping aromaterapi, bau Counterpain atau balsem pasti tidak lagi asing bagi anda. Semakin umur kita bertambah, tubuh kita menjadi kian kaku. Di grup SMA, topik olah raga pun sering dibahas sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah ini. 

Saya mulai menjajaki Strava sejak bulan Oktober lalu. Sampai batasan tertentu, aktivitas gerak badan ini cukup membantu. Akan tetapi saya juga memiliki masalah sakit punggung yang pertama terjadi sewaktu saya turut membantu mengangkat meja kerja yang berat di departemen Futures kira-kira 10 tahun silam. Saya masih ingat bunyi gemeretak yang hanya terdengar oleh saya sendiri, seakan-akan sesuatu di bagian pinggang telah patah. Sakitnya langsung membuat saya berdiri diam di tempat. 

Rasa sakit di pinggang yang kadang menjalar ke punggung ini muncul dan hilang tak tentu waktu. Kita akan bahas lebih lanjut lagi nanti, tapi mari kita beralih dulu ke teman saya Alvin. Dia ini memiliki profesi guru, koki dan juga tukang urut. Dia pintar secara akademis, seperti yang bisa kita simak dari tulisannya. Ayam arak dan mie masakannya pun lezat nian. Baru-baru ini saya mencicipinya. Kemudian ada pula keahliannya dalam memijat. 

Foto-fotonya dalam menekuni profesi ini sudah sering beredar di grup dari waktu ke waktu. Beberapa teman pun sudah bersaksi tentang kepiawaiannya. Saya juga pernah melihat Alvin beraksi sewaktu kita mampir Bakmi Alit di tahun 2018. Akhirnya saya berkesempatan untuk mencoba sendiri sewaktu dia datang ke Singapura.

Ada satu sudut pandang unik yang saya dapatkan dari pengalaman ini. Istilah pijat itu ternyata agak rancu. Yang Alvin lakukan itu sepertinya disebut chiropractic dalam Bahasa Inggris. Saya tidak tahu apa terjemahan kata tersebut dalam Bahasa Indonesia. 

Pemeriksaan awal dimulai ketika dia duduk di belakang saya dan mulai menotok serta menekan punggung saya dengan jemarinya. Sesudah itu, dia mengatakan bahwa beberapa bagian struktur tulang saya sudah tidak beres selama bertahun-tahun. Kalau dipikirkan lagi, mungkin juga ada hubungannya dengan cara saya duduk dan bersandar. Hanya karena posisinya terasa nyaman, bukan berarti sudah benar. Jadi kebiasaan buruk ini terbentuk tanpa sadar.

Alvin lantas mulai melakukan koreksi postur tubuh. Setiap kali dia menyentak tubuh saya, ada bunyi gemeretak tulang yang memuaskan rasanya. Saya cukup menikmatinya, kecuali pas di bagian leher. Sempat terbersit di benak saya, jika ada gerakan yang salah, hidup saya bisa berakhir pada saat itu juga, haha. 

Setelah selesai, saya bertanya apakah proses serupa harus dilakukan berulang kali. Di luar dugaan, ternyata tidak perlu. Jika tidak terlalu parah, sekali pun sudah cukup. Bila agak kronis, maka perlu diulang beberapa kali. Terus-terang saya agak terkejut. Saya sering melihat promosi klinik chiropractic yang menawarkan paket, misalnya paket 10 sesi. Menarik untuk diketahui bahwa masalah tulang ini bisa dituntaskan secara permanen. 

Namun ternyata masih ada bagian kedua. Setelah tulang, kini dia menguraikan ketegangan otot. Ini baru yang biasanya kita sebut sebagai pijat atau urut. Pijat bahu membuat saya menahan sakit, tapi ternyata pijat betis lebih bikin ampun lagi! Rasanya seperti siksaan fisik yang membuat saya meringis. Terapi pijat pun akhirnya ditutup dengan refleksi. Yang ini lebih enteng, tapi tetap saja sulit untuk dinikmati. Dari tapak kaki, Alvin tahu bahwa liver saya kurang sehat, tapi saya juga tahu itu karena saya kadang memang minum bir, haha.  

Seusai pijat, saya jadi teringat dengan testimoni dari teman-teman. Saya tidak langsung percaya, namun setelah beberapa hari kemudian, pinggang saya terasa lebih lega dari sebelumnya. Saya lantas teringat lagi dengan caranya memeriksa yang tergolong aneh. Bagaimana bisa dia mengetahui apa yang salah hanya dengan menekan punggung saya? Tapi hasilnya nyata. Alvin jelas tahu apa dikerjakannya dan keahliannya ini bisa membantu banyak orang yang membutuhkannya. Memang layak direkomendasikan!