'You never realise how bad you were feeling, until you have felt better.'

[Fuzzy]

Almost three year ago my coach gave me this little piece of wisdom, and it has taken three years to truly sink in.

I never realised how tight things were till I got some deep tissue massage. Didn't realise how weak my wrists were till I got an injury and didn't realise how unhealthy, unfit and low energy I was at 25% bf.

Now, 30 pounds lighter many many things have improved. Sleep, general sense of well being. Furthermore, all the recovery work I do, such as massage, foam rolling and sauna have become much much much much more effective. I am at this moment comfortably running some very high frequency training (80%+ squatting 8 times a week) and am feeling like an animal. Recovery rate is awesome, knee and wrist pains have completely disappeared, my diet is as close to perfect with 34/35 meals this week completely clean, and I feel alert and alive from the moment I wake up to when I hit the hay.

That being said, I have noticed an amazing resistance from many serious lifters to invest in there well being. A reluctance to get a deep tissue massage and foam roll and sauna and other very effective recovery methods. The above quote rings very true, you never appreciate how **** you felt until your snoring is cured from a pec massage and your knee pains is gone after a half hour session on the foam roller.

So... get on it!

That's all I wanted to say.

[Pete22]

Time to dust off the foam roller.

[MadChef]

Good piece of wisdom, as much as we do to break ourselves down through our labors in the gym and in the field with the goal of tuning ourselves back up to be bigger, faster, stronger, we often neglect important aspects of the tune-up process. I just recently I had a shoulder problem corrected through deep tissue massage. I had irritated the attachment point of my teres major/minor and supraspinatus and developed adhesions. I started seeing a specialist about it a few weeks ago and within a couple sessions of agonizing massage the pain is almost completely gone.

Some people are content to exist, struggling through their impaired physical functions... I live in Detroit, I coexist with these people (I think Detroit is the fattest city). It's pathetic and sad, and they do their best to live a happy life but I can't imagine being happy without the physical freedom to run and jump and breath deep and feel good in my own body. Every effort you put into self-improvement is truly an investment, and I think that's what keeps me going, even as I don't see gains from day to day or even week to week.