A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed for Gotta Run, a running show, and met Dr. Dan, a Runner and Physiatrist who also had a heart attack right on the set.

 

I really had no idea how it’d all go as my approach to doctors is usually “we’ll see”, but I liked him right away! We pretty much agreed on everything during the show and after he told me I should come by his office.

 

Four days later he gives me a call and sets me up with an appointment. Well, I have no pain, but I was curious about those “power plates” he mentioned during the talk and the oxygen chamber. Sounded like super elites stuff to me!

 

I showed up in running clothes not really knowing what to expect. 

First thing we did was the Power-Plates.

 

You stand on it, and do sets of 30 seconds. In each set you’re supposed to do different things, like squat, etc. It shakes you all over, like you’re in the express train but worse. Dr. Dan said the point is that it works the fast-twitch muscles. (Do I even have any?).

 

The thing was crazy. But I like it better than a treadmill! Actually, I like it, period.

 

Then I got “buffed down”? They told me to lie down and there was this insanely big massager or whatever it was and it went through all my backside, from my neck to the bottom of my feet. This thing was also crazy vibrating, but this time I was doing no work, win-win. It was fabulous. Best massage ever.

 

Then… the part I was most curious about, the hyperbaric oxygen chamber!

 

Many questions before, do you get sick in airplanes, do your ears pop, etc. I get in there, with gum to chew, my phone, and a thingy I could click for “emergencies”… Ehem. It fills up with air, and that was it.

 

 

Then it was over. I didn’t feel much, only that I could nap a little in there…!

 

Soon, I was back in the table for a massage. And then I spent 40 minutes in a crazy massage chair. It was INTENSE. Like it was moving my bones around and I felt like I might even get bruised. By the time I walked out, I was SO exhausted… And I still had to run. Obviously, it was a sloooow run, but I am interested in trying that oxygen chamber again, maybe before a big race…?