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Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

People have often referred to the “journey” I’m taking with Filet of Soul. I don’t see it as a journey at all. It’s like when I through-hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail; just because there was a lot of walking doesn’t mean I was on a journey. A journey requires a destination. Filet of Soul, at least where I’m concerned, is a recreation, a snapshot, a two-mile backpacking trip.

But, nonetheless, the column has raised my awareness toward things spiritual, metaphysical and anti-rational. And, as I more or less mentioned in this column last week, the older I get, the more I realize how much of what I’ve been taught is wrong. So, while I’ve become more open to things I don’t understand, I’ve become more skeptical of the things I thought I knew. [Insert smiley emoticon here.] It sounds worse than it is.

Last Wednesday, I ran into another of these weird things. I hurt my back lifting weights. I was deadlifting 214 pounds, if that means anything to anyone, and I felt something twang in my lower back/upper hips. Instantly, the muscles spasmed around the injury. This had the exact same feel as the injury that took me six months of physical therapy to get over, beginning in December 2005.

But this time, I decided to try Rolfing, a deep tissue massage I’d heard addresses problems with the fascia, the fibrous connective tissue that separates or binds muscles. I contacted Rolfer David MacDonald, who got me in at 6:30 in the evening. He worked hard on my body for about an hour and a half, and by lunchtime the next day, I was able to do a 30-minute cardio workout. The following day, I did a full weightlifting workout (with deadlifts). Yes, there’s still a little point of pain where the injury happened, but the usual catastrophic results weren’t there.

I don’t know why this worked. I don’t know that it would work for everyone. Plainly, though, there are many things about my body I thought I understood that I was wrong about.