“Makes sense with the pelvis issues.” Once again, Ben’s finger moved to the front of Koios’s head.
“What the hell are you doing? Quit poking my head.”
Ben grinned. “I’m working on your neck.”
“For fucks sake, Ben. You’re not working on anything. You’re annoying the shit out of me, though.”
“I’ll make you a bet,” Ben said. “If your neck isn’t sore tomorrow, I’ll drink a green smoothie every day while I’m here. You’ll get to witness the torture firsthand.”
“Oh, I’ll take that bet all day long. Wait, you aren’t going to do something else to my neck to make it sore, are you?”
“Nope, just this.”
Koios scoffed. “This is nothing.”
Ben moved his finger to the side of Koios’s head and touched above his left ear. “I’ve done a lot of studying over the past few weeks. My first instinct was to work on your upper body.”
“Makes sense,” Koios said. “Strengthen my upper back so it’s strong enough to support the wings.”
“Yep. I also considered your chest. You don’t work the front without working the back.”
“I know. Balance.” He’d read all the articles he could find about anterior pelvic tilt. He understood now exactly what Ben hoped to accomplish with this therapy. Hell, it might even help a little. Koios would take any relief he could get at this point.
Ben moved his finger to the other side of Koios’s head. “Except, the more I learned about how the musculature of the back works, I realized other muscle groups were going to be a better place to start. Your spine is basically turning into an S shape in an attempt to compensate for the extra weight on your upper back. We need to strengthen your lower back, as well as the rest of your body, to give you better support.”
“You explained this already. But how exactly is poking me in the head going to help with that?”
“We’ll discuss it tomorrow when I win the bet.”
Koios snorted. “Right. Why are we starting with massage? Not that I mind, but it’s not what I was expecting.”
“I understand. It’s counterintuitive. Basically, I want to see where your tension is, especially in your lower body. The pelvis is important in the structure of the back. When it isn’t functioning correctly, it creates tight muscles and weak muscles. I want to work on loosening up the tight muscles first, then we’ll do some exercises to strengthen the weak ones.”
“So the tight muscles are pulling, causing the weak muscles to stretch.”
Ben grinned. “Exactly. When that happens?—”
“It creates unbalanced muscles. I feel like this is going to become a theme during all of your lectures.”
“Ha. If you think this is a lecture, you should have heard my anatomy professor. I thought he’d never stop talking. Face down on the table. I’m going to position your wings on the bolsters so they aren’t pulling down on your back while we work. Let me know if you feel any pain, okay?”
Koios nodded as he stood, turned around and climbed onto the table. He usually slept on his front as he couldn’t really get comfortable on his back without the aid of a stack of pillows. Ben waited until he’d settled and positioned his face into the hole in the table before he carefully lifted Koios’s left wing and placed it on one of the bolsters.
“Okay?”
“Yes. No pain.”
Ben repeated the movement for the other wing, then moved to Koios’s hips. “I’m going to put a small bolster under your hip. We’re going to work on stretching your quads.”
“Whatever you say, Doc.”
Ben huffed. “And there’s that snark I’m accustomed to.”
He lifted Koios’s leg and placed what had to be a gigantic brick under it.
“Holy goddess that hurts.”
Ben pulled the bolster out. Koios lifted his head to turn and glare. Then he saw the gigantic brick…which was basically nothing more than a thin pillow.
