After prolonging a back injury- I've now, finally, learned to just stop doing everything and sit around and get fat. I'll see you guys in three months when I can get back into it with some real gusto. To explain, I'll provide some history. My weekly exercise schedule consisted of weight training 2-3 times a week (depending on the weekly cycle- more cardio or more anaerobic) and running/stair/ski machine for 10-15 miles, usually 5 days out of the week. I got really sore the day after I inflated the "happy fun ball" for my kids with a tire pump. It had twelve chambers with two valves each. It took me nearly an hour to completely inflate. I woke up the next day with a really sore back. A few hours later, I bent over to empty a bucket of water from the mobile A/C unit running in the basement. I could feel the disks slip as I did so, and had to go to the chiropractor to get them realigned with multiple adjustments over the next two weeks. I feel better, but decide to have a punching bag workout, and woke up the next day with a pinched nerve. Extreme pain! The side of my right leg was numb, and every time I moved it, I got shocked with pain in my foot, knee, and ass. After going on a carefully regulated sequence of Ibuprofen for two weeks, I was able to start to walk/stretch it out. I've regained half of the feeling in my leg from the starting point to now. It is a slow journey. My workout has evolved into lying on the floor of my gym on an ice pack for 15 minutes, followed by walking on the treadmill for 10 min (@ 2.5mph, 5% incline). Then I stretch the heck out of my leg with a standing hurdler's stretch for 30 sec on and off. The pain stretches from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. The moral- don't aggravate your injury because you feel like you need to get up and do something- anything to get the heart pumping. Every time I have the urge, I have to keep telling myself to calm down, find something to do, or think about what it's going to be like when I get back into my running routine- sometime in mid November. I'll be running in the crisp, cold autumn air, crunching the frost under my feet as I trod the wooded, gravel path I know so well.
I have a friend going through pretty much the same thing, He's on his second surgery and is looking to overcome the med's any day now. Good Luck , Wish you the Best !
Sorry to hear you're in pain. I know it well. I get realigned about every two weeks, as the results of a fall on ice. My job keeps it irritated, so pain is a daily thing. Getting under trucks and wrenching, is the worst for me, and will spike my pain greatly. I know it is tough to let it heal, but do it now, or deal with even more pain later.. ...I know. I get twisted, hot packs. Electro-stim, and massage. Every two weeks. I don't like needles, but I tried acupressure, and acupuncture, looking for relief. Pain pills strong enough to do any good, leave me asleep, or groggy, so I just don't take them. Let it heal.
My injury last year was a good part of my motivation to get back in shape. Slow and steady Another thing I've done was to convert my office desk to a stand up workstation. I don't even have a chair at the office anymore and stand all day long. Took about a week to get used to but I've now limited my 'sitting' time to under 1.5 hours a day.
Been thar' done it all. Found a really good Nuro Suregon. He developed the process that works to this day. Mine was back in the '80s. All the docs I went to before said I'd nver work again (most folks I knew figured I didn't do much work anyway). You just gotta keep on till you find a Doc that can help you and is willing to let you decide what chances you will take. Insurance would not pay for my operation due to the low success percentage suggested by the two levels of damaged disc and back bone segemnets, yup they can do that. SO I sold off some things, took my chances with the Good Doc and now work as much as any one should at my point in life. OH BTW! The insurance Company had to pay me back after the surgery was a complete success. Just never give up. You are your keeper. Take care of yourself.
Thanks for all the well-wishes. I didn't write about my situation to generate sympathies (although they are appreciated) I just wanted to stress that we can be our own worse enemy sometimes. The feeling is coming back, and my leg feels ever-so-slightly better each day as long as I treat it right. Melbo is right, sitting is the enemy. I've led the life of a student for the last year. That comprises a LOT of sitting. Sitting in class. Sitting when studying. Sitting in front of the computer writing papers for endless hours. My diet has suffered for it, greatly. The amount of time I spent in exercise has, up until I injured myself, stayed the same. I believe that had a lot to do with it. I've been taking walking breaks every so often and stretch. It helps. I need to recover by ski season!
In about two weeks I'll be running again. I can't really say how well, though. When I pinched my sciatic nerve 6 months ago, I walked with a limp. It's been a slow recovery, but steady. My leg has atrophied quite a bit in that time, and although I don't limp when I walk anymore, I do when I test run (run for a few seconds). I've been using the treadmill quite a bit, an hour a day, so I can control the incline. Yes, I walk outside too, but I have infinite control over the speed and incline. I usually keep it at 3% incline at 3mph, but this week I'm stepping it up to 3.5mph, maybe 4% if I feel okay with it. Although that pace isn't close to my former running pace of 7-8 mph/30 minutes, It is getting close to where my gate has to change and I will begin to jog. From there, I plan on doing box jumps to strengthen my atrophied leg muscles. I need to do this so I will be in shape enough to ski!
take a Styrofoam cup and fill it with water and freeze... when your back starts spasming peel the lip back and have your significant other give you an Ice massage in the effected area... it will help a lot...
I have an very old Smooth muscle Back injury, from a Climbing Accident when I was 22 Years old. It was reagrivated when I was 45, in a Demolition incident. If I strain that muscle group a few times, it starts "Talking to Me" and the only relief that I have found, has been to take a two week therapy of Flexoril, and no heavy lifting until it was healed. I get a recurrence every couple of years, and have a liberal supply of the Medication. Once, before I had this supply, I got so bad I couldn't get out of bed, for three days without a serious massive spasm in that muscle. Momma wasn't here, and she had to fly in, and rescue me, from my condition. The Genset had run for 4 days straight, without issue, luckily. Better living thru chemistry...... .... YMMV....
After spending the last few weeks walking on an incline for hours... It's great to be running again, even if it is only 5 1/2 mph. I seriously thought I would be sore as hell by now, but luckily I'm not. I guess A LOT of walking is equal to running for a short distance. I've had people tell me that walking 5 miles and running five miles will burn the same amount of calories in the end. I say BONK, those people have never had to run uphill!
No doubt! I remeber tieing diving weights to my climbing boots so I could get in shape to climb Mt Fuji. Hard to go from sea level to 12,000 ft. It did help to clmb and hike each Sunday in Hawaii before we went, the beer was only to wash off the sweet!
HK User, I bet Mt Fuji must have been a site to see. One of the things I would love to do in my lifetime is to go skiing in Hokkaido. (Of course, I'd like to add Patagonia and Antarctica to the list, too.) Today was my first weight bearing exercises. I decided to start with body weight exercises in a circuit so I wouldn't overdo it. I think I might stay with the circuit training for a little while before going back to heavier weights. Not that I felt that it was too hard; but I actually liked the circuit training. I used to hate it, getting bored with constant repetitions. I'm going to limit my running to every other day instead of every day (5-6 days a week) like I used to. I'm beginning to think that I might have been running too much before, while at the same time lifting heavier, leading me to injury. Although I've tried a few times, I cannot run more than a half marathon. When I train for more distance, things start to break. I have noticed when I ran sprints (trying to gain a little speed over distance) that I actually can sprint well. The only problem is, I hate sprinting. When I do a sprint workout, I feel like I haven't gone far enough, or added any real mileage to my weekly tally. I just get sore for nothing. I think I have to change my thoughts about this, and train accordingly, going along with my strengths instead of trying to unreasonably build up my weaknesses. I believe I've reached the point in my life that a marathon just isn't going to happen. Tomorrow I'm planning my first outside 3.2 mile run. It has a few hills, so I may have to walk portions of it, but I'm excited to get back into it. My right leg is a little weak from atrophy, and gives me a loping gate if I don't concentrate on each and every step. I don't ever remember running being this much mental work; I just ran.
The run went well. I did have to walk a few times on the hills, but not as much as I thought I would have to. I kept it slow, and the only time my right leg bothered me was on the steep parts. My right gluteus maximus was burning pretty good. I ran around a lake, and the ducks didn't care that I was only three feet away. I guess the 25 degree temperature was too comfortable for them. Tomorrow is going to be another body weight circuit. Here's where I started at this morning before the run: 5'8" 195lbs Let's see what the next 6-8 weeks have in store.
It's been 10 days since I posted on this thread. A lot has happened, and I am amazed by the results. I changed my diet to more closely coincide with the primal diet. I've lost almost 10 pounds already, and I've only run two times a week. I started to lift with weights, although I am going to make time to keep a bodyweight exercise routine on the schedule; I think it helps greatly with balance and hand-eye coordination. My waist has started to shrink and my biceps are getting bigger again. I was raised on carbohydrates- rice, pasta, and breads. I now see that they have been my undoing, the human body is far too efficient at converting glucose into glycogen and ultimately lipids for fat storage. I can't get over how well this new routine works. If anyone out there is having problems losing weight and gaining muscle, research the primal diet and try it.
The bodyweight exercises are great, and are definitely NOT easy if you don't want them to be. I had the DOMS a few times since I started them thinking that they were no big deal. I started to changed my diet substantially, motivated by Quig's primal threads. I used to be the closest thing to a vegetarian without actually being one. I hardly ever ate meat, ergo I never got enough protein. I changed that and I've been freaking exploding (my arms and thighs have increased in diameter). I've eaten more flesh in the last three weeks than I have in the last three years. Strangely, I don't miss carbs. I don't feel run down in the late morning and early afternoon anymore. Strangely enough, my intake of vegetables has actually increased. I feel great, too.
