BACK PAIN
Great time to talk about back pain as its one of the most common modern ailements. I personally have had back issues since my 20’s, some people just have a genetic pre-disposition to it. Despite the fact that modern medicine has made huge strides in the last 100 years, the progress in understanding and curing back pain is frustratingly stone age. Surgical outcomes are statistically very poor which is why many resort to eastern methods like acupuncture or chiropractors. What I have found does an awesome job keeping my lower back healthy is CORE work, when I started focusing on core it reduced my back incidents to 1/10 what it was. I do my rotisserie core workout extensively at least 3 times a week in addition to focusing on exercises that strengthen the spinal extensors like stiff legged deadlifts and bent over barbell rows.
So if I am so diligent, why did I tweak my back? Great question! First, my strong core only lowers the incidence of back issues – it doesnt elilminate it completely. Maybe once every 5 years I have an issue instead of every six months. Second, this one was annoying. So I just had my umbilical hernia fixed and was prohibited from doing core work for 8 weeks. Not wanting to mess up a surgical repair, I was a good boy and avoided all core work … and look what my mushy, sore core got me! Well, at least my hernia repair is strong smile emoticon This is a great example of how injuries telegraph thru the body. This was predictable but often its not. A runner gets a wart on their foot so they start running funny which causes their knee to hurt which makes them limp which causes them to get bursitis in their hip … all from a stupid wart.
So, how did I mess up my back? Did I “snap my shit up” doing deadlifts? Nope! Nothing so macho … or stupid. I injured my back sleeping, thats right, sleeping. About half the time, thats how I mess up my back. I LOVE stretching in the middle of the night in bed because it feels SO good. Hard to explain but I stretch myself out and try to make myself taller, turns out, sometimes it works too well and I hear a POP from my back. I guess I am doing a chiropractic self-adjustment. Trouble is, the POP is a muscle pull that causes my back to be very tight, pulls the spine in a weird shape, and causes the back pain. In any case, this is what happened to me a week ago and I have been getting better but nowhere near enough to stand in a 40 minute registration line.
So anyway, the moral of the story is, DO CORE WORK! Do the rotisserie core workout at least 3 times a week!