Twist and (try not to) Shout!

Do you ever feel like you’re auditioning for the crappest break-dance routine ever, due to your robotic, mechanical moves? Do you avoid rotating the torso for fear of a blood curdling scream of agony?!

For 18 months my muscles have had to honour my discs and stay relatively rigid - sacrificing their flexibility in the process. This has, in turn, caused a compound effect and delayed recovery. 

This week, during a yoga stretch - known as a revolved side angle twist (from a kneeling position) - I yelped with pain, not from a disc issue, but a muscular response. I'd barely rotated, just 20 degrees if that, when it flatly advised it would not be twisting any further!

Torso flexibility is highly important and I now highly lack in this area!! I want to be more like The Destroyer from Thor and less like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz!

So? Stretch! you might say! Sure, but it’s the type of ‘stretching’ I choose which will alleviate further issues. The best form of stretching one set of muscles is to work the opposing muscles. The ones who've been enjoying the ride for way too long; the muscles who have not been contributing will have atrophied/weakened and now need to (quite literally) pull their weight and return the favour for a while.

Most training tips these days will advise that the best way to train our abs is on a fitness ball, or to do static/isometric exercises such as ‘the plank’ etc. Well, not in this instance. We’re in rehab, so we can’t start there (or return to that point straight away if this sounds like the training you were doing before your back ‘advised’ you stop).

So yes, I guess I am referring to Isolation exercises. That should rock the functional training world!  Functional and balancing exercise routines come much later down the line after we’re fit and strong enough to take that on. When your abs, glutes etc are lazy, your back muscles have to pick up the slack (and they would only continue to take the heat, if you choose to train using the advanced ‘functional’ workouts).

So, let’s work our opposing muscles:

This form of stretching is known as passive stretching and it's the best kind. Stretching a muscle alone will not resolve the tightness. If you simply stretch a muscle, it will ping straight back again as soon as you start doing something as it still has a role to perform until you sort out the opposing weakness. Whereas if you train the agonists, the antagonists have to ‘relax’ at the same time and balance is restored.

Please Note:

If you have a weakened back because you have lived in a gym working your ‘mirror muscles’, that’s another ball game entirely and the opposite of the above blog will be true for you.  And so, this blog is for the sake of those people like me, who have done next to zero in the way of training for a very long time.

Play Small, Win Big

Play it small now, make a big difference later

Well who’d have thought it? This week, I’ve been busy following a daily advent of no more than 20 minutes exercise videos per day. Within that, I have sometimes had to forego the odd position and make some of the movements demonstrated smaller for the sake of my back.

However, overall, bar a couple of days where the back had a hissy fit as it attempted to show me who was the real Boss around here, I have actually had about 5 days out of 7 where I’ve felt…ok. Sure, that’s not knicker-dropping fantastic news, but believe me, to just feel ‘ok’ for once after 18 months of feeling vile and pain riddled every spare millisecond of each day, this has been nice to have gaps, or little breaks from the pain.

Now, before I get too excited, I have been here – briefly – before. In fact, I became over confident and ruined it as quickly as I had discovered it. So, learning from those previous lessons, taking things glacially slow, I will continue my little mini workouts extracted from my DVD workouts (if that makes sense? Maybe ‘half arsed’ versions of the real instructor on the TV screen would better define my workouts right now?) and build up on that so that instead of my consistency/rally ending after 2 attempts or 3, it would be great to talk in terms of weeks, rather than days of feeling good.

I’m on it. I’m not backing down. But when my back sends those almighty lightening bolts, I do unfortunately have to ‘get back in my box’ on those days.

When I’ve had a long enough rotation to see which exercises help and which hinder, I will of course, Dear Reader, pass that privy information on to you!

Good Habits for Life

Small tweaks can become big changes, if we do them often enough. How else do you go from “oh please no, not that” to “yay! It’s that time again, I can’t wait!”

I’m a huge fan of chocolate and, these days my body craves it as it would air, sleep or sex. But I remember my very first Mars Bar. I was at nursery school and a girl gave me a mars bar at lunchtime. During Jackanory that afternoon, I threw up everywhere!  Even so, over the years, like a Trooper, I pushed through that 'pain barrier' on a regular basis and now I guess I could be the World's Leading Chocolate Expert!

I recently read that Nicole Scherzinger had explained how you can crave exercise just as much as you can chocolate. She said that exercise is a natural high and that anything you do in repetition is what you crave the most. The girl has a point. A very valid point. When I first left the personal training industry, I used to crave running; I remember feeling like a caged Tiger when I took my first desk job after having had the freedom of being a gym warrior all day every day!  So I know Nicole’s statement to be true.

But it’s all about pushing yourself over that first bump isn’t it? Always the hardest bit. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is; don’t worry about throwing up during story time, just make sure you get back on the horse and chuck up less next time…

No wait, that’s not quite right! What I mean is; the first week or so might be the hardest days in your life to get out of bed early and push through the pain to do your rehab and additional exercises, but – before you even realise it, by as little as just 2-3 weeks later, you could be annoying the crap out of all your friends and telling them what exercises you did today on your social media page…..!

The key then is never stopping! Please, don't even think about stopping, it was my worst mistake I ever made and although it was during a motor racing session that I caused this back injury, if I had taken better care of myself physically, i.e. was fit enough for my sport, I probably wouldn’t be writing this from a ‘broken person’s’ point of view!

I hear you; the starting is your problem because the thought of having to do this 'forever' puts you off...right? Well my first choccy high overrode the sensation of being sick didn't it? You may think you'll groan about this forever more, but soon, you'll be growling at anyone who tries to steal your chocolate bar off you. I mean, tries to stop you exercising! There I go again...

Test Driven: Jessica Smith’s "Walking for Weight Loss" DVD

Walking the Walk

Whether you’re currently under 10 foot of snow, or just grey clouds and rain, the less hardy people, like me, will be bringing their training sessions indoors.

My back has limited me in just about everything, so walking was one of my only real ‘cardio’ sessions. Sure, I have the treadmill, but wow, that can become boring very quickly! So I was over the moon when, last year, I discovered a fitness DVD made by Jessica Smith.

Really aimed as an exercise DVD for beginners, but I found it most useful for my scenario, where I must avoid jerky movements or sudden directional change.

What I like about this DVD is there are 2 half hour workouts which can be held in a relatively small space and, as there are gentle directional changes, it means my workout isn’t as linear as walking along the pavement or on a treadmill would be. Also, the arms are encouraged to increase the intensity, thus causing a cardio walking session while under your roof, in the dry!

Your trainer, Jessica is extremely likeable too which makes this workout a pleasure to attend. Not only does she cue properly, but she has a lovely sense of humour whilst jazzing up what is essentially a walk around the living room.  Even within the instructing, you still have options; to her left there is a lady showing slightly more advanced, or intense movements, whereas to her right, if you’re really struggling with pain, you can keep your movements small and follow her instead.

Take a look at this condensed video to give you a flavour of her style.

Jessica is a highly trained professional who not only talks the talk, but in this case literally walks the walk!

NB: As always, check with your physiotherapist before embarking on any programme.

6 things you can start doing TODAY to aid your back in its recovery

1. Bite sized moves

When we talk of setting goals, we always know that we must break down the targets into realistic individual tasks.  When you do your back in, you suddenly find those full sweeping ‘in-one’ movements you once made are now a thing of the past.

Since hurting your back, have you ever tried to sit on the floor or, more embarrassingly, tried to get back up off the floor? Do you feel like you’ve aged way ahead of your time? Then you’ll know, all of a sudden, there are a lot of extra limb movements and grabbing onto solid objects (or passers by!) are necessary to help you get up!

I now feel like I’m part of a robotic dance, quite literally breaking down some basic moves; apparently my days of quickly picking up the vac and turning to face the way I’m going in one swoop are gone. Now, it’s a list of instructions: Face upright vac, lift vac slightly off the floor and hold close to body. Shuffle feet around until facing the direction I choose to exit with the vac before finally, placing the vac back on the floor and wheeling it to where I want.

So, if you were into ‘functional training’ beforehand, I’m afraid you need to go right back to basics whilst your back is sending sharp and painful messages. Break everything down with shorter movements in between. No sudden turns or direction changes, it’s all about mechanical manoeuvres. It’s just a way of life for now, until you’re mended.

2. Toe touches and cat-cows

Following from my previous blog (Nov 12th) I recommend you do these every day, It takes moments just to do one or two reps of rolling down a wall and back up again and/or kneeling on all fours doing the dips and arches, compared to months of no improvement from your back having not done these regularly. I have found that when I do these exercises, compared to when I have chosen to opt out, I feel much better within a week as whole, but even on the day. It feels to me that it loosens everything up and helps you with your day.

3. Shorten the lever, make a triangle

As you may be aware, having a small weight extended out on a limb now feels three times heavy, and appears to continue to increase in weight the longer you continue to hold it at arms length. So, minimise stress on your spine by keeping things close to the body when picking up any weight, no matter how minor you may have once thought that weight was.

Making a Triangle simply means shortening the levers and placing hands/forearms across legs etc to complete the stress into a 3-way structure. If you are not ready to touch your toes and relying solely on the spine to take the weight as you roll down, slide your hands down the front of your thighs and stop wherever you feel you can maximise without causing further pain. If you do have a disc/muscle issue, you may find there will be a section of the manoeuvre where it almost misses a tooth in a cog? That’s why it is good to have those hands in position to take on the weight momentarily whilst you pass that section.

4. Be a well oiled machine

Nutrition plays a big part in the recovery of your back. I will be covering this in a full blog of its own; coming soon. But for now, just know that increasing your water intake helps keeps the muscles ‘fluid and free flowing’ (forgive the pun) to take the pressure off the limbs and bones dragging your heavy weight around. And by increasing your Omega 3s into your life through greens and fish, you can but only help and assist your spine as if it were literally a well-oiled machine. 

5. Posture check

With a simple roll of the shoulders up, back and down the spine; ribs lifted and abs engaged, I immediately feel taller and lighter – with a hint of remembering I once had abs under that delightful bag of flab I now carry around my centre!

6. Buy a Padded Back Stretcher

Of all of the contraptions and gizmos I have purchased in an attempt to aid or ease pain in my spine, this has been by far the best and at a very reasonable price. For £12 on Amazon, I was able to find a piece of equipment which helps me rest and stretch my back on the floor as well as placing it on a firm chair for when I need to sit upright.

What I love about this is both the slit removed from the middle so no pressure on the spine whatsoever, but it is also quite ‘tall’, so it actually covers up to the mid part of the thoracic area, which is ideal for me.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Padded-Back-Stretcher-Leather-Brand/dp/B0028WJVGW/ref=pd_sim_kh_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AKSQZJN178FAXPJZEB4

Back Nutrition – brought to you by SpongeBob SquarePants!

Of all of the equipment and educational material I have purchased relating to spinal injuries, I feel that you MUST purchase: 
“Sarah Key’s Back Sufferers’ Bible – You CAN treat your own back”

In her book, Sarah explained that as muscles tighten around the spinal column, they are in fact ‘suffocating’ the discs. The best way to nourish these discs is with a vacuum-pump-style method. A simple curl down to touch the toes and slowly unfurl back to standing means the discs squeeze out liquids on the way down and draw in even more liquids upon the return position, thus gaining ‘nutrition’ through this rehydrating sponge-effect action.

For any rehab you have been advised, make sure you add this simple yet very effective action into the mix:

Adaptations:

• Acute: Really tight muscles: do a seated curved-slouch to tall & strong posture x 20

• Sub-acute: Tight but able to kneel on the floor and do the cat-cow stretch x 20

• Chronic/fit enough: If you can, try the standing version to be most effective and start by walking your hands down your thighs from a standing position (you can even use a wall for support until you are ready to be completely free-standing) x 5

In addition to the cat-cow and toe touches, by way of a self massage, I also lay on my back, bring my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around my shins, thus creating a body-rock movement. Slowly rolling back and forth on the stretched/relaxed muscles can release any muscle tightness.

**From my own personal experience, I can highly recommend Sarah Key’s books. Sometimes seen as controversial or some of her ideas contra indicative, but having read her work, her ideas and profound working knowledge actually make perfect and logical sense.

Here is a link to her website: http://www.sarahkey.com/




PLEASE NOTE: With any of my recommendations, please check with your personal physician or therapist before embarking on any activity. As back injuries vary so greatly, it is important you do what is right and what is best for your personal situation.

Test Driven: Strong Core & Back Kit by GAIAM

The GAIAM 'Peanut' - DVD and Equipment Review

The DVD consists of 2 x ten minute workouts, although I’d say they were more like rehab sessions than the traditional ‘work out’ you might be expecting. Not that hard, but a few useful moves that, done on a regular basis could help the range of motion in the pelvis and spine. Favourite idea to take away from this was the “Vertical Cat Counter Stretch.” 

*There is a 3^rd workout, which can be found as a Bonus track online, but wasn’t worth the effort. Nothing you couldn’t already do with a normal ball, or yoga block, or even a foam roller in places.

If all else fails, it makes for a great self-massager for the sacral iliac crest (and top of the piriformis) and/or the Rhomboids, should you have any trouble there. Just place it on the floor, place the back of your sitting bones on the two ends and roll your pelvis back and forth for the crest (supporting your body weight with your hands and feet). For the Rhomboids, put it further up the back and roll back and forth over the zone with your feet supporting your weight, hips off the floor.

The lady in the DVD is likeable

Purchased in Tesco for £15.99. I don’t think this will revolutionise your back pain victory, but I suppose it is a nice piece of kit to have around for rehab variables. 

THE NEXT DAY:

I can definitely feel my lower abs have engaged, but also beware if you suffer from prolapsed discs around the L1/L2 zone; although the lady says her exercises disengage the hip flexors, they don't. Not really. Considering this area doesn't normally hurt for me, the fact I am conscious of it today makes me want to warn you to be careful if you suffer from pain in the lumbar region.  I'd definitely use 'the peanut' for a 'self massager' to roll around on, but be wary of some of the actions in the second 10 minute workout on this DVD.

Thoracic PARQ

Many people suffer with back troubles, but I still feel people’s pain experiences can be almost as unique as DNA! There are so many varying injuries which can happen to a spine (as well as the supporting muscle group) and, with 33 vertebrae holding different sections of the human trunk together, and how each individual has treated theirs during their lifetime, it’s no wonder there are so many variables of pain.

http://www.spineplus.com.au/uploads/img/Disc_Prolapse.png

My injury was a twisting motion in the thoracic area of the spine, through sheer G-force. A simple counter-spin with too much traction somehow managed to ‘squeeze out’ 2 nebulas and burst their annulus fibrotic walls at the left posteriolateral part of each disc. i.e. rear left back part of the discs, the gel squished out against the spinal cord. 

Apparently it is quite a 'challenge' to do this to the most stable part of the spine as it is strongest due to the rib cage. Only 1/1000 have managed to 'slip' a disc in this section of the spine, and I had to beat the odds further by doing 2!  I've since spent all of my time searching for an answer to resolve the constant chronic pain I suffer every day. 

Whichever section you have hurt your back, pain is something we all want to get rid of and so my journey will show you things I have tried and tested so that you can read my reviews without necessarily wasting your money or time by purchasing them yourself.

If you're like me, your lifestyle has been compromised and I'm sure you just want to enjoy your time on this planet, rather than compromising what seems like every day of your life.

*PARQ is a health questionnaire you’d complete at a gym before partaking in any exercise regime. Personal Activity Readiness Questionnaire.