Curved Back Update

It’s been a few weeks since I started seeing the massage therapist. Back is still curved but it feels a lot better. It has been a bit of detective work so far and I’m feeling that it is time to get a chiropractor to take a look at my back. After the muscle work my lower back is still curved.

I still wake up with a mildly sore/tired feeling back. It’s not so much sore as it just feels tired. When I do my deadlift form there is a very noticable height difference in my right hip versus my left hip. At this point I’m not sure if it is a muscle problem, a habits problem or a spine problem.

So the next step is to talk to a chiropractor, get some x-rays done and start doing more detective work. We’ve found out that there is a diagonal twist of my hip, on 3 axis: rolled forward, tilted downwards to the lower left, and twisted to the left. Hmm… how to fix this.

The problem is that during Crossfit with my back and hips not perfectly straight any weight bearing exercise makes the problem worse. Even though it feels alright at times, sometimes even stronger, without fixing the twister and the curve first, it’ll just get much worse over time. *sad face*

Fixing my back, First post.

Last Tuesday I really hurt my back doing something that usually is a breeze for me, back squats. The fragility of my back has been getting worse lately and Crossfit doesn’t seem to be helping much. So today I visited a massage therapist recommended to me by a friend. The difference with David Dressler (RMT) is that he really focuses on looking at the root cause of the problem.

Anyways this is a summary of the things we found out:

1. My back is all twisted up, there are various places (will get more information on what section next week) that are curved
2. My lower back has a big twist in it, which is the reason why I can’t do a deadlift. My trainer says my lower back looks like it is seized, that’s why I can’t dead lift safely. Turns out it is because of of the disks is twisted and it doesn’t bend there. Hmm…
3. There is a twist in my hip so my left leg is shorter by about a quarter to half an inch than my right leg. This apparently is the root cause of the problems in my back. Since my hips are not level, when I lift, my back is not straight. The body naturally tries to keep the head level so in order to do that the spine forms into an S.
4. The muscles are now unbalanced so one side is stronger / weaker than the other. This further worsens the imbalance.

So what to do…

1. I need to deadlift less weight, and if I do deadlift, switch my grip. I usually have an left underhand, right overhand grip. I should change that, and do double on the other side to work on the imbalance.
2. Keep a journal of all work outs to see how they are affecting my back. Keep a record of all massage therapy sessions to see what kind of progress we’re making. I’ll use this blog, recording the work out, and observations of any pain or back aggrevation I felt.
3. Stretch and be more aware of the pain I’m feeling
4. Do exercises that strengthen the symmetry, watch out for imbalances.

What was interesting:

1. At one point the massage therapist put wedges at different locations under my hips. This realigned and straightened them correctly. I can’t even describe the feeling, it was like low pain for 20 years just went away, and there was clarity… like getting glasses.
2. Take care of yourself. It has been extremely frustrating not being able to make advances and even losing some gains at Crossfit. I hate making excuses, but sometimes a different approach and opinion helps. Listen to your body. There is a certain amount of pain, but not chronic pain. Ultimately you have to be your own best guide to what your body can take and what you need. Take expert opinions with some skepticism.

Even though today’s massage session was agonizing and not enjoyable it was very helpful. My massage session is on Friday and I’ll have a week of Crossfit before that. That’ll give me some time to find workouts that helps improve symmetry.

Dec 17, 2008

Diet was mediocre today… well it was down right terrible by Zone standards. Breakfast: 2 eggs, some chicken, some spam (mmm) and a slice of toast.

Lunch: Sante Fe Chicken salad @ Earls (extra chicken + avocado). In the future I gotta order this with just extra avocado, twice the chicken too much.

Dinner, some beef stew that dad made. Good! I also rotisseried a chicken with the new counter top oven. Oh it came out awesome. Tastier and jucier than chickens from Safeway. I gotta wait for there to be a sale on chickens and roast some more. This weekend I’m planning to roast a lamb leg… I’m drooling already.

I ate a few cookies and a peanut butter chocolate ball. Janet our neighbor was also baking up a storm of sweets for X-Mas. Pretty good, a little too sweet for my likes. But still tasty. I’m trying to have self-control! I really am! *not*

No Crossfit today. Tomorrow there’s quite a work out.

Dec 16, 2008 – Nasty Girls

Diet was ok today. I ate an ok breakfast. 2 eggs, some cheese and the last of wraps. Lunch was a simple omelet. Two eggs, 1/2 an avocado and some seeded, chopped tomatoes. Dinner after Crossfit was a chicken and some fruit. I was way too lazy to cook. Today’s Safeway chicken was good.

Work out:

Nasty Girls – 21:51 (terrible time).

I couldn’t do the muscle ups, so I subbed for pull ups / ring dips instead. So it worked out to 3 rounds of:

• 50 squat
• 21 pull ups, 21 ring dips
• 135lb hang power cleans

Fell off the Wagon… and it ran over me.

After coming back from vacation and dealing with a rush of work, it was easy to fall off the wagon. At least I’m done all of those damn burpees now. Lately I feel like all I’ve really been doing is making excuses about not sticking to things.

However, health and fitness is a renewable resource and tomorrow is another day. It is amazingly easy to get off track and here are my reasons and things to watch out for:

1. Keep a rhythm. Going away for 2 weeks, having nothing really to eat except for rice, noodles and other yummy foods really affected my good eating.
2. Stick to a plan. I stopped planning out my meals and I haven’t really measured anything.
3. Be vigilant. I’ve gotten complacent.

Well time to get back on the wagon.  I have to admit that I fear quitting Crossfit, about slowly letting motivation and ambition die out. I gotta remember rule #3, complacency is such a danger.

I feel a mixture of disappointment and despair at how bad things have gotten. Anyways, enough of the sob story… this is how to get back on the wagon and get back into shape.

1. Eating plan. Zone works, I hate all the measuring but it works. The biggest challenge is to making sure to have the right foods convenient. I still need to develop a system that works.
2. Crossfit, and fitness. I realize where my weak points are, well pretty much everywhere. I need to go more, however, I want to focus on strength and skills.

When I did my strength progressions (pavels) and went 4 days a week I saw so much improvement. It was measureable. When I stopped going 4 days a week, stopped doing Pavels things dropped off sharply. My trainer was definitely right about “getting laid” is affecting my Crossfit attendance.

Anyways this is a just a back into it blog post. I’ll be blogging more about my progression. On a bright side, at least getting back into it, or the journey, gives me stuff to blog about.