whew...... 60 minutes at level 10...... I wanted to both throw up and quit to lay down on the floor.
Usually when I'm in the gym I try to maintain a certain decorum. I think by the end of today's workout my mouth was hanging open and I didn't care what I looked like....
Damn good workout though!
Chiropractor visits continue. Jury is still out...
Training Continues hard! I'm looking forward to some hiking in the near future. I'm looking for a weekend in the next couple weeks where I can head out to Palm Springs for a quick stroll up San Jacinto... It's only about 6000 feet to the tram station... We did it last October. I remember it hurting...
Make it far, Make it high, Make it hard...
9.26.2007
9.19.2007
The Chiropractor
So first point if business - training does continue. In fact on Saturday I had a fairly epic leg day that left me sore for a couple days. Okay... that continues...
So, as I've mentioned before I have been suffering lower back pain for quite some time. Some additional back and neck issues I've encountered: Middle back pain that can cause me to walk "Crooked" ie tilted to one side; EXTREME neck pain during my Rainier climb that I blamed on wearing a helmet and headlamp for 8+ hours; I have long assumed my back pain was related to Sciatica, however I've never had pain go down into my legs or have them fall asleep.
I have tried for years, and constantly for the last 6 to 8 months, to combat this condition with ab. and core training and stretching. It has not gotten better and I am in constant pain. Some days are better than others.
I was recently referred to a Chiropractor by an associate. I held the business card for several weeks not really feeling the need to go, nor enough faith in the practice to go. Yesterday I went. I guess enduring 6 months of constant, sometimes considerable, pain is quite a statement on my opinion of Chiropractic Medicine. The doctor spent time asking me why I was there, exploring the possibility of injury as far back as I could remember. He felt any seemingly minor issue was important. I told him all I could remember, a car accident when I was 8, falling off a slide from 8 feet onto my head when I was about 9, and other various bumps and falls. We talked about my sports and activity history. He was quite surprised that I have been able to climb mountains, play golf, go hiking, and generally stay active with the constant pain I've had. I thought at one point his thought process was along the lines of "What an idiot!"
However the interview went smoothly and was comprehensive. Then he used some sensors to measure, resistance? Impedance?, at various points along my spine. I was expecting to see what ever negative measurements this thing would show to be in my lower back and I expected it to say I was nearly crippled and should go find Traction right now!
To my surprise it showed substantial misalignments in my NECK! Some misalignments elsewhere along my spine too but by far the biggest issues were in my neck. To say the least I was skeptical of this voodoo. We talked about these results, then went on to full frontal and side xrays. To be certain it was me I made sure my earring showed up in the pictures... Interestingly the pictures seemed to back up the sensor results. The curvature that is supposed to be in the Cervical Spine (Neck) wasn't there. The Cervical Spine should curve from the base of the head forward. Mine goes straight. This places my head an inch or more forward of where it should normally be. In addition to that my Thoracic and Lumbar spine curves to the left a bit causing my pelvis to also be a bit crooked.
What does this do? Two things. First, I'm carrying the weight of roughly a bowling ball an inch or more forward of it's normal balance point. In general your head should be balanced on top of your spine. With mine not balanced my body has to make up for that with muscle use. In my case my lower back is being called on to counter this off-balance-ness straining it. Further, the slight curving of my spine to the left causes me discomfort in the muscles along the left side of my spine. The sections of out-of-alignment are called Subluxations. Strangely the pictures match what I am feeling. That's all well and good but I already knew SOMETHING was wrong, at least now I feel I know what that is. However I am looking for solutions, not blame. An important point to make is that my spine simply is out of alignment, I don't have any bone spurs or excessive compression leading to vertebra fusions.
The next step in this process is an "Adjustment". I was prepared for something complex and painful whereby the Doc would contort me in odd, and potentially painful, ways in an effort to straighten, or in the case of my neck bend, my spine back into a normal healthy position. To say the least I was nervous...
I sat in what looked like a massage chair and waited. The doc told me there would be some tapping. And that's just what it was. He placed a tool on various points along my spine and the tool, like a mini/mild jackhammer, tapped me. It was neither painful or uncomfortable, nor did I have any faith at all that this laughable tapping was going to do anything to me. The doc has me do some movements while from time to time he checked my ability to squeeze my thumb and pinky together. Sometimes he could pull my fingers apart and sometimes he couldn't. When he could separate my fingers he'd give me some more tapping and then my fingers would stay together. A quite strange sensation let me say... But it was something I could definitely see and feel.
When he was done I didn't feel any different but he told me later if I felt any pain or discomfort to treat it with ice. He said my muscles and connective tissue want to stay the way they are so they might complain a bit post adjustment. I thanked him and left his office thinking "Yeah, whatever you nutjob kook..." I then went to the Padres game to watch them whoop the Pirates.
About midway through the game, 2 to 3 hours after my adjustment, my neck and upper back began to get sore. I sat through the game and went home to put ice on my back. It felt weird. After that I went to bed and slept the entire night. Something I haven't done in a while because I constantly have to roll over when I get sore in one position.
When I woke up this morning I won't say I was pain free but I certainly feel different. I'm still sore in my neck, but my lower back feels different. A bit more relaxed maybe, and maybe a little stronger. It's hard to quantify but I definitely feel like something has changed in there. I'm thinking to myself, Hmmmm, maybe that tapping wasn't so laughable after all... I am more full of hope now than anything but this is certainly an interesting experience.
Now the doc wants me to come back today and Friday for additional adjustments because he says my body will try to go back to where it was. This makes perfect sense to me so I'll be going back. I agree with him that over time my body will remember where it's supposed to be and become stable again. When that happens I may need hte occasional adjustments less frequently. He doesn't have a concrete plan until he sees how my body reacts to this process.
For now I'm hopeful and excited. If this nutjob kook can get me pain-free I might just kiss him... :)
So, as I've mentioned before I have been suffering lower back pain for quite some time. Some additional back and neck issues I've encountered: Middle back pain that can cause me to walk "Crooked" ie tilted to one side; EXTREME neck pain during my Rainier climb that I blamed on wearing a helmet and headlamp for 8+ hours; I have long assumed my back pain was related to Sciatica, however I've never had pain go down into my legs or have them fall asleep.
I have tried for years, and constantly for the last 6 to 8 months, to combat this condition with ab. and core training and stretching. It has not gotten better and I am in constant pain. Some days are better than others.
I was recently referred to a Chiropractor by an associate. I held the business card for several weeks not really feeling the need to go, nor enough faith in the practice to go. Yesterday I went. I guess enduring 6 months of constant, sometimes considerable, pain is quite a statement on my opinion of Chiropractic Medicine. The doctor spent time asking me why I was there, exploring the possibility of injury as far back as I could remember. He felt any seemingly minor issue was important. I told him all I could remember, a car accident when I was 8, falling off a slide from 8 feet onto my head when I was about 9, and other various bumps and falls. We talked about my sports and activity history. He was quite surprised that I have been able to climb mountains, play golf, go hiking, and generally stay active with the constant pain I've had. I thought at one point his thought process was along the lines of "What an idiot!"
However the interview went smoothly and was comprehensive. Then he used some sensors to measure, resistance? Impedance?, at various points along my spine. I was expecting to see what ever negative measurements this thing would show to be in my lower back and I expected it to say I was nearly crippled and should go find Traction right now!
To my surprise it showed substantial misalignments in my NECK! Some misalignments elsewhere along my spine too but by far the biggest issues were in my neck. To say the least I was skeptical of this voodoo. We talked about these results, then went on to full frontal and side xrays. To be certain it was me I made sure my earring showed up in the pictures... Interestingly the pictures seemed to back up the sensor results. The curvature that is supposed to be in the Cervical Spine (Neck) wasn't there. The Cervical Spine should curve from the base of the head forward. Mine goes straight. This places my head an inch or more forward of where it should normally be. In addition to that my Thoracic and Lumbar spine curves to the left a bit causing my pelvis to also be a bit crooked.
What does this do? Two things. First, I'm carrying the weight of roughly a bowling ball an inch or more forward of it's normal balance point. In general your head should be balanced on top of your spine. With mine not balanced my body has to make up for that with muscle use. In my case my lower back is being called on to counter this off-balance-ness straining it. Further, the slight curving of my spine to the left causes me discomfort in the muscles along the left side of my spine. The sections of out-of-alignment are called Subluxations. Strangely the pictures match what I am feeling. That's all well and good but I already knew SOMETHING was wrong, at least now I feel I know what that is. However I am looking for solutions, not blame. An important point to make is that my spine simply is out of alignment, I don't have any bone spurs or excessive compression leading to vertebra fusions.
The next step in this process is an "Adjustment". I was prepared for something complex and painful whereby the Doc would contort me in odd, and potentially painful, ways in an effort to straighten, or in the case of my neck bend, my spine back into a normal healthy position. To say the least I was nervous...
I sat in what looked like a massage chair and waited. The doc told me there would be some tapping. And that's just what it was. He placed a tool on various points along my spine and the tool, like a mini/mild jackhammer, tapped me. It was neither painful or uncomfortable, nor did I have any faith at all that this laughable tapping was going to do anything to me. The doc has me do some movements while from time to time he checked my ability to squeeze my thumb and pinky together. Sometimes he could pull my fingers apart and sometimes he couldn't. When he could separate my fingers he'd give me some more tapping and then my fingers would stay together. A quite strange sensation let me say... But it was something I could definitely see and feel.
When he was done I didn't feel any different but he told me later if I felt any pain or discomfort to treat it with ice. He said my muscles and connective tissue want to stay the way they are so they might complain a bit post adjustment. I thanked him and left his office thinking "Yeah, whatever you nutjob kook..." I then went to the Padres game to watch them whoop the Pirates.
About midway through the game, 2 to 3 hours after my adjustment, my neck and upper back began to get sore. I sat through the game and went home to put ice on my back. It felt weird. After that I went to bed and slept the entire night. Something I haven't done in a while because I constantly have to roll over when I get sore in one position.
When I woke up this morning I won't say I was pain free but I certainly feel different. I'm still sore in my neck, but my lower back feels different. A bit more relaxed maybe, and maybe a little stronger. It's hard to quantify but I definitely feel like something has changed in there. I'm thinking to myself, Hmmmm, maybe that tapping wasn't so laughable after all... I am more full of hope now than anything but this is certainly an interesting experience.
Now the doc wants me to come back today and Friday for additional adjustments because he says my body will try to go back to where it was. This makes perfect sense to me so I'll be going back. I agree with him that over time my body will remember where it's supposed to be and become stable again. When that happens I may need hte occasional adjustments less frequently. He doesn't have a concrete plan until he sees how my body reacts to this process.
For now I'm hopeful and excited. If this nutjob kook can get me pain-free I might just kiss him... :)
9.10.2007
Okay! Lots of news!
It's been a while but don't think I haven't been keeping up with my training! Training is progressing nicely. Had to run out to Dallas this weekend and ended up drinking way too much and eating even more but a good time was had by all. And if it weren't for United Airlines screwing things up it would have been a perfect weekend....
But the latest news is three-fold!
1: I'm fully geared out! Well, there are probably a couple thing's I'll pick up before November but as far as on mountain gear, I'm geared out! It was a fun visit to REI...
2: I'm fully paid for the trip with RMI, got confirmation today!
3: I am airline ticketed! So yes, it's been a fairly expensive couple of weeks...
Feeling good and about the only official things I have left are to train, train and train, and also send in my medical releases and permissions to RMI!
That's all for now,
See you at the Gym!
But the latest news is three-fold!
1: I'm fully geared out! Well, there are probably a couple thing's I'll pick up before November but as far as on mountain gear, I'm geared out! It was a fun visit to REI...
2: I'm fully paid for the trip with RMI, got confirmation today!
3: I am airline ticketed! So yes, it's been a fairly expensive couple of weeks...
Feeling good and about the only official things I have left are to train, train and train, and also send in my medical releases and permissions to RMI!
That's all for now,
See you at the Gym!
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