Holy Back Spasm, Batman

[rebeccmeister]

So, yeah. This is the first time I've ever completely blown out my back. I credit rowing and the accompanying core/back strengthening regimes for getting me this far in life before having any such serious problems.

Yesterday was pretty much entirely acute spasms. If I concentrated extremely hard and held onto things, I could sometimes take baby steps to get from the bedroom to the bathroom or kitchen. At other points I just resorted to crawling, and on multiple occasions I would start out walking, lose it, and have to fall to hands and knees.

I slept hard for the first half of the night, and when I woke up enough muscles had relaxed to the point where I could slowly walk unsupported to and from the bathroom.

Three years ago, when I was having trouble with my right leg and hamstring, my mom recommended Priscilla's Low Back Repair Kit. I figured it might come in handy, so I ordered a copy, but subsequently procrastinated on actually watching it. Well, now's the time to make up for that, and based on watching the first session, I'd give her work a strong positive recommendation. Time to consider some of her other stretching videos.

Priscilla's voice reminded me a little bit of Isabella Rossellini's voice in her Green Porno series (video series about different kinds of animal reproduction). Powerful and commanding; not a voice you ignore. I love it.

Gonna be another slow-motion day around here. So much for that haircut and those dinner plans. At least classes haven't started yet - can you imagine??

Comments

[ivy]

Oooh, sympathy. Back pain is horrible... I wish you the best of recoveries! I too do better when I'm doing my back stabilizing work; I was in a car accident in my 20s and I know the specter is lurking out there. Like Jaws.

[twoeleven]

Ow! Ow!Ow!Ow! Having done similar things in the past, you have all my sympathy. I now have a long set of stretching and strengthening exercises I do to keep that from happening again.

[randomdreams]

Wow, that sounds awful! Do you have any idea what triggered it?

In which I get dorky about three different forms of yoga

[altamira16]

I loved watching Priscilla's classes on PBS. Sometimes, I would just laugh and say "Oh...kay, you can do that, but I can't." On PBS, they go through a bunch of her videos 20 minutes at a time so hitting them midway through a difficult series without going through the previous ones is interesting because if you are just following the television, you are not warmed up enough to do some of the more complex things.

What did you do to your hamstrings?

Kaiut yoga sells itself as restoration yoga. I went to one class and was having difficulty with it because I was not getting the poses correct (they were not hard, but they were not ways that I normally carry my body), but one of the people at those classes said that she started doing it due to repetitive injuries caused by rowing.

The yoga class that I go to is supposed to be restorative and for reducing pain. She showed us a nice hamstring stretch that I appreciated on Tuesday.

Re: In which I get dorky about three different forms of yoga

[rebeccmeister]

Yay Priscilla! I started reflecting on how people used to record TV shows on VHS to watch later/over and over again - her PBS shows would be one of those things I'd record. I don't own a TV now, though, so I think I'll have to just content myself with ordering a couple more DVDs. I'm okay with giving money to a person/enterprise that does that kind of good.

Re hamstrings: I can just tell that my hamstrings are extra tight at the moment. I think this is partly a product of doing a really long bike ride without adequate training, and also partly a product of not doing adequate (any) stretching after bike commuting each day. I let exercise and stretching fall to the wayside while dealing with moving and getting set up out here in New York. Time to made amends.

So you know about CrossFit, right? I think my feelings about yoga may parallel my feelings about CrossFit: because each activity got really popular, there are a lot of people leading sessions in each activity, and the leaders can vary tremendously in expertise and ability. As a result, while yoga can be really great under skilled guidance, in many cases it's not so great.

I've been to a lot of sessions that have emphasized holding static forms in ways that I don't think wound up benefiting my body. I *do* appreciate stretching and movements that help with strength-building, and those often factor in to yoga poses. But often I'd rather have more of a directed stretching/breathing/strength session.