Blog on the Lillypad
Sunday, June 27, 2004
 | Back to the Gym
The last time I threw out my back was about January 19, 2004. It came after six weeks of Phase One weight lifting (four basic exercises per session). Perhaps because I had been strengthening my back, the most recent back crisis was not as severe as the previous three had been. But it was still the fourth time in a year and a half I had thrown it out. |
As before, I used the recovery time to experiment with more means of limiting inflammation in my back. Many people have their backs "go out," and yet they do not experience the radiating back pain that those of us with "bad backs" experience. I had been seeing a chiropractor for years, and once a chiropractor told me he didn't know why I wasn't experiencing pain in my right hip and right lower back. But I didn't develop painful back trouble until I was in my forties. Oh happy decade!
I had already experimented with fasting and had limited the back pain that way. This last time, instead of short interval fasting, I made a lifestyle change of eating fewer meals and drinking more fluids for calories and nutrients. Carrot juice became a mainstay, as well as soy milk.
I gave myself several months before going back to the gym. Once upon a time in my life, I would spend three hours in a gym four or five times a week. Now, I have two drawers in my spare room filled with unused gym clothes and pulse monitors, hand wraps, gloves, etc. I don't like to look at then because I miss my old life, but I know perfectly well that over training had a lot to do with some of my back trouble, and over training hinders recuperation tremendously.
But as the weeks went by and the back seemed to stabilize, I started to make plans to return by June 1. I went into Phase One again: a warm up of 15 minutes on an elliptical trainer, a lot of stretching, and four basic weight exercises that are easy on the back and yet strengthen it (roman chair, mid lat pulls, high lat pulls, and Smith Machine squats). I did this routine three times a week.
| And now, I've discovered a training aid that has made a huge difference in my back and its ability to handle a normal life: the exercise balls. Oh how I have come to love those exercise balls! Most people do crunches on them, but I lie on them and, with my feet on the floor, let myself roll back as far as I can go, stretching my back in an arch. It's incredible. I combine the exercise ball stretches with other stretches from my chiropractor, and at last it seems I have found the right mix. |  |
After four weeks on the Phase One program (three times a week), I have decided that I am now ready to increase to five exercises per session, and I plan to go into what is called a "two day split". That means on Day One, I exercise one or more muscle groups, and the next day, I exercise different muscle groups, then rest completely for a day, then repeat the two day split.
This past Saturday, I did five exercises (interspersing back stretches between each). I did lunges, which are incredibly difficult for me because my body is uneven in the way it supports itself (owing to the curve in my spine), Smith machine squats, chest presses, shoulder press, and rhomboid rows.
During the lunges, my left leg gave out on me, and I fell right over. I have always felt a certain stress in my left leg when I do lunges with the left leg forward. It's always been weak (though not this weak). I felt the muscles in the extreme right glute spasm in perfect time with part of my left quadricep, and then both abruptly stopped supporting me, and I fell over. I think that because of the "S" in my spine, the weight distribution is uneven. I don't hold myself up by equal effort of all muscles. And in certain stances, the stabilizers most crippled by the "S" become most stressed and then give out.
They can be built up. And certainly, as a woman approaching middle age, I need to build them up. In old age, a woman who has not built up her weakest stabilizing muscles will surely suffer falls and broken bones. I don't wish to be an invalid, and so strengthening is becoming a higher priority, passing the old goal of simply losing/controlling weight.
But the whole gym experience: feeling my body heat up and get looser, breaking into a sweat (which always feels purifying to me), leaving behind the cares of the day, and focusing on the quiet, austere challenge to lift the weight one more time with good form, all act like a rejuvenator to me. The stretches between each exercise slowly loosened my back and drew out the aches and stiffness. The gym I use has a quiet, focused clientele, many in middle age or older, with a diversity of Caucasion and African American patrons. A good gym is a classless society where everybody is polite, willing to lend a hand, able to advise, and yet mostly interested in minding his or her own business and doing what he or she has set out to do. It's humanity in harmony. After all, we all dress in rags, really. The days of spandex leotards are either over or are restricted to the pricier gyms. At Fitness and Beyond in Durham, shapeless cotton t-shirts and loose cotton shorts or trousers predominate.
Today, my quadriceps (the muscles in the front of your thighs) are raging, and my shoulders feel a littel tight. Tomorrow will be worse. It's like welcoming an old friend.
But Thursday, after a year of resisting the idea, I am scheduled to start a power yoga class with a semi-private instructor to work on strengthening "core" muscles that support the lower spine, and also loosen up the back. The instructor has gotten rave reviews, and her emphasis is the physical side of yoga. There's no philosophy attached except for a body conditioning philosophy that results are achieved by patience and consistency. Many martial artists resist the idea of yoga because its open passivity seems counter-productive to martial training. But students of this instructor report much better strength, as well as regaining flexibility and range of motion they thought they had lostyears ago. Hence, its appeal to me.
