No not me!!

It is amazing how ones body adapts to a daily work-out. You would think after years of abuse that you would not be able to adjust so quickly. Your body is “forgiving”, it begins to adjust to your daily work-outs, to become more limber, stronger, and just all around healthier. I am not saying the first week didn’t have me in pain, I could barely sit with-out wincing from all the crunches, miles walked on the treadmill, etc. But I fought on I continued my daily work-out routine. I got to the point where I felt empty when I didn’t get to the gym (which was very seldom since I have a goal, and need to go to achieve this goal). I was at the point where there was nothing that could stop me I was on a role to complete change in my life. Then I decide to move some boxes that should have been moved months ago, my husband had them on his “list” to do. I moved them to the garage; I stacked them all and got them all out of the house. The next day I wake up and can barely walk….my back … my aching back! (Note: I had hurt my back years ago and periodically it goes out, but this was the worse it had been in a long time). Now when one has a lower back injury you can hardly do anything, walking hurts, sitting hurts, even laying down hurts. You look for the most comfortable position and stay that way, hoping and praying that the pain goes away. I took some ibuprofen (like 1000 milligrams) and lay in bed all day. I got up the next day and felt about 75% better, so I went to the gym and did my regular 90 minute to 2 hour work-out. I was doing sit ups on the exercise ball and felt a pull on my back, all I could think was oh shitake mushrooms, I did it again! I got up and stretched it out and walked on the treadmill for 10 minutes before leaving the gym, hoping that is all I needed to get beyond the pull from the sit-ups. That night I got home and rested on the couch, when I got up to go to bed I could barely stand. Man this sucked; I was in so much pain. I woke up in the middle of the night and dug through old medicine looking for anything to relieve the pain. I found some perkaset(sp?) that was at least 5 years old, I didn’t care I took one hoping I could sleep. I moved to the couch thinking it would be more comfortable it wasn’t. In the morning I called my trainer and told him I couldn’t work out because of my back. I went to the doctor and got 2 prescriptions (a muscle relaxer and pain pill) and they told me to take it easy for a few days. All I could think was when am I supposed to work out, not that I could have but still….this was killing me. I had the need to work out, I wanted to get better so I could work out. I missed 3 days of working out, on the 4th day I was sitting at home watching TV depressed that I couldn’t work out, I went on line and looked up exercises that I could do with lower back injury. They all said, swimming, walking and biking were good for lower back injury. They also said the worst thing was doing nothing. This was my answer, but I wanted to take it slow, the last thing I needed was a longer down time then a few days. So I got on my swimsuit and headed to the gym to swim, thank goodness 24 hour fitness has a pool. I swam for 30 minutes and sat in the Jacuzzi for another 15. I got home and felt better that at least I tried and hoped it would help my back get stronger. I woke up the next day with not as much pain, so I decided to go walk on the treadmill at the gym. I did it at 2.0-2.5 (I normally do 3.5-4.0) and walked for 20 minutes and road the bike for 15 minutes. I was on my way to a healthy back. I continued pushing myself, I worked out a little harder on Sunday and then with the trainer on Monday. I am almost back to my pace of workouts before my back went out. So don’t give up when you are down, do what you can and keep going!! Working out is the best!