I feel like I'm joining the ranks of nagging pain sufferers. Throughout the day I find myself wondering things like, could it be my mattress? am I sitting too much at work? this or that exercise? picking up the kids? weak abs? abs too strong? In reality it could be a bit of all these things to varying degrees. I wish there was a simple thing I could "fix" to make it all better. One thing I am starting to suspect is that exercise mainly helps.
Oh, and another thing, sort of a "duh" moment. I need to lose weight. I am carrying around an extra 40 pounds and that has to be hard on my back. I think it was all the thinking about the back pain and what I could do to fix it that led me to realize losing the excess weight will help a lot.
So I went to the gym on Sunday. I was doing Week 6/Day 2, two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute break in between. I dreaded the treadmill so I almost immediately decided to run outside. I ran outside and man, it was hot! At one point I decided to go up a hill, whew, that was a challenge. I meant to take my garmin and wear it during the run so I could see what my pace was but I forgot. Hopefully for my next run, a "long" run, I will remember it. After the run I did back and biceps. None of the exercises were particularly painful for my lower back but I did do more stretching than normal between exercises. The stretching actually felt really good. I did the five minutes of stairs. I was feeling strong so I upped the pace to 50 steps per minute. After 2.5 minutes I dropped it down to 45 steps per minute. I left the gym feeling pretty good and I was glad my back was holding up.
Today, Monday, I went to the gym and did 25 minutes on the bike, followed by chest and triceps. My back felt pretty good throughout. It's still hurting a fair amount during the day but getting better each day. I really believe that if I didn't go back to the gym when I did my back would have gotten worse and worse. I don't know what the answer is but I'm pretty sure inactivity isn't it.
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Yeah, I agree, exercising AND losing weight will help your back. I always look at each 20 pounds of excess weight as carrying a big bag of rice around everywhere. No wonder parts of our bodies hurt more. Just work on pouring grains of rice out and it'll get better. Yep, that's what I believe, now just have to do what you're doing on an every day basis. Thanks for the inspiration, sister
ReplyDeleteyep yep yep, what Kristy said! Keep up the consistent work, I hope the back gets its act together soon!
ReplyDeleteI've had that same revelation, too. ;) I never thought exercise would help lessen or eliminate some of the issues I had.
ReplyDeleteKeep on going, Michelle. You're doing great!