The Last Week-And-A-Half
Woke up a week and a half ago on a lovely Thursday morning 3 days before the CRASH-B’s with a resurgence of the back / hip issue that has plagued me for years. Possibly the result of hip extension / box jump workout of Wednesday (insufficient warm-up?) but strange because I feel like I’ve done many more reps of those exercises without suffering any ill effect in the past.
So, once again, cause of back issue remains a mystery. Over the years I have blamed it on:
- Running a 1/2 marathon with insufficient training
- Over-forward-stretching in yoga
- Deadlifting heavy on consecutive days
- Puking too forcefully into a trash can that was too high for comfort in the 86th Street subway station
…that I can remember.
Impinged nerve? Muscle spasm? I have no idea, but without fail I experience a super, super tight lower back (can’t round back or really extend it much – this makes putting on shoes really hard!) Retrieving things from the floor requires contorting entire body / coming all the way forward onto tiptoes / reaching sideways. And the best part: when back and hip pass through certain orientations, sharp pain and sudden failure of leg muscles to work, generally resulting in half-falling-over. This is especially awesome when it’s not expected, such as when getting out of bed!
Inactivity makes everything worse. Sitting in chair worst of all, lying not much better. However, activity is difficult since mobility is limited. So, I basically spent Thursday and Friday resting in various uncomfortable positions. In retrospect I should have attempted to move more.
Ibuprofen produces a marked improvement, so Saturday, especially for the CRASH-B’s, I ingested a large quantity of it, which made it possible to row a surprisingly respectable 2K — the only workout I have completed in the past week-point-five.
2K row – 7:31.0
Generally this thing works itself out in a couple of weeks. Always too fast to get a doctor’s appointment before I feel normal again. Really hoping to be back to workouts soon. So annoyed to have missed all the awesome ones in the last week.
Will also be adhering back rehab program much more stringently. Rack pulls, hip extensions, and reverse hypers here I come!
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