Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cdninkorea]

When I was in university, I was doing the typical lift-lots-of-weight-but-don't-stretch thing that alot of guys do, and my hamstrings got really tight. So much so that I could only come within a few inches of touching my toes, even when warmed up.
This caught up to me, and one day while playing squah, I popped a disc in my back (it turns out the tight hamstrings curved my spine, putting pressure on the discs).
Months of physiotherapy and rest and my back was better. Since then I've maintain a respectable level of flexibility and always use good form when lifting. The problem has never come back.

Until today: it's been about four years, and today, while washing the dishes (hardly strenuous work), I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my spine that felt like an electric shock. I feel really stiff now and standing up out of a chair and bending over to pick something up off the ground hurts. I made a doctor's appointment, and so hopefully he'll tell me what's up.

I am by no means coming to Dave's for medical advice, but if anyone has any stories regarding back problems (whether they relate to my story or not), I'd like to read about them.

[Juregen]

Same here, but mostly a result of carrying my kid around .

Stopped doing that and picked up swimming to improve overall health issue.

Swimming is good for training the muscles without stress on the bone structure.

[Pa Jan Jo A Hamnida]

Had back troubles when I was younger but my recent woes are from a car accident 3 years ago. A truck rear-ended my car and I received a closed concussion, soft tissue damage to my neck, back and shoulders as well as a tilted pelvis. Glad I took the painkillers before I wrote that last sentence. Anyway, physio does help along with the stretches and especially acupuncture.

[Jeff's Cigarettes]

When doing legs I stretch after every rotation.

[D.D.]

I am a Chiropractor who teaches English as I like traveling around and Chiropractic is so regulated that you need to write exams in each country now.

So I can put in my two cents here. The nervous system( brain and spinal cord) is the control system of the body.

Nerves tell muscles what to do and muscles move bones. Most Chiropractors put a force into bones to try and take pressureof the nervous system - what really happens is far too complicated to explain.

I will try to explain why you get problems and what to do. Modern research shows that your brain and spinal cord stretch slighltly when you encounter stresses ( physical, chemical , emotional). Each year if you add more stress than you take off your spinal cord stretches more.

Eventually your body will blow out a disc to take pressure off your nervous system or you will change your posture to eliminate pressure.

Or you will get symptoms to tell you to make changes.


Most people don't listen to their symptoms and keep on stressing their body year after year.


Eventually it gets so tight that one day you think you pulled it or put it out.


It was an accumulation of stress not a once off incident.


Best advice if your body is giving you stress is to make some big lifestyle changes.

After a while you will notice physical improvements.


One reason I don't practice Chiropratic is modern patients just want quick fixes. They want to do maximum stress to their bodies and make no changes. They expect the doc to fix them or to mask the symptoms with drugs.



IF YOUR BODY IS GIVING YOU GRIEF IT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE LOSING FLEXIBLITY IN YOUR BODY BECAUSE YOUR SPINAL CORD IS GOING INTO A DEFENSIVE POSTION BECAUSE OF TOO MUCH STRESS THAT YOUR BODY CAN'T DEAL WITH.

THERE IS NO QUICK FIX- YOUR BODY IS TALKING TO YOU AND THE MESSAGE IS MAKE CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE.


IF THERE IS SHOOTING PAINS IN YOUR LOWER BACK YOUR BODY IS YELLING AT YOU TO MAKE CHANGES.



Here are some free changes you can make.

1. Don't work too much.
2. Spend time doing things you like doing.
3. Drink less than 6 drinks every two weeks.
4. Couple of smokes max a day.
5. have more sex.
6. Meditate.
7. Do tai Chi
8. walk.
9. Don't do heavy exercise.
10. read books about improving yourself.
11. listen to relaxing music.
12. go for massages
13. swim.
14. stay away from yoga
15 physios dont know what they are doing stay away.
16 don't take drugs to mask your symptoms.
17. learn to feel instead of distracting yourself with substances and with being busy.
18 don't define yourself by being busy but by how relaxed you can become.
19. don't look for someone to fix you.
20 watch funny movies.
21. learn to not surpress your emotions ( emotions are energy in motion and most guys sadly have never learned how to let they move)
22. take gentle martial art form classes.


Free advice but I am sure there will be some people who think they know more than a well trained professional.


Most of all is your back is really hurting- your life is really hurting and needs changes.

Many men suffer emotional lower back pain when they are under financial constraints as well.

[Underwaterbob]

In grade five I was running towards the high jump and the kids screaming me on were louder than the spotters telling me to stop because the mats were apart. I landed on my back on solid ground after jumping as high in the air as I could. After a quick ambulance trip to the hospital, I couldn't stand up for two weeks. I think since I was still growing (didn't stop until I was 21) it's mostly fine now, but occasionally aches a bit.

[Captain Corea]

6 years ago I was doing "Superman's" (a forward lunge with your heels planted under something... so you use your Hams to pull you back) and I damaged my back. Years on now I've found that I've got a herniated disk that seems determined not to go away permanently. For months it'll be ok, then after some type of exertion (Costco or something), I start to get a pain down my leg and then near debilitating lower back pain.

A week or more of therapy will usually put me back in the mix - but it never seems to be 100% better.

OP, consider going to a clinic for therapy here - I've found they help at least calm the situation.

[D.D.]

[cdninkorea]

D.D.: Thank you for your advice. What you're saying makes alot of sense. I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions:

I am NOT looking for a quick fix; I want to be mobile and strong well into old age, and that takes a lifetime of healthy choices.

I don't (think?) I work too much, don't drink, don't smoke, and I eat clean (lots of veggies, berries, nuts, whole grains and a little meat). My exercise routine revolves around sprinting (100 m, 400 m, and hill sprints) and lifting heavy on lifts like deadlifts, squats, shoulder press, etc., as well as bodyweight exercises like pullups, dips, etc.

I always have lots of energy, am happy, and get 8 hours of sleep every night, so those can't be responsible. It seems likely to me that it's the exercise. But, and as this is my most important question to you, I'll highlight it: Isn't hard exercise supposed to be healthy? My form is impeccable, so that can't be the culprit. I take weekends off training, so it's not as if I'm never letting my body recover.

Also, not that I'm necessarily an advocate of either, but what's wrong with physiotherapists and yoga?

[michaelambling]

[Hanson]

I'm 6'3" and I have chronic problems with 3 discs in my lower back that started in my early 20's. I took a CT Scan a few years ago, and you can clearly see three discs in my spine that look like irregular blobs as opposed to nicely rounded oval shapes.

Every once in a while, sometimes a year apart, sometimes a few months apart, I throw my back out, usually by doing something mundane like sneezing, reaching for something, or carrying my daughter.

The advice given to me has been varied over the years, but the one piece of advice that seems to permeate all others is for me to improve my abdominal muscles. Which I don't do.

I no longer do sports or exercise of any kind now, for fear of throwing my back out. I do walk a lot, but that's about all the effort I'm willing to put into it. There's no way I'm going to a gym - blech!!!

So I've just come to expect/accept that I'll walk like an old man and be in some measure of pain every few months. Such is life.

I like D.D.'s advice even though I don't generally trust or understand anything about Chiropractic therapy.

[gazz]

Swimming is awsome for this kind of problem. When you are in the water you cannot but be in the correct posture + it is v low impact on your joints.

[Omkara]

One thing I've learned is to not automatically think that my back problems are merely mechanical. Stresses in the body build in many forms: emotional, environmental, dietary, and then physical.

When the body is stressed, the balance of muscular patterns, owing to nervous patterns, change. Some muscles tighten, hold; others compensate. owing to the primary and unconscious stresses, physical stresses eventually manifest, often dramatically.

My simple advice for you would be to lessen stresses in all categories. This will sound lame, but simplify your diet. Only eat when you are hungry. Don't eat too much meat or processed foods. Try to eat raw foods: salads, nuts, etc. Don't eat too soon before you go to bed. (I have been learning much about this lately. I make the suggestion so that you may begin to look at the connection between the digestive system and nervous patterns. I have been floored to find that what i was attributing to joints, etc, were directly connected to what I thought were good eating habits. Notice your bowel movements. Are they daily? If not, learn to make them naturally so. I know how bad back pain can be. Take this advice seriously.)

Find ways to relax your mind. Unconscious stress is unconscious. Find some way to relax daily. . .and deeply. . .


If it is safe for you to walk, this is the best physical activity you can do. Make this perhaps your de-stressor.

Here is a title of a book that helped me to begin to form my general outlook on backpain. The thing I got from it was about my mental attitude toward my pain. That was worth volumes of theory.

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Naturally-Mind-Body/dp/0743424646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235905635&sr=1-1


I do recommend yoga, practiced intelligently. It has been a major component in my approach to my back problems.

Also, look into the form of massage called Rolfing. There is a practitioner in Seoul.

[Omkara]

http://www.rolfguild.org/aboutsi.html

[D.D.]

Omkara sorry to say if therapies were music players- Rolfing would be an 8 track. That's what I hated about my job because everyone gives advice based on little knowledge.

What you said about relaxing is good. Some therapies like yoga and Rolfing just move the tension to where it cant be detected and it actually ends up causing more troubles.

It takes years to understand the process and you should hold back on advice until you do.