Thanks to everyone who wrote back. I've absolutely been flooded with responses that have been really helpful. The collective advice appears to be, and my very short experimentation appears to confirm, that regular movement and strength training are the most important ways to recover from persistent back pain. In my case, Yoga once or twice a week with lifting at the gym twice a week is providing significant relief. I've really been amazed at how I feel the next few days after a Yoga session, and even more surprised at feeling better after a lifting session. For example, last night I did the following lifting routine:
1. 2 sets of 15 deadlifts 2. 2 sets of 15 static lunges 3. 2 sets of 15 dumbbell row (elbows out) 4. 2 sets of 17 pushups 5. 2 sets of 20 stability ball crunch I'm sore today, but no back/neck pain. The tell-tale sign was getting out of bed and not feeling like I'm going to throw out my back. A lot of people mentioned hating the gym. I'm right there with you. I've hated the gym because I felt like I never knew what to do to get results or measure progress, which leads to the gym being something of a Sisyphean task -- time to push the nautilus machine up the mountain! -- instead of an interesting activity. Trainers never helped, either. They always give me the impression that they're there to take my money, not educate me. More nautilus pushing! That recently changed for me when I picked up the book, The New Rules of Lifting (for men). The book has a year of lifting routines that help you know what the heck to do in the gym, and has an athlete/practical strength focus. The routine above is one of two of the break-in routines for lifting newbs. I highly recommend it, especially to folks in our field with back pain or other physical/health ailments. Now, if only I could get sone of those standing desks... Gil -- Gilbert Wilson http://www.boyonwheels.org _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
