Introducing my back

[back2back]

Firstly hello, I am new here.

I have experienced a range of lower back pain that started almost a year ago following a strain during paysical exercise that resulted in almost immediate stiffness and muscle spasm in my lower back.
The loss of flexibility eased when i performed certain stability exercises daily but i still suffer daily problems with pain emitting from my coccyx whenever i sit for any period of time.
I get very tight muscles around my lower back near my coccyx.
Frustration led me to the net and eventually to this site.
Much of what i read hear strikes me of a common sense approach based on focusing on your own unique body.
I really don't want to be pulled around as i have experienced the full effects of misdiagnosis in the past.


I am now 33 and have all the traits of poor posture over a number of years despite an active lifstyle(far less active post trauma)and would probably bennefit from losing several pounds now.

So I will shortly undertake RYB and will post on how things develop with I suspect some questions along the way.
Thanks

B2B

[Ron]

Hi B2B,

Welcome to the forum. Always glad to have some new members.

Keep us posted,
Ron

[back2back]

Thanks Ron,
All is going well ,I have stopped taking anti inflamitartary medication but i am still experiencing a degree of constant coccyx pain made worse by sitting in certain seated positions but for now i am just continuing with gental stability exercises as per RYB and gental stretching in the hope it will fade in time.
Still v positive as its really early days

[back2back]

Hi Guys,
Its bin just over a year since I hurt my back and only a few months since commencing RYB so here's the latest....

I am not cured yet, but am fast developing a much better picture of my personal problem and am maintaining a daily RYB program.
RYB has been going great with great results but I am not getting past a certain point despite being really diciplined not rushing things.

In short my lowerback just seams to remain what i can only describe as 'unstable'.Backward stetching continues to 'bite me' but varies with the degree of activity i have performed.
So a year on ,more out of interest than anything I arranged for an X-ray via my GP.
I was able to see the x-ray image on screen thanks to a very helpful radiologist and it would seem i may have suffered a stress fracture of the 'pars interarticularis' facet/s (the bone and joints that link your spine behind the vertebrae )a year ago that has caused one of my vertebrae to move out of line from the rest. This slip/shift or ' isthmic spondylolisthesis' as i understand it is known could be the reason why i remain unstable?
I am not too down hearted though as it was only just noicable (less than 25%) and disc material looked in good uniform shape. PMA!
I suspect an MRI may well better identify exactly what the damage and subsequent repair amounts to if it comes down to it but for now i will carry on with whats working and be led by my body.

Anyone else on here had this injury and can share their progress please?

[randolph]

Hi B2B

My copy of the latest Merck Manual (pg 329) says treatment for Stage I spondylolisthesis (such as you are suffering from) "is usually symptomatic, as for other causes of musculoskeletal low back pain" ... meaning (as best I can surmise) that the physical therapy you are trying now is a commonly used treatment, and presumably so, because it works.

It took me over a year of doing the cobra before it didn't bite me if I pushed it a bit too far. I don't know if that's typical or unusually slow. My measure for progress was to compare my strength and flexibility week-to-week. Some days I would go backwards ... but week-to-week, I almost always made steady progress ... though it took longer than I'd hoped at the beginning of my injuries to rehab back to normal. It was always reassuring to remember that while progress was slow, I was making steady forward progress ... and if I just kept plugging away ... I'd eventually rebuild my back ... which is in fact what happened to me.

Your injury is different than mine, however, so I hope others will chime in, especially if they've suffered from something similar to what you are recovering from. Unlike you, none of my vertebrae were injured.

Randolph

[back2back]

Thanks Rudolph,that sounds pretty positive which is good news for me.
I will not know for certain if i suffered a fracture untill further tests are conducted but upon reflection of the events leading to my origional trauma episode I can now understand why I injured my back and why it became so unstable.......

I was a very active person prior to my injury but TBH I can honestly say that core strengh was never really something that i addressed to any degree.
This is not good as I am quite a big guy, big up top and been 100kg for many years.(not particulary condusive to a heathy lower back!)

My injury was sustained under extreme circumstances but was progresive over a number of days.(i will explain)
I (now regretably) underwent a bootcamp style endurance programme over a 5 day period comprising of a lot of high impact high fatigue activities that resulted in my trauma episode.
I would not normally do this sort of thing but in short this was a Beachguard qualification and as such I gave it my all.

Its ok ,I can tell most people will read this and say 'Well what did you expct!'
But that is fine in heinsight but was never a consideration at the time given i had not suffered any problems when doing the same activities under less endrance circumstances.

I simply did not listen to my body and i can remember feeling unnaturally stiff at times and had great difficulty maintaining a comfotable posture when Kyaking in the seated position prior to the trauma.
Had i have listened to my body telling me in its own way that it was really struggling to hold my spine stable then things would never have gon bad.

When the trauma occurred it was immediatly obvious and I suspect that either something fractured or subtantiale muscle and ligament fatigue caused my spine to move out of range becomeing very unstable.
The resulting effects were immediate reactive stiffening that lasted at least a week by which time i was doing all i could to avoid using those damaged muscles.
The following weeks and months saw me mobilising where possible but NOT strengening those now wasting and overstretched core materials to any significat degree.

Sorry for being longwinded but wish i could share this with all the people out there who may end up in similar circumstances.
My bloodymindedness led to where i am cos i did not listen to my body!!

I will now continue the RYB programme but will try and vary my programme slightly to get my core as strong as possible without loading the vertibrae and see how that goes for the next month or so.

[back2back]

Its been just over 6 months since I last posted my progress.
i am extremely happy to report that I am finally on the mend.
I know it will never be perfect but i will stress a few things that have been instrumental in my rehabilitation and continuing progress.

I am now swimming 3 times a week for 1 hour and this is my main mechanical exercise and over six months my flexibility has doubled and I have lost 25lbs in the process!

I am doing RYB exercises that best suit my condition for 10 minutes 3 times a week.

I am doing subtle core muscle and breathing exercises every day.

I never sit at my desk for longer than 15 minutes at any time.

The last 6 months have been a gentle progression.
PLEASE Learn from my mistakes-

DO NOT RUSH IT.
DO NOT EXPECT RESULTS IMMEDIATLEY.
GET A MEDICAL OPINION AND THEN GET ANOTHER MEDICAL OPINION.
Once you understand as much as you can about your condition you can free your mind,stop fearing the worst, stop over guarding and start getting yourself better.

Keep sharing your experiences people and thank you Dean for making this possible.
B2B