back pain

“I woke up and got out of bed with NO backpain. It was such a strange feeling. I've not had NO back pain in years. I still have no pain and hope that it stays away. it really is a strange sensation.

I've been really working on my machine via yoga, bike riding and meditation and I canoed hard this past weekend, putting alot of energy and focus into the activity, not floating, but actually hard and sustained long paddling. My body feels really in tune and I can't wait to rip the road tonight on the bike.”

“Wish I could say the same. Going to try evening workouts after dinner. I have more energy then rather than at 5 AM.”

“thats good to hear stikmon! Keep up whatever your doing - its working.

WK, I can't work out in the am, my body just doesn't do that. I'm an evening person for sure.”

“WK, and RA. WK, I've spent alot of hours researching on the web and asking lots of questions to physical therapists about techniques. Alot of them have told me that weights are the worst thing that anyone could do to their body. I look towards someone like Lance Armstrong, who hardly ever works out with weights. He does Yoga, meditation, and stretch strength (yoga) excercises. and of course rides that darned 20K bike. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me. Thats the routine I"m following and its working in spades. no body fat, no knee aches anymore, and no back pain today. go to www.yogajournal.com
lots of fantastic information on creating a healthy body. good luck.”

“"Weights are the worst thing that anyone could do to their body"

This seems to be a big exaggeration. I compressed discs in my lower back playing high school football 10 years ago. Up until 2 years ago, I suffered with back pain that was at times literally paralyzing. My left leg would go numb, my foot would turn blue, and my back muscle would spasm and lock for days at a time. I tried physical therapy, various exercises specifically for back muscles, jogging, and biking. It wasn’t until I spent several solid months working on a balanced exercise routine that includes weight training that my back returned to normal. Now 10 years after the injury the pain only comes back when I lapse on my routine.

I am glad your back is getting better, but please spare the rhetoric. If you have the time to commit and don’t demand anything else from your body other than pushing pedals then specializing your body to be like Lance’s is fine.

Again, concrats on your back.”

“The key is stretch and strengthen. Much of my sports therapy work centers around that principle.

Weights aren't all bad, it's just that some folks get alittle silly with them. You know, the guys with the tiny little legs and the gianormous upper half.

I'm thinking I'll be signing up for some yoga instruction (this is my way of making sure I do it....a commitment of sorts) next spring. I got more on my plate than I can handle at the moment so it must wait.

I'm very happy your back is well Stik. It's good to see you around.”

“healthy attitude. mjc, I'm glad your working your machine in such a great way. I'm not specializing in bike riding. I canoe, backpack, bike ride, yoga, meditate, high impact cardio, pilate, jog, play frisbee and tone with weights and do gymnastic excersices, so, no specialty on my part, just a bit of everything. I read too and write in my journal.

Between the backpacking and canoeing, I'm in the woods 40+ weekends a year. I'm pretty active, so it is necessary for me to maintain a healthy machine.”

“I didn't mean to offend (well maybe a little). Do you sleep, work, eat? I would think just being that active would make your machine healthy by default.

Thanks”

“even if it was given. Since I'm the reciever, I can choose to receive or block, I chose block.

Yeah, I work, eat and sleep. LOL. Its hard to believe. Default machine upkeep...yeah, thats pretty much how its happening. Today, a second day of no back pain. I gave myself a night off yesterday. No bike riding as it was storming all night, and I didn't do any excercises. I vaccumed my living room and talked to my bikes. They are pineing to get out on the road, especially the Litespeed. Tonight, I have my Yoga class, and maybe a bike ride after. Later.”

“Glad to see you around and doing well Marc.”

“you got mail.”

“Great news.
No one should have to live in pain.”

“Big Bend 3 still in the works?”

“I read an interesting article lately in Sports Illustrated about bone loss in active people. They did some research on bone loss on people that do non weight bearing exercise only, like cyclists and swimmers. They experienced a good amount of bone loss and not only because the exercise was not weight bearing, but because sweating can aid the process of calcium loss from the body. They recommended adding 120mg of calcium for every hour of heavy sweating on top of the 1200mg that you should get daily.

Adding some weight bearing exercise into the routine seems to be crucial for the body to maintain healthy bones and they recommended some weight lifting and walking with some weight in a pack to add resistance. Running can work too, but can be hard on the musclo-skeltal system. The bottom line I got out of the article is that the body needs some form of resistance training for healthy bones. I would think that it would even help maintain some muscle that is normally lost during the aging process. A good example of this is Jack Lalane.”

“I look towards someone like Lance Armstrong, who hardly ever works out with weights. He does Yoga, meditation, and stretch strength (yoga) excercises. and of course rides that darned 20K bike. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me. Thats the routine I"m following and its working in spades. no body fat, no knee aches anymore, and no back pain today. go to www.yogajournal.com
lots of fantastic information on creating a healthy body. good luck.”
stikmon
6:21:23 PM
11/14/05

WTF? Stikmon has a $20K bike?”

“I don't have a 20k bike, mine was only $3600.00.

ChuckD, indeed BB pt 3 is on. I think we're backpacking the outer mtn loop over 4 days. We'll cache water on the first day there and then rip trail. I want to bring my bikes down to do some touring in the park, but Jeff can't ride a road bike. something about his back. But, I'm planning on day biking if I can and base camping in luxery.”

“I'read an article in Biking journal that said something on that nature. Thats why I still do some weights, just not as much anymore, and backpack heavily and canoe in the summer. VERY physically demanding, lugging all those dutch ovens around and the tons of gear that I have and lets not forget the tossing of the 55lb canoe 4 times during the weekend...plus the 1 hour yoga routine that I do 7 days a week, no, I think I'll be ok, but one never knows. I'm now doing "L" seats on my home made parallel bars and pressing into a handstand. Is that physical enough?”

“I want Stik as my personal trainer!”

“I was asked to instruct my yoga class next week...yikes!”

“The article I read made it sound like you don't need to go overboard with the weight bearing exercise. The key was to include some into the routine so your bones don't get lazy and start shedding too much bone density. They did say plain walking without some additional weight was not enough resistance so hiking with some kind of a pack was just the right thing to maintain good bone density. My feeling is that some weight training is a good idea to include as many bones as possible. Again, I don't think you need to go overboard with it, just do something each week.”

“not overboard. Bulk is not my goal. strength, flexibility, agility, and stamina is. Thanks Rich for the great info.”

“I was happy to read that backpacking was just the thing to promote strong bones.”

“I'm glad the pain is gone stikmon.

Thank's for the info Rich.”