[pct-l] Back injury exercises?

[msaenz at mve-architects.com (Mike Saenz)]

I also managed to "throw out my back" last week. First time this has
ever happened to me... I now have an increased level of sympathy for
those who live with chronic back pain. The pain was excruciating. It
took me to my knees several times. And I have to drive a manual
transmission through a winding mountain road (Hwy 74, "The Ortega
Highway", into Orange County) every day.
Friday I was in Urgent Care to find out if I was permanently damaged.
Doc said: "Just threw your back out. Got back spasms. Could've been
anything. No way to really avoid it in the future..." and, "Here's a
prescription for Flexeril, 800mg Ibuprophen and 1200mg of Vicodin..."
Quite a cocktail. Spent last weekend flat on my back drifting in and out
of consciousness. (Damn good thing I didn't hike the Divide, Erik!)

It's still sore, but I can now rise from a sitting position without
yelping out in pain. I can shift gears now without making really scary
faces.

A lot of people I've talked to say that conditioning your "core" is the
best way to protect your back from slipping out of alignment. Those
"bicycle" exercises that Strider mentioned sound like a good way to do
this. Others mentioned those big exercise balls (stretches as well as
conditions, or so they say).

Getting old sucks. And the pain I experienced last Friday makes the old
saying that "it beats the alternative" debatable.

For what it's worth,


Michael Saenz, Associate Partner
McLarand    Vasquez    Emsiek   &   Partners,   Inc.
A r c h i t e c t u r e  |  P l a n n i n g  |  I n t e r i o r s
MVE       MVE    Institutional       MVP    International
w  w  w   .   m  v  e   -   a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c  t  s   .   c  o m

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Stephanie
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 6:57 AM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [BULK] - [pct-l] Back injury exercises?

As luck would have it, I've sprained my back a month and a half away
from local hiking season. Seems the extreme physical exertion of walking
into my office yesterday morning was far too much for even a seasoned
cubicle warrior such as myself. One false move had me down for the
count.

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest, once I recover well enough to walk
and stand (much less sit up without crying like a little girl), simple
exercises I can do to stretch and strengthen my stomach and back.

My doctor has suggested a few small exercises, but I wanted to hear from
my backpacker community to see if there was any special insight given
the things we demand of our backs. I had hoped to go out and take my
very first solo backpacking trips this season, training for my
'07 thru. Now, I hope simply for a few scaled-down day-hikes hopefully
by Halloween...

This makes me wonder how a back injury is handled out on the trail.

Any suggestions would be most wonderful. Thanks!!

Steph
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