Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Bad back is a stretch to cure

LIKE MANY, I deal with back pain from time to time. Almost always it's because I overdo it, because I'm dumb, so it happens quite a bit.

When it gets really bad I go see the chiropractor, who has saved my life more than once. In recent years I've sought relief by talking to my doctor, who prescribes oral steroids, and it always works. Last summer it took two rounds before I finally started feeling better.

Three Cheeseburger shows in three nights over Memorial Day weekend did me in, and I was miserable last week. I couldn't sit for more than a few minutes at a time and I felt like a creaky old man when I stood up. Walking around and stretching seemed to help.

On Thursday night, Sheryl finally convinced me to attend a Pilates session at NuFit. We've been going on Mondays but missed it last week because of the holiday, and because I felt like crap.

I still felt like crap and it hurt when we started Thursday, but lo and behold, by Friday afternoon the back started feeling better. Saturday we had a show and Sunday I even hacked around with the boss at the golf course.

We did Pilates this past Monday and now I'm actually able to sit down and stand up with reasonable certainty. Now we are thinking about going twice a week.

Pilates AND Cheese!
The whole stretching and strong core thing is working.  I felt good enough last Saturday to sing Baba O'Reilly AND do a Pilates move!

I have an awesome doctor in Rick Noble and I trust him, and always confer on serious matters. But here's the moral of the story -  there are things you can do to better your health. You don't always have to rely on pills. You can gauge your condition and listen to your body and figure it out yourself.

I refuse to back out on life, and I encourage everybody to give exercise and programs like Pilates a shot.


2 comments:

  1. Pilates and Cheese may be the best photo caption I have *ever* seen. Glad you're enjoying your classes :)

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  2. I agree -- best caption ever! Also am a fan of preventive care and Pilates -- Pilates on the beach when you come in August? No, no, just the usual: beer and sunshine :-)

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