Back

One of my favorite hobbies is finding new ways to injure my back. So far this year, I've managed to do it twice, brilliantly I might add.

The first time was poor posture while lifting back in May or June. I was doing clean and presses and was riding the wave of good feeling while doing it. I wasn't paying attention but I accidentally curled my back on the lift. Whoops.

I felt pain from this not that day, or the next, but the day when I tried to lift heavy weights. A sharp pain ran from my shoulders to my head and I thought I was having a stroke or something. I called it quits, took a rest for a week and started on the recovery track while nursing my back the whole time.

A few weeks ago, thinking everything was okie dokie and ready to roll, I decided to do deadlifts. It felt pretty good to do it, and only a minor pain/discomfort when lifting. I finished my workout, went home, felt great. I woke up the next morning with that familiar feeling.

For the past 3 weeks I've been fighting this and all the lovely side complications it brings. One has been a constant lower back pain. Another, due to over compensation, sore abdominal muscles for nearly two weeks now. I finally took the advice of my good buddy and went to his chiropractor.

It was my first time seeing a chiropractor and I'm impressed. He had me lay face down on a bed, and he felt up and down my spine. Two minutes later, he told me that I had managed to dislocate a vertabrae which was causing all sorts of problems - including pinched nerves. He took about 40 minutes, gently twisted and pushed my body and said he was able to return the vertabrae and told me to take it easy for a while. I suspect that it won't stay there, but if it does I'm happy. Either way, I feel a lot better, like a dark cloud has been lifted away from me.

Once my stomach muscles are done doing their thing, I'm hitting the gym again (lightly) and getting back on track. I suspect what I did was over compensate and injure them when lifting a 5 gallon bucket of beer across the room and then spending 2 or 3 hours hunched over. Also, next week I'm going back to the chiropractor and make sure things are okie dokie and A-ok.

Hope y'all are having a great night/day!