Years ago my doctor told me my back pain was due to Degenerative disc condition. I was told that it was a "normal" process that just started sooner in me than other people. The solution? Lose weight. Thanks. So now I have and early - aging back to go along with my fucked up knees.
Fast forward to a year ago when I started really lifting weights and I thought, my back is going to be an issue and my knees are going to be an issue. For awhile I was wrong. My muscles were getting stronger and I did lose weight, about 35lb or so. Then things started changing course and I got into higher reps and more strain and my back decided it had had enough. The pain after squatting, on some nights was nearly unbearable. (Keep in mind that I've suffered from migraines since I was a small girl, so I'm used to dealing and living with horrendous pain.)
Finally, I decided to visit the chiropractor that my trainer told me he had gone to. That brings us to today. He had me lay on my back, and he tested the strength of my right side by pushing against my leg and arm in different positions and having me resist the movement. I had to laugh at how I couldn't do it with any efficiency.
The diagnosis? An issue with the sacroiliac joint had cause my right hip to open a bit which in turn threw off the alignment of my spine all the way to my neck. So he used some small hammer type contraption and pushed my bones back into a proper alignment.
While it's going to take some time to get the ligaments to heal and keep everything aligned, I'm happy and relieved to at least know what's going on. Plus, it explains so much. It explains why I lean a bit to the left when I stand and why when I start getting fatigued in squats, I start leaning even more to the left. The things it explains that I never would have guessed are my right arm feeling so weak during bench nights. Arching my back as I do puts just enough extra pressure on that joint to affect the strength of my arm. And it explains why I had stiffness and pain in my neck. And lastly, it can also explain why I wind up with headaches after I train. I'm also wondering if this is why my left knee bothers me more than my right. It probably is.
This is why kinesiology is so fascinating to me. The way we move is intricate and beautiful. And bordering on, dare I say, magical? After just the first adjustment I had more strength in my right leg and arm. And some of the stiffness had gone from my neck. As I said, it's going to take some time to get realigned, and healed, but I'm excited to get going.
I've managed to do some pretty good stuff being less than 100%, and I've managed to do it through some substantial pain. I feel like the sky's the limit now. So along with adjustments to my spine, there's adjustments in the gym as well. We need to stay away from higher rep workouts. But we're still good with heavy weight. We'll find a way to work around this, while we have to. I don't want to screw myself up so bad that I squash the possibilities, but I also am not giving up on my goals. I've come too far to do either of those things.
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