The Landscape's Burning Red

So. I've been feeling somewhat guilty about not posting more often, but I've just had a lot of other things I've needed to deal with of late. Shortly after I started this blog, I looked at several resources for expanding blog readership, increasing site traffic, etc. "Add this link/button/widget/banner," and more to that effect. Read and comment on other related blogs. I may have made certain overtures to that end, but the truth is I began this mostly for myself, to have a chronicle of what I've been doing to recover from my physical and emotional setbacks. I didn't feel very comfortable talking about any of it for a while, and blogging about it seemed among other things, a really easy way for friends and family to get up to speed on my situation.


Then I started getting comments and messages, first from people I know and then from others I didn't. All positive, a lot saying I helped the person in some way. That matters to me, mostly because I felt really alone in all of this when I started having to deal with it, and if anything I have to say could help someone dealing with similar problems then that in and of itself makes the whole thing worthwhile.


There's also a factor to my level of activity with the blog that I'm sure wouldn't be the first to spring to mind, which is that I was told I couldn't work by my doctors for a long period of time. What ended up being close to three years by the time I was given the go-ahead to go back to work. Might I add, easily the three most boring years of my entire life. Loafing is absolutely not for me. I prefer to be as busy as possible and going from a busy, fast-paced lifestyle to an extremely sedentary one was frustrating and depressing, so I welcomed having a project to occupy my time. I stopped and started with several others before focusing on this one.


In December of last year, my doctors conferred and agreed that it would be okay for me to start looking for work. Having been completely out of work for so long and self-employed for over a decade previous, getting a toe-hold in the workforce again has not been exactly easy.  But I've been logging time at a temp agency for a few months where I've made a great and supportive business contact.  I feel confident that it won't be terribly long before I can find more steady work. Once I'm at a regular job, I plan on enrolling in classes at a local college. Suddenly I have all these plans, things that have been gaining momentum on a back burner for the better part of the past year. Finally everything is coming together. The lady who was once so bothered by a lack of things to do is now finding herself with a full plate. Believe me when I tell you I'm ready to dig in!


So where that leaves me in regard to the blog is this: I don't have the time to put into it that I used to. Has my readership suffered from it? Sure. But I honestly don't care whether or not I'm the coolest kid on the blog block. If I wanted high readership I'm sure I could have regaled the world with tales from my dancing/clubbing/drinking/partying/life-on-the-road days. Maybe someday I will tell those stories. But not here. not now.  That's never what this was about. I've decided not impose any sort of deadlines with this project from now on. I'll post when I wish, and if you've been reading so far and choose to continue to follow, I sincerely thank you for your interest and support.


I hope everyone has a fantastic day.

The Latest News

I'm going to take a break this time from posting exercises and just talk about what's going on with me.  I've been working as a temp lately and when good opportunities have been coming up, I've been taking weeks off of therapy to pursue them, with the full support of the clinic staff.  They're really great people.

When I first went back to work, I was still not in very great shape.  A couple of times I hobbled into PT appointments and we skipped exercises in order to just concentrate on fixing me.  Part of that was teaching me ways to cope with stuff I might have to deal with on a job: standing for a while, bending, picking things up.  I learned valuable techniques to deal with all of this and after several weeks, I maybe would come home tired, but not in any extra pain.

After discussing this at yesterday's appointments, my therapist decided that we would drop my appointments down to one day a week, with the intention of weaning me down and letting me get back to my regular life.  She says I'm doing fantastic and I've gotten much stronger.  Another cool thing happened.  When I jumped on the scale yesterday morning, for the first time in months I was down out of a weight range that's scary to me.  I love moving the big block down a notch!  I'm now only 15 pounds away from where I was when I was doing so well last summer.

I feel I can say with confidence that I refuse to let myself get that heavy again.  Much in the same way as when I first starting gaining weight from all this mess I set a dress size number in my head, and I told myself if it ever got to where I needed to buy that size, I would sit in the house naked until I lost enough  weight to fit into smaller clothes.  I'm proud to say it has never, will never come to that.  It really is a matter of personal choice.  When you see people who let themselves get humugous, they deicde to let that occur.  Have a conversation with any of them.  They don't eat well and they never move.  That's exatly how I gained weight.  I just chose to put an end to it before it made me totally hate myself.

There aren't shortcuts.  Crash diets will bite you in the rear when you get older and your metabolism is completely shot from it.  You have to make yourself learn to like foods that are better for you and you have to exercise.  That's all there is to it.  Most of the people you see that have killer bodies bust their asses for them.  If you want one too, you have to be willing to do the same.  I'm willing to do the work. That's what I have to say for now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Basics of Lumbar Stabilization, Part II

As I mentioned last week, it's important to remember that maintaining transverus abdominus contraction, ot TrA, is the key element to these exercises.  The following moves round out beginner level lumbar stabilization exercises.

5. Prone Alternate Leg Lift

• lay face down with a pillow under your middle area
• keep the knee straight and raise the whole leg 1/4, hold for a few seconds before lowering*
• left leg, then right leg = 1 rep
  
  *My doctor mentioned to me when I started this exercise that height is not nearly as important as keeping the leg straight and holding it for a few beats.

6.Quadruped Alternate Arm Raises

• keep your back flat
• raise one arm out in front of you and hold for a few seconds, while making sure to keep shoulders and hips square (avoid leaning)
• right arm, then left arm = 1 rep

7. TrA with Heel Slide

• beginning with both knees bent, slide one foot slowly away along the floor
• slowly slide foot back to start
• right leg, then left leg = 1 rep

 8.Back Bridge with Wide Base of Support,         Four Stable Points of Contact

• lie on your back with knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, arms extended at your sides
• push up with your hips to establish a straight line through your knee, hip and shoulder
• hold for a few seconds, then release
  
  
  TrA needs to be maintained at all times during the exercises.  I know I say it a lot, but guess what?  I'll continue to do so because it's that important.  The exertion tends to make you not want to breathe.  My doctor taught me a cool trick for that.  Go back to my last post and see the part where it says to put your hands around your waist to check if you're doing TrA right.  Do that.  Practice the contraction a bunch of times.  Hold each one 10 seconds.  Count the 10 seconds out loud, it'll make you breathe.  Do that until you don't have to anymore.  Also, with exercises that are harder than others, inhale before the exertion and exhale during the effort.  That always helps me.
  
  
  The team at my clinic discussed me last week and decided they are going more aggressive with me because they are unhappy with my pain level of late.  So this week I began late intermediate exercises.  A definite challenge, but I'm always up for that.
  
  Yesterday when I went in, they told me to start on my exercises right away.  I got through them mostly without incident.  One was too hard just yet and another gave me a little trouble.  After I was done, the tech I work with said she wanted to talk to me before I left.  She  said the biggest problem with spine stabilization is that people don't apply themselves enough.  They're all wobbly and don't try to do anything to be otherwise, which totally defeats the point of the whole thing.  I thought for sure I was in for a criticism.  Then she asked me about the one exercise I had a lot of trouble with, which is a back bridge with your arms up so you don't have them for support and your heels resting on a fitness ball.  It's very hard to balance!  I told her about a slight modification I did to get through it and she said that was exactly right.  Then she said that exercise is hard for anyone, even people without any back issues and great core strength.  She further said that the effort I have been making has been excellent, pretty much the opposite of the crappy effort she mentioned before.  Yay!
  
  I do feel so much better when I exercise, and I love the feeling after sore muscles heal of them getting stronger.  For that matter, I kind of like when they're sore too because that means I used them well.  Progress!  It's a great feeling.  Everyone have a great weekend.  See you next week!

The Basics of Lumbar Stabilization, Part I

I've beem somewhat reluctant to blog about the specifics of my physical therapy because I've been questioning the ethics about detailing my own therapy regimen.  I wouldn't want anyone injuring themseles in any way trying to do what I'm doing.  Then one of the assistants at my practice mentioned that she recommends to patients that they keep a journal about their therapy to chart their progress.  When I told her about this blog, she thought it sounded great.  So this is what I decided: I can only talk about my own journey and what that entails.  As with any new exercise you want to try, please discuss it with your doctor before starting on your own. While the purpose of these exercises is to stabilize the spine through core strengthening, doing them, or for that matter any exercise incorrectly could in fact be damaging.

The basis of all spine stabilization exercises is the transverus abdominus contraction, or TrA.  If you don't have this manuever down, the exercises will not be effective.  I found the following on the internet which I thought could explain the basics of it better than I can:

Transversus abdominis (TrA) contraction

- It is essential that this is mastered before progressing any further

- For all core stability exercises a TrA contraction should be maintained

- Lie on back with knees bent to about 90º and pelvis in neutral

- Rest your left hand on your stomach at the level of the bottom of the rib cage

- Place your right hand just inside the pelvis – on the soft tissue immediately inwards  from the bone.

- As you contract your TrA, you should feel a slight tightening under your right hand, but no change under your left hand. Think about tightening your pelvic floor muscles and the abdominal muscles below your navel. You should feel the part of your abdomen below your navel sinking down towardsthe floor – ‘abdominal hollowing’

- Make sure you keep breathing normally whilst you hold the contraction

- Practise this until you can easily

My doctor also told me to put my hands on either side of my stomach (kind of like when you put your hands on your hips) and press my fingertips in, and that a proper TrA contraction should push back against your fingers that are pressing inwards.  So it's sort of like you're holding the front of your stomach in while pushing the sides out.  It's a little tricky to learn but once you know it, it becomes second nature.  They have also mentioned to me at various times thoughout the last couple of months that without overdoing it, I should try to maintain The TrA contraction as much as possible throughout my waking day - even when I'm not exercising.  This again reminded me of ballet class when I was a child, and the teachers who taught me that if I always held my stomach in, the muscles would learn to stay that way.  I kind of wish I had stayed with that, but then it's never too late to start again.

Moving on, I'm going to share a few of the beginner exercises for lumbar stabilization.  Just make sure you have the TrA down before you start these.  That's not something you want to rush through learning. 

1. Basic TrA Activation - Quadruped

-Support yourself on your hands and
  knees with your back flat
-Eyes looking down
-Draw in yor lower abdomen while gently breathing
 Eg. "Pull your belly button into your spine"

       "Hollow out your stomach"

2. Basic TrA Activation - Supine

-Contract pelvic floor
-Draw in lower abdomen while gently breathing
-Use your fingertips to monitor muscle contraction, just inside the front corners of your     pelvis (what I was talking about earlier)
-You should feel a small to moderate amount of tension develop under your fingertips as you contract the pelvic floor and TrA (and more to that end)

3. TrA with Arms Reaching Overhead

-Manitain TrA contraction while letting arms move overhead.

-Only move arms as far as you are able while keeping TrA contracted

4. TrA with Bent Knee Fall Out

-Maintain TrA contraction while letting knee move slowly outwards  towards the floor
-Once to the right, then once to the left = one rep

I started all my exercises with one 10 rep set.  I'm onto intermediate exercises and I still do one 10 rep set of each, every other day.  When we first started they wanted me to do more than that and it ended up hurting me so we dropped back, and this is what works for me - for now.  This is not "go for the burn" exercise.  This is getting your body strong in a smart way that will help your body protect itself against pain and further injury in the future.  This is not exercise for weight loss, although now that I'm building some muscle tone I have dropped a few pounds.  So if you're looking for some crazy lose five pounds a week kind of fad thing, that's not what I'm about.  I'm okay with slow, smart progress.  You want to know why?  Because I have been feeling better, and for now that's worth more than fitting into my skinny jeans.  I'll worry about that stuff later.

I probably won't blog again tomorrow, but I am going to try to get a post up about once a week,  Hope everyone has been well.  See you again soon!