And The Uncoiling Begins

So after the crapcalocaust twisted my back a couple of weeks ago, it’s been a methodical, albeit boring road to recovery.

Well, so far I’ve been limited to stretch my lower back and hamstrings, which releases a lot of pressure, some bodyweight good mornings, and a lot of bicep curls and push ups, a lot. I don’t do anything else for the time being. Pain is almost gone, but there is that weakness that’s felt in the spine between the lumbar and thoraccic areas. Getting up from a chair is not as painful, but moving the neck down sometimes is, and I have to be careful whenever I wake up and get off the bed.

Anyways, when I just get up and stand up natural, from the pelvis up to the base of my skull my back looks like the letter C. It takes some effort to bring my shoulders to the same level (straightening the spine) and more effort to bring my neck up straight. Usually there is no pain when doing this, but it’s a conscious effort. I basically have to imagine a point inside of me, just over the right side of the hip and “lift” it up while extending the oblique.

A couple of things have become apparent:

1. I put all my weight on the left side of my hips,
2. My right oblique is shortened.

So now, whenever I walk or sit I shift my weight to the right leg/glute, hoping that this will eventually lead to a correction. About the oblique, this is getting interesting.

I always thought that I was stretching the obliques, but apparently I was just stretching the tensor fasciae latae. Coupled that with a shortened oblique and a banged up spine, and I’m amazed this shit didn’t hit sooner.

It took a while for me to activate the right oblique and actually stretch it. Before, I would stretch lateraly, but the tensor would just take over. After prodding the muscle, I’m getting it to stretch. And it fucking hurts!!! Right where it meets the hip bone, it fucking hurts!!!

At least I know now a way to deal with it. After my chiro sessions I will check an orthopedist to see what else needs to be done. In the meantime, check these pics I took this morning…

… btw, the brown patch on my lower back is an ice burn (I put ice for way too long), not a crust of dirt!!!

This is what it looks like if I get up and let my body relax. If this were a Yoga pose, it would be called ‘Sideway Bending Chimpanzee’.

Here, I have to make the constant and concious effort to lift the hip, and lenghten the oblique to bring the shoulders level (and thus, straighten up the spine somewhat). My neck still points to the right, though.

Here I have to conciously contract the left side of the neck to bring it up. I’m like fucking Quasimodo or something.

BTW, look at those little love handles. Meaty!!! And really, no, it’s not dirt on my back but an ice burn