I took a week off because of a lower back injury that happened last Monday during a resistance workout I was doing after a few days off because of a weekend trip. I have been going to the clinic everyday for treatment since Tuesday. I have also been foam rolling everyday for 2+ hours everyday since the pain started on Monday. In the past, it has taken about a week or so to get back to the point where I can do a regular workout, but this time around, something is different. Each previous flare up of my back problem, there is a point in my activity that I could point to as being the motion that did my back in. This time, I don't know what I did. There wasn't an sudden on set of pain, it sort of just snuck up on me and just got worse in the hours following my initial noticing of the pain. Then, a week later, usually it was as I said, but this time, the muscle feels alright, but my lumbar spine still feel really gimpy. Before I started today's workout, I thought I had about 60% range of motion. But as I started the warm up, I realized that I had much less, more like only 40%. Before the injury, I could almost palm the floor in a forward bend, but today, I couldn't even get to 90 degrees before I started to feel the pain in my spine, not the muscles surrounding the spine, right in the center of the spine. The two compressed disks that are there seem to be getting worse, or another or more disks are compressing which is causing me to not be able to bend forward. So, I'm a little worried about this injury's prognosis. But I'll keep trying to strengthen my back like usual and see what happens. If I am unable to do a forward bend by the end of this month, I'll have to see a doctor, I suspect. Anyway, on to the workout.
Today was just a warm up workout to see what I can and can't do. I was considering doing PiYo today and then continue it until I am back to 100%, but I decided to go even less intense and start my recovery workouts with the program "You Are Your Own Gym" by Mark Lauren. I started with the first routine, the timed sets in the Novice stage. I was a little miffed at the thought of doing a novice routine, but I'm taking precautions, and if everything goes well, I told myself I could jump to the next level tomorrow. Well, during the warm up I realized how much worse my range of motion was and I was feeling the pain as my body moved forward. The routine consists of four moves done in a modified Tabata style. The time is 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off. The first move is a simple one, Sumo Squats with hands behind my head. Easy enough. The first to sets were fine. In the 20 seconds, I got 16 and 17 reps respectively. My pace was already relatively fast, but for the third set, I thought I would push it a bit and try to get 20 reps in 20 seconds. Things started off fine, then around the 12 second mark, I suddenly felt a pull in my lower back and a twinge of pain, so I stopped for a breath and finished out the last few seconds at a slower pace. I ended up with 18 reps. That scared me, so I decided not to "Push It" today and just take a relaxed pace with all the moves and all the sets. And with that, no more pain at all during the rest of the routine. The other three moves were Mountain Climbers, Swimmers, and Pointers (sort of like Bird Dog). The good thing I discovered today was that I don't have pain in the Plank position. I got a mild sweat on, but I could feel a little heat in my legs and back. In the cool down, I discovered that I don't have any pain twisting my back. The pain comes from bending forward.
I decided to continue the Arm Shaper, not with any extra routine, but just with the daily set of 35 push-ups. I upped the number to 35 from 20 about a week before my injury so I want to keep that number. I barely made it to 35. But I felt a little pump in my arms. Felt good!
I ended the workout with a shower and a shake for dinner. Then afterwards, I did the foam rolling. My back started to ache some, but the rolling felt good. I closed out the day with a short Flow series. A little sketchy on the balance, but got through it okay.
In the end, I toasted a modest 272kcals. Exactly like my regular warm ups. But I'm working to get back to my previous level and better. It is good to be back at it!
By the way, this is my calendar for August. Before the tennis tournament on the 20th, I was on a tear. It all kind of fell apart after that.
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