04-13-16 01:51 PM - Post#835443    

Someone asked me to recap what I went through in my exercise and pain relief history, so here goes. I wrote about it a lot at the time, so I'll add some links at the bottom. I hope others of you who've been through this will add your thoughts so we can help people just learning these lessons.

I started this journey with a few years of jogging (trudging!) in the late '70s. I mention that mainly because early on in that process I developed an ankle problem, which I can still feel and that I'm certain caused some of the later issues. The later issues are fixed, or if they come back, I know how to get rid of them, but the ankle issue is still there.

After the jogging phase came about 30 years of powerlifting and split bodypart training. The powerlifting brought on a few years of steady shoulder pain (since relieved, no surgery), and the bodybuilding-style training caused some funky movement patterns that contributed to chronic pain and decreased athletic ability.

We sold the gym in 2004, and I started buying new toys to use at home, kettlebells, TRX, things like that. The new toys changed the training style 180 degrees, but the pain continued.

That went on through constant low-level pain for another few years, until about 8 years ago when I realized I just couldn't keep it going. That meant stopping everything I'd been doing in favor of corrective efforts, which I did exclusively for about six months.

The good news: It worked. I took a crazy path, zigzagging all over the place and spending a lot of time on unnecessary stuff, but I learned a lot along the way, things I still use in my work at OTPbooks.com.

In hindsight, if I were doing this again, I'd start with 10 Rolfing sessions (this is a structured program done twice a week if possible), then follow that with Feldenkrais work, either private sessions if there were still any pain points, or group classes if not.

If I couldn't find practitioners in my area or couldn't afford it, I'd probably start with Turkish getups. Those seem to do more for me than anything else I've ever done, and if I had to choose a single exercise for the rest of my life, that would be it.

Some links -- these are old and some of the links in the pages may not work:

Here's a forum discussion on prehab/rehab, with a lot of exercise examples

http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/16335/

Rehab reports

http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/06/18/corre ctive-exercise-rehab-repo rt/

http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/04/30/getti ng-to-pain-free-with-corr ective-exercises-and-reha b-effor...

http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/02/06/fixin g-an-aching-body-physical -rehab-effort-works/

http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/01/13/joint -mobility-structural-move ment-and-physical-rehab/

Discussion of Feldenkrais

http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/06/03/felde nkrais-group-class-vs-ind ividual-treatment/

I hope others will add more thoughts!

04-13-16 04:17 PM - Post#835451    

Thanks a million, Laree!

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

04-13-16 05:02 PM - Post#835454    

You bet! Hope it helps.

04-14-16 12:04 PM - Post#835472    

hi laree,

the only way we know that something is unnecessary, is that we do it, and try it out for ourselves.

and sometimes what is unnecessary at one point in our lives, becomes necessary at another point in our lives.

as the old saying goes, knowledge is power !!

Re: capping my movement learning & pain relief process
04-17-16 11:55 AM - Post#835544    

• Laree Said:

There was a time I would have scoffed at this but I taught myself the TGU in between physical therapy sessions and it's worked wonders! That and overhead squats. Both difficult movements for me at first, but with some patience and a lot of practice, they're paying dividends.

04-17-16 08:51 PM - Post#835556    

I know what you mean...it does seem weird. But the variety in the exercise does a lot of things I need. It just works.

04-18-16 03:18 AM - Post#835562    

I think for health most of us need to build a base of strength, and then do some variety. Much past 50% of world record performance in strength, endurance and so on, most of us will get beat up by the process.

Athletic Club East Strength in numbers

04-18-16 07:49 AM - Post#835567    

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, Laree.

I am surprised at how many IOLers have found TGUs and overhead squats not only great for mobility, but curative, as well. I have always done these infrequently, usually as an afterthought. Perhaps I should move them to the forefront.

Be strong. Be in shape. Be a man among men, regardless of your age or circumstances.

04-22-16 01:23 AM - Post#835742    

These past two years I went through my own body healing process. I used to do 2 x 5 weight lifting protocol, 5 days a week with 15 minutes of cardio.
Had elbow, knee, back, and neck paid almost every day.

I did the foam rolling, feldenkrais lessons, and the Rolfing lessons. I felt better for a little bit but the pain would always come back.
Asked my self why am I lifting weights, the only thing I could come up with was I liked it. Finally dropped it and I replaced it with pull ups, body weight squats(past parallel), and uphill walking.

In the past 2 years I have done about 25 thousand pullups and squats and walked a couple thousand miles. No pain at all. Not sure if my body just needed more moving but I found that the more I remained in place the more pain I had. Within 3 months of doing the pullups and squats most of my pain went away and the rest went away when I lost weight.

Recapping my movement learning & pain relief process
04-22-16 11:09 AM - Post#835758    

I agree with the Variety. I am going through that right now changing from pure weightlifting everyday to adding a lot of Hiking, and other types of non-lifting type of exercises just to change things up for a while. But I am still training just as hard I even went Country Dancing last weekend and my shirt was completely drenched from all the Line Dancing.

rick

MS, MBA Wild Saddle™

Edited by Richard Sanchez on 04-22-16 11:10 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

05-10-16 12:46 PM - Post#836498    

Laree,

Just wanted to say thank you for this thread. I've been dabbling with the list of rehab exercises for a few weeks...and am just now admitting to myself that I got a little too comfortable with the easy ones and tried to avoid the very difficult ones. I guess I was focused on trying to go through all 3 workout lists...but right now I'm working on my own list of the most difficult exercises from all 3 workouts and also paying more attention to the problem areas in my posture that needs correcting.

I've done similar things over the years but the problem I face is that I get too comfortable and then the stretches and exercises become routine...I've made some great muscle gains over the past few years but recently pain in my shoulders and elbows has caused me to miss more and more workouts. So this feels like a good time to fix the core issues and then go back to weights once my joints are happier.

A few of the video links are no longer working so I've been working on a list of replacement links...once I'm done I'll post here. I'm finding this so much better than some of the physical therapists I'd see at my old chiropractor...they would just give me exercises and barely look at me while I was trying them...even when I said "hey, these are hurting me - I'm not doing them!" I'd get puzzled looks and they'd try and say do it this way, that way...but they never honed in me as an individual...it was just like their PT school taught them that people are machines and no pain no gain. Very frustrating...I'm doing so much better doing this on my own.

Thanks again. :)

Re: capping my movement learning & pain relief process
05-10-16 01:27 PM - Post#836499    

This is really valuable stuff. It's inspiring. I've decided to do corrective work, to the extent I understand what I need: strengthening my lats to keep my shoulder from shrugging when I lift my right arm.

Thank you for sharing your journey, Laree.

Re: capping my movement learning & pain relief process
05-10-16 04:36 PM - Post#836513    

• Steve Wedan Said:

You might find this interesting Steve. Upper traps dominating lats.

http://www.stopchasingpain.com/top-10-muscle-imbalan ces-and-what-to-do-about- them-7/



Edited by RyanH on 05-10-16 04:37 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

05-10-16 08:19 PM - Post#836517    

Thanks, everyone.

The biggest problem I had is that I never got back to my original strength. It's like I got out of the habit of really hard training and wasn't able to gear back up all the way. Could be an age thing, could be work, hard to say, but it feeels more like I broke a 30-year habit and couldn't rebuild it fully.

I'd still trade that for being in full time pain for several years. I 'worked around it' for a really long time. Now I don't hurt anywhere, no joint pain, neck stress...nothing. It's an okay tradeoff.

Re: capping my movement learning & pain relief process
05-11-16 01:16 PM - Post#836534    

• RyanH Said:

I appreciate this, Ryan. Thanks.