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  • From: Lisa Kae Van Meter Perry <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] weights
  • Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:42:37 -0400

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 10:00 AM, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, a TENS or a jacuzzi...lol
> Initially, I did have sciatic pain in my right leg, but thankfully it is
> just numb and tingly now.


My husband has an L5 that is compressed (from a car accident many years
ago), it's 1/4 the size it's supposed to be. The Chinese med. clinic has
"saved" him and has worked better for him than the chiropractor. [Same
clinic has also told him that he can successfully avoid carpal tunnel
surgery by doing various wrist exercises & hand stretches and, in truth, his
wrists hardly ever bother him now.] He has has several acupuncture
treatments for each problem along the way.

He lays on a folded bath towel (the long way) mornng and night for 5
minutes. Take a towel and roll it up as tight as you can. Place under lower
lumbar region. Lay on the darn thing. This is harder than it sounds. First,
you have to allow all of your muscles to relax. That takes a couple minutes
or so. It does NOT feel good. You'll have to roll off the towel roll when
you're done, you won't be able and shouldn't try to directly sit up. Then
lay flat on your back w/out the towel for a few more minutes.

This move opens up your muscles which have in essence locked together in
wrong positions--when you injured yourself and to keep your body going and
to try to avoid pain. In order to heal, the vertebrae has to open and
separate (to provide space so that it can).

This towel roll trick has kept my husband upright w/out his back giving out
on him for the last 5 years--and that's a miracle in and of itself. Prior to
that, his back was giving out wehre he'd be flat on his back for 2-3 days
2-3x per year. Coupled w/ the towel roll trick is to do lots of yoga-type
stretching, nothing fancy, but slow & steady. He just bought a hanging bar
for a door way and will begin hanging on that (w/ his hands,not upside
down). Another very simply but effective stretch is to simply bend from your
waist, feet shoulder-width apart, and hang over as far as you can--no
bouncing or straining.

Personally, Bev, I'd work on healing your back region before I'd work on any
kind of strength training.

I can do 20+ push-ups (used to do 30 but then I slacked off for a while and
back towards doing them 3-4x a week again). They've done wonders for my
upper body region. I do 2 kinds and technique is everything. My favorite
(the one learned from the Chinese med. clinic) is to form a diamond shape w/
your two hands by touching your thumbs (thumbs out--like making an L and
backwards L w/ left and right hands) and forefingers together. By touaching
your forefingers together the result is that your arms are at approx. a 45
degree angle. Place hands directly under your chest/breast area. Bend arms
so that you don't strain or turn your wrists. Begin with just 1! When you
can do one successfully, next time do 2. Even if you can barely make it--and
have to hang out on the floor for a while before you have the strength or
energy to push back up.

Anyway, it's my theory that anything you do for yourself is not wasted--it's
all good. Like the effort we put into our children as they grew up.

lkvp



> Still, it is annoying and subconsciously affects my balance, I'm sure.
> I have become a huge fan of yoga for strength and balance, too. This is
> one of those times when I wish I lived closer to town to take a class or
> something.
> The bench is actually my son's. I got it for him when he was
> homeschooling. I dug it out of storage and set it up in my living
> room/kitchen..yeah, I get funny looks, but it sure reminds me to do it!
>
> I can't seem to print to Adobe to create a pdf for the xls file.
>
>
> On 9/11/2010 1:53 AM, Lynda wrote:
>
>> Know anyone with a TENS machine? I think they are marvelous!
>>
>> I did a slip (those clear plastic things that hold collars up on dress
>> shirts in packages are deadly!) and didn't fall which caused something
>> similar but it was at the side of my left hip. The docs all said I'd have
>> been better off if I'd simply fallen. They did the injection in the disc.
>> They ordered the PT (which made it worse). They ordered bed rest (drove me
>> more insane <g>) which didn't help. I finally broke down and went to a
>> chiro. He ordered ultrasound deep muscle massage and TENS. Worked
>> wonders.
>>
>> The leg is more or less dead feeling and every now and again, without
>> warning, feels like it isn't there at all and it's like stepping in a hole.
>> However, the pain is gone and I can stand up straight and do most
>> everything
>> I could before.
>>
>> I did dance as a kid and have always done barre exercises and yoga. I
>> credit the barre and yoga with a lot of the recovery too. Lots of
>> stretching and limbering exercises!
>>
>> We didn't keep our weight machine when we moved and I do miss it but we
>> have nowhere here to put one. DH says he's thinking of building a little
>> weight room on the back deck. Love the leg lifts and butterfly.
>>
>> Lynda
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT gmail.com>
>>
>>>
>>> I did not know where to start, so I may have started too easy. It is
>>> hard to find info online that is specific to my purpose. Many times the
>>> advice is generic. I'd definitely be interested in seeing where I stand
>>> relative to others who are getting in shape.
>>>
>>> Me, too, but I find that I rely too much on my back and legs. I use my
>>> arms for support, like with a feed back, or as extensions as I sling my
>>> weight around as a counter to tossing a bale. I do doorway and countertop
>>> pushups too, but I can't go all the way down and get back up.
>>>
>>> I might as well share something else that has been a pain in my
>>> ass...literally.
>>>
>>> In June, I injured my back after dealing with 3 months of physical
>>> stress(standing in one place for hours on end). Sadly, it gave out on me
>>> the Monday after I was fired when I was walking on the treadmill. I have
>>> had disk problems and sciatica off and on prior, so I recognized the pain
>>> instantly and spent the next few days in bed. Since then, my right leg
>>> has
>>> been numb. It was numb all over, but now it is numb only below the
>>> knee...half my calf and all of my foot. They say that it might be numb
>>> for
>>> 6-12 months. Anyway, before that, in the months when I was doing all of
>>> that standing at the counter(imagine cooking or dishwashing for 6 hours
>>> straight a day, standing at a sink), I kept having a pain in my left butt
>>> cheek. It felt like sciatica, but it did not radiate out to my hip and
>>> down
>>> my leg. I would say that there have only been a few days in the last six
>>> months that I have not felt this pain. I learned recently that the
>>> piriformis muscle surrounds the sciatic nerve and that there is a thing as
>>> piriformis syndrome that mimics sciatica caused from herniated disks. I
>>> do
>>> think I have a slight herniation at L5S1, that explains the right leg
>>> numbness, but I also think I have piriformis syndrome. I think the
>>> piriformis muscle on my left side has gotten kinked or cramped or
>>> something
>>> and that when it does, it irritates the nerve causing nerve pain and a
>>> deep
>>> butt cramp pain. I've been stretching to try to alleviate this problem,
>>> but
>>> so far, no luck. I am not sure what I need to do to lengthen that
>>> muscle...
>>> When you have sciatic nerve pain and a numb right leg, it kind of hard
>>> to balance properly for things like slinging hay bales or carrying bags.
>>> The point is that I think my poor posture, working conditions, lifting
>>> history, etc. has all fed into this problem. I need a good lifting
>>> posture,
>>> a good posture, strong arms, etc. I am trying very hard to take care of
>>> all of these minor problems, but I don't seem to be making headway. It's
>>> only been 4-6 weeks, and I don't know how much I should be improving.
>>> BTW,
>>> I think the PS problem originated with hard cycling last Spring, and was
>>> further aggravated by all the standing at work.
>>>
>>> I just want to be healthy and be able to do pushups. Is that so
>>> wrong?<G>
>>>
>>
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>>
>>
> --
> EarthNSky Farm 34.498N 85.076W
> SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
> all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas: guts, pep,
> determination, stubbornness, perseverance, hardiness, stamina, go, do,
> nerve, spunk, pluck, and grit. It's like "Just Do It!"& "Go for It!")
>
>
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