Friday, April 20, 2007

An injury

Not my injury this time, Brian's. He's hurt his back, and now I'm without my trusty workout partner.

His injury is something called a "herniated disc" and it mostly takes time to heal--several weeks, I understand. My friend Karen says she spends a weekend lying in bed on ice packs when her disc problem bothers her.

I hope I can stay motivated without Brian on the floor saying "let's go through our forms." And I seriously hope he's better very soon.

Any of you readers have any advice for Brian? I'll pass it on to him.

2 comments:

TKD Rocker said...

Use ice for awhile before heat. The heat makes it feel better while its on, but it allows the muscle to relax and swell even more, which makes it worse. Also, tell him not to jump straight back into training. Take it slow. Believe me, I learned the hard way when I hurt my back. Hope he feels better!

Little Cricket said...

A doctor called John E. Sarno has a thesis that back pain is rarely due to herniated discs. Herniations occur in many people as we age, but in many cases, back pain is due more to stress, and emotional and psychological factors. His books are 'Healing Back Pain', 'The Mindbody Prescription' and 'The Divided Mind'. People are able to overcome their pain by looking deeply at angry and fearful emotions they are unconsciously repressing over time.

A lot of people have trouble buying into this kind of theory ('But *my* pain is *real*'). But I always find it is worth suggesting just in case the person is amenable. It turns out the point is that the pain is indeed real, but is caused by the body by restricting blood flow. The purpose of the pain is to divert ones thoughts from the painful emotions.

I personally have had a lot of success with several health issues, including back pain, repetitive stress injury and asthma with this approach.