Thai Bo and back pain

comicallyinsane

I just started doing my Thai Bo workout today. It killed my lower back. I have 2 bad discs in my middle and lower back and a weight problem. I used to weigh a lot less 5 years ago and the car accident which damaged me made it hard for me to work out the whole time. I aslo destroyed a dis in my neck on that one, also. The neck has been fixed and only monor problems. Not enough to bother me anymore. I also suffer from gout so I can't walk too much or it flares up. I found that out the hard way when I was walking 4 miles a night after work. Does that stop me for trying? NO WAY!!!!!!! I am determined to beat this. My eating habits are getting better and I have been setting up equipment here at home.


I started Thai Bo about 45 minutes ago. Towards the end my lower back gave out. I collapsed on the bed cringing. I decided to put my hands together and push myslef up. I wa son my stomach by the way. I closed my eyes and meditated. The back pain started subsiding. I am now eating lunch and I am going to go for a bike ride as soon as I feel a bit better. My Buddhist studies as of late are really helping me with my focus and I know I will be okay. Thank you so much to everyone here for helping me on my path.

federica

To get up safely, could i sufggest that you actually do it from a supine position?
Try to roll very gently onto your back.
bring your knees up, feet still on the floor, so your legs are bent at 90 degrees. This also brings the small of your back closer to the floor.... Slip both hands flat under the small of your back, lumbar region, kidney area... fingertips touching, slightly 'claw' the hands, so the fingers are croocked. Push down onto your forearms and wrist area, at the same time curling your chin into your chest. Don't use your upper body on its' own, keep pushing up with your forearms, and as you rise, transfer the effort into your hands.

better than trying to rise from a prone position (on your stomach....) that can tear ligaments in the back/pelvic area.

Strengthen abdominals. These muscles are very important for back support.

Lie on the bed, knees up again, feet on the bed, and head slightly over the edge. Contract the abdominal muscles to provide support for the head, and to save back effort. Hold a large full tin can of food with both hands. Arms straight, lay it on your front, wherever it comes to - usually the groin area. As you breathe in, gently raise the arms and moving them in an arc, lift them until they are above your head, parallel with the floor. Pause, full lungs. Begin to breathe out slowly, and bring the arms back over the head and down to the starting position. keep abdominals tucked in at all times. With any luck you shouldn't pass out!!

Ladies, for that bikini summer beach flat stomach, this one's unbeatable. You also have a handy weapon in case the husband/kids/wife family psychiatrist come in to poke fun......!!

_BeautifulSpringtime

Comic,

Maybe in your present condition Tai Bo is not the best way to get back into things.

Perhaps Fede could inspire you to work on more internal arts...

Hope your back is better!

comicallyinsane

I think my body will catch up. I am working out the kinks, I hope. If my pain gets worse I will do something else. If it gets better than good. Thank you for your concern.

_BeautifulSpringtime

It is why I'm here!

comicallyinsane

Well I took me a nap earlier and boy am I sore now. Not my back as much as my muscles. Tomorrow it's Drunken forms in the back yard. What won't kill me will only make me stonger. Maybe, lol.

_BeautifulSpringtime

:bigclap:

comicallyinsane

That style looks familiar. I wonder why.

comicallyinsane

thebatman

I also have some damaged discs in my back, comic. I competitively powerlifted in my youth and now I'm paying for it (karma, huh?). I have found that the misalignment of the spine causes the muscles to spasm and pull the spine even more out of alignment...nasty cycle. Within limits, I have found stretching to lessen the problems. Actually, stretching made it worse at first but as my flexibility improved the occurence of spasms has been reduced.
The human back is tricky so what has worked for me may make things worse for you. Don't sue me if you get paralyzed following my advice.

comicallyinsane

I am very limber myself. I have done martial arts for the last 15 years. My problem is mostly my weight. whne I ruptured the disc in my neck my arms would go numb and I couldn't function very well at all. So I gained weight and now it is an uphill battle. I will win though. I have my doctor helping me and my Buddhist studies as of late are helping me have more control of my mind. I am training again and I am eating better all the time. I also have to turn my bed more often. Once my body starts to put a dip in it I have more and more back pain. The funny thing is that I have an expensive orthopedic bed. I am sure paying for it now, lol. Next bed I get will be a regular matress. I never had problems with those before.

comicallyinsane

I am so proud of myself. I made it through the whole workout. I only made it through 3/4 before. My back is hurting less and I feel wonderful. I want to say like amillion bucks but that saying means less and less for me everyday. I just feel great. I don't need to compare it to anything. Thanks everyone for all the support.

KnightofBuddha

When I turned 11, I got Osgoodslawters (sp?) from too fast a growth spurt. When that healed, I snapped a tendon in my ankle. A few months after that, it the same thing happened. And half a year after that, I found I had an accessory bone in my foot. After this, I had over 4 casts in a matter of a year, had gained significant weight, and had dropped out of sports entirely to pursue music instead. It has only been in the past several months while studying Buddhism that I snapped out of this 4 year long lazy cycle. I routinely sit in half-lotus positions now (something I never imagined not long ago) and usually get in trouble for climbing things like baseball poles, basketball hoops, and many other dangerous ventures. But I don't mind. I would rather get in trouble for this than eating the last of the Cheetoes!

emmak

Comic - One word: Pilates...

comicallyinsane

I still can't get a straight answer on the plates question.

emmak

What do you want to know?

emmak

comicallyinsane wrote:

I still can't get a straight answer on the plates question.

What do you want to know?

comicallyinsane

To be honest I have decided to not want to know anymore but thanks anyway.

MoonLgt

Hi Comic,

Have you tried Tai Chi , one of the five forms may help you to get going with out hurting your back. After doing tai chi for a while I bet the Tae Bo won't be so hard on you.

comicallyinsane

I am a Drunken fighter. I am not allowed to do any other form of Kung Fu. I am doing Tae Bo more and more and my kinks are working themselves out. Thank you.

Adiana

Comic,

I can relate to how you feel---I started TaeBo myself not too long ago and I thought I was going to die that first time I did it! YIKES! But since I have been sticking with it and doing it at my own pace, the pain is now gone and I actually feel better after doing my workout. I also have a weight problem but I am starting to lose weight from working out and eating right.

Adiana

comicallyinsane

Well I have some damage to my middle and lower back which doesn't help. I just work through the pain.

comicallyinsane

Another workout completed. I felt crummy before I started but now I feel cleansed. I can't wait for the next one.

buddhafoot

Well, you have to take into consideration, age, weight, how long you've been inactive, etc.

I had been doing taekwon-do for about 9 years and decided to give tae bo a shot. Mind you, I think I was in pretty good shape. Ran a couple of miles every day, ate good, down around my "fighting weight" . I couldn't get through the tae bo. I have a suspicion that during all the frantic side-kicking, my knees just couldn't take it. I was trying to use proper sidekick technique and just wasn't given enough time to do it properly. I think they just wanted me to throw my legs from side to side. But after years of learning to do something properly.

Needless to say - my knees hurt for a little while after that. So... I would take tae bo kind of slow if at all. lots of stretching and really don't move onto the more difficult stuff until you can get through the lower level stuff without anything hurting.

Michael

comicallyinsane

In Kung Fu we are taught to always have out bodies ready. Sounds a lot harder than it really is. My Grandmaster never encouraged stretching. He never taught how to kick or punch. He said we knew how to do that when we were in the womb. A little off topic but your post Michael made me think about it.

buddhafoot

Really.

Now honestly, given that people are out of shape, overweight, have medical conditions are aging - these people need to have their bodies always at the ready?

The person in question is exercising to better themselves. Not to defend themselves. I can't think of a doctor I've talked to, a physical therapist I've worked out with or other athlete or instructors that haven't recommended taking care of yourself during workouts.
I know of classes where we had older people in there that just can't do flying kicks anymore - and that's not really why they are there. They are there for the experience and the enjoyment they got out of taekwon-do.

I'm a wimp. Your class would have kill me, Comic!

Michael

P.S. Plus... when I was in the womb, I didn't know how to do elbow smashes, punch with the first two knuckles of my fist, kick with the heel, outside edge of the heel, ball of the foot or inside edge of the heel. I also didn't know how to do sidekicks, roundhouse kicks, back kicks, hook kicks, or any of the single jumping, jumping or jump spinning versions of those kicks. That must have been some womb that your instructor was in!

comicallyinsane

I did not study under an instructor. He is a Grandmaster. Big difference. Most people would not have made it through what I did. We had to be initiated into it. This is where the Grandmaster hits your body with a stick. Different places. It is a tradition that is a few thousand years old. Now no one can take my style from me except a Drunken Master or an Abbot. I know this is not what westerners are used to and it sounds crazy but I wouldn't change a thing. I remember when a Taekwon-do master came by to watch us he and the Grandmaster started talking. They went onto talking about how there are 435 styles of Kung Fu and what is involved. They then started talking about the differences in the 2 and the things wrong with styles not Kung Fu. After all this the Grandmaster offered to come to this guy's gym and teach him and his best student. The guy accepted and was very grateful.



So even though your post was a little attacking towards what I do it is ok. Just please do not to refer to him as an Instructor.

buddhafoot

My apologies.

I learned under a Master and under our Grandmaster who is located in Portland. Our Grandmaster learned his art from his youth in Korea and is getting a little up there in age.

In the martial art I took - I was always respectful to my Master and Grandmaster in the area of "taekwon-do" - but did not hold them as anything other than good people outside of class. Not to say that I was disrespectul - but outisde of class - they were Steve and Kyung. When people asked my instructors name (Master) I told them his name. I didn't tell them his title. Same with our Grandmaster.

Our classes sound like they were very tame compared to the training you went through. So, I speak out of ignorance regarding the depth of emotion you have with your art, how you train and when that training began. For that, I apologize. I didn't mean to offend you.

But, I still disagree with the hard core comments you made about not warming up and taking care of your body. I'm sure you've suffered accidents (like just about anybody that has done martial arts, boxing, full contact tournaments, etc.) and you know how long they can put your training on hold. I still say that you need to build up to it to make sure you don't do something that puts training, martial arts, working out, etc. at a standstill.

Best of luck to you.

Michael

comicallyinsane

Apology accepted. Let me be a bit more clear. My Grandmaster never taught kicks and punches meaning he showed us a technique twice and it was up to us to learn how to do it from there. There were about 5 of us watching. He did this because he wanted us work together in learning. We were all brothers in Kung Fu. It was our duty to help each other become better. Sometimes we didn't learn the technique the right way but that was okay. The Grandmaster would teach a similar one down the road. I never said do not take care of our bodies. He didn't encourage stretching before practice. He encouraged we take care of ourselves on our non Kung Fu training time. The reason he didn't encourage stretching right before practice was because in a real fight you didn't have time to stretch. I think he did this sort of training method to teach us a lesson on physical fitness. It was out duty to work out outside of training and we focused 100 percent on Kung Fu while at practice. And yes we called him Grandmaster outside of training. We went out and ate lunch with him and we spent a lot of our free time with him. Kung Fu is not someting we do. It is for a lot of us a way of life.