The Physical Movement, Lifestyle: The Doctor Crippled Me & You Wont Believe What I Did Next

I could not even lift a pencil without pain. I had a lot of injuries in my life, but nothing like this.

The Doctor Crippled Me & You Wont Believe What I Did Next

I could not even lift a pencil without pain. I had a lot of injuries in my life, but nothing like this.

I could not breath, go to the bathroom, or move in any way without almost passing out.

That is how I woke up the morning after.

I was 37 years old and had made my first visit to the chiropractor the afternoon before.

I had some nagging back soreness that had bothered me for months, so I followed a friends suggestion to get checked out. I had never got to a chiropractor before.

Little did I know this event would change the way I thought about my health and cared for myself.

I was always active. Played sports my whole life. A lot of hockey. Had been going to the gym for 20 years. In many ways, at 37 , I was still treating my body like I was 22.

In 12 hours from the time of the visit to the chiropractor, it felt like I went from 37 to 97 years old. An adjustment during the visit triggered a herniation of some kind. Somehow a nerve was under pressure and as a result, and any time I moved, I almost passed out.

Photo courtesy of David Monje via Unsplash

My 2 year old son could not understand why I could not play with him. That broke my heart. I needed help doing everything. I was scared.

That was 18 years ago. I remember it like yesterday.

After a day of this pain, I had no choice but to go to the emergency room. The 9 hours there (the downside of Canadian health care!), was an experience in itself.

The MD checked me out and ran some tests. I had a herniated disk in my lower back and 2 choices. Surgery or physio + Core strengthening.

I chose the latter.

Slowly, over weeks and months, I started to get back to normal. I moved with a cane during that time and had to carefully plan every movement. For 6 weeks, I had at least 4–5 times a day where I almost passed out (I am not a big pain killer guy).

In the weeks after, I had lots of time to reflect, and many of my thoughts replayed the visit to the chiro. The mistakes made were clear to me.

What led to my injury was not just the chiropractor, he may have triggered it. It was also partially self-inflicted.

Let me explain.

On the chiropractor side, there was little assessment of my movement capacity and function. I filled out a form and away we went with very hard adjustments. There is no doubt in my mind the hard adjustments herniated a disk. I also think there was some weakness there.

The MD that treated me in emergency mentioned that my core needed to be strengthened. Even though I was active, I did little to strength my core in the years leading to the injury. To this day, I am grateful that I had the wisdom to be accountable for my role in the situation.

I had worn down my core via all the years of skating and lifting, neglected it to the point of weakness.

Coming to this conclusion, was critical in my recovery.

The recipe the physio gave me back to health included regular daily core strengthening exercises. I have modified and progressed and added some over the years, but to this day they are part of my daily routine.

I have come back even stronger. Back pain is no longer part of my life. Knock on wood, 18 years later and I am not sore after skating like I used to be. Not sore after long periods of standing, sitting, hiking or any activity. My core strength improved my overall capacity to do stuff.

This event marked a significant lesson in dealing with an aging body. Daily core work how I addressed it.

This is something we can all do.

In fact, with all the information on the internet about different exercises and types of training, the 1 thing I would recommend to all is daily core work. I call it work, because it is has a purpose. The purpose is the outcome of being able to do stuff without compromise. I always made time for that, it became my mission.

Nothing fancy. No big events or super athletic goals. I wanted to be pain free.

This became my WHY. Pain free to be able to play with my son.

Perhaps this sounds like a mandate for a much older person, but I am grateful my switch flipped. I was determined and my WHY has sustained me since then.

Here are some of the moves that got me stronger and pretty much pain free for the last 18 years. They are not that exciting, and any of the clients I have coached have not realized how much improvement they can create. The key is consistency. Daily. Less that 5 minutes is all it takes. Simple not easy.

None of this matters of course, if you don’t have your own WHY. Your own reason pushes you to do something because it is that important to you.

Ready? Here is the foundation. You can do other things, but this is the foundation for building your core strength.

Yours Truly Finding Time On My Mission To Be Pain Free : sometimes part of warm up, sometimes it’s all I can do in a day!

Plank.

· Push Up Plank.

· Forearm plank.

· Side plank.

· Forearm plank to side plank.

· Forearm plank to push up plank.

· Plank for short time (10 seconds all out contraction is referred to as RKC Plank).

· Plank for long time (2 minutes of planking is a good standard to achieve).

Plank is not sexy. It is not fancy. But it teaches your body how to brace and builds your abdominal wall.

Your abdominal wall protects your spine and lower back. Your core is your hub for movement.

Basic stuff. Not gimmicky or even newsworthy.

Simple not easy.

A possible sour note to chiropractors turned into a lifestyle change that has sustained me for almost 20 years.

As Mike Tyson said: “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth”. A herniated disk was my punch in the mouth. It changed the way I go about my day. Some days as little as 30 seconds to a minute.

Everyone deserves to play with their kids pain free!