I am going to dedicate this week's blog post to a testimonial. I am honored that this patient came to me for assistance with her problem. Realize that her story may or may not resonate with you, but if it is does, I am recommending that you get a good mechanical assessment before you begin any exercise/treatment program. Some of these exercises may make you worse. You won't know until you get a good evaluation. So without getting too preachy I am going to let you enjoy her experience...(I did add some pictures and did not change her text or correct any typographical errors).
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| Get Your Cobra On! |
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L5/S1 Herniations - My Story
For a decade or more, my back was usually achy after I spent a gloriously long day in my beloved garden. The hurt always went away the next morning, after a long soak in an Epsom salt bath and a good night’s sleep.
I started CrossFit in June 2013 and the achiness lasted aday or two more than normal. As the results showed, I excitedly stepped up the weights and ran a few more meters. It was painful the next day, but I pushed thru it - the CrossFit mantra.
One night the WOD called for what seemed like endless laps in theyard of “Junk Yard Dog”. This was the first night I felt the burning sensation.
Soon after that night, the WOD called for a 2 mile run, and that burned too. Then I was punished for being 20 seconds late one day (late because I rounded up the box owner’s dog who had run down the street) and the 20 burpee penalty pushed theburning over the edge to no relief zone. I put CrossFit on the shelf.
That afternoon of the burpee punishment, I took xrays at my husband’s chiropractic clinic, and he saw an L5/S1 bulge. We began therapy and ice packs, but the pain couldn’t be relieved. It disrupted my sleep, it hurt when I sat for too long,it hurt when I drove the car over 30 minutes, it made rising from chairs anawful task, and, most alarmingly, I had a spike of pain when I sneezed while watching the NFL playoffs on tv with my husband.
It was at this time that Nola Paleo Club had a lunch meeting, and my husband and I sat with Lynn Grimm and her husband. I told them the short version of my story and explained my confusion of what professional to see for what. It’s quite a quandary even for someone with the medical and spine contacts like me.
In late January 2014, an MRI indicated two slight herniations. My husband modified the therapy in his clinic accordingly to include multi-time per week decompression, ultrasound, medical massages, and electric stimulation. He was confident the herniation/lesions could heal. Within 2 months, the pain had subsided, but an aggravating, constant cramping on the opposite side of the herniations presented itself. I suffered with this lingering cramping for 6 weeks.
In May 2014, I began yoga for the stretching component in anattempt for relief with limited results. Three other incidences coincidentally occurred in May: 1) my husband took a yoga class with me and when we were incobra pose I told him this was the first time I was in total relief since January; 2) I ran into someone who said he had pulled back from CrossFit due to a cervical herniation and that Lynn Grimm had turned his injury around 180 degrees; and 3) I read and told my husband about Lynn’s blog entry speaking about her specialty of McKenzie Therapy.
My husband attempted to explain flexion versus extension tome, and said that Cobra fell into the extension category which is the essence of McKenzie Therapy. He encouraged me to visit with Lynn to see if her method could help my lingering pain.
My first office visit with Lynn was on a Friday at 11am and it lasted about 80 minutes. I was apprx 6-7 VAS at the onset. She put me thru a variety of moves - left, right, forward, backward - and in the end said my homework for the next week was lying flat on my back every 2 hours and hugging my knees. I did my first few sets of knee hugs in her office.
I left her office feeling good, felt progressively better asthe afternoon progressed, and for the next 36 hours felt exponentially better –almost as if I had never injured my back!!! I instantly labeled her The Back Whisperer. I was speechless. I honestly thought a sore back was my future ands he would only be able to provide some relief; I never dreamed I would be pain-free. Because I felt so good, I exerted myself a little too much so by the time I hit send on my status update note to her the pain reappeared. I again over-exerted on Sunday even tho I was feeling some pain so by Monday morning I was sadly back to square one. Monday thru Friday of that week I slowed my roll and continued my bi-hourly knee hugs.
By the time I saw Lynn for the second time the following Friday I was 5 VAS. She swiftly lectured me for doing my knee hugs too early in the day, in the middle of the night if I woke up (“but they feel so good”), she tried to explain spinal cord imbibition to me and the importance of no rigorous spine activity within 4 hours of awaken, put me thru a series of moves again, and this time assigned my homework of bicep curls, shoulder lifts, toe lifts,and squats assisted with a medicine ball against the wall, and my stretching homework was sitting in a chair, holding my ankles, and slowly reaching thru my legs toward the back of the chair.
The Back Whisperer struck again!!! I was more diligent about the stretching homework so I know they are the root of my total and complete relief. I have been totally pain free for 10 days even with painting a deck including the stairs, risers and posts on the deck, vacuuming and buffing 800 sf of hardwood floors, and even one CrossFit WOD – my first since January.
The stars were aligned for me with my husband recognizing the cobra pose as a McKenzie stretch and me running into that friend who Lynn had recently helped recover. I wish everyone’s recovery could be like mine but, alas, everyone’s back history, injury(s), and treatments vary. I just feel so very, very lucky to have talked everyone’s ear off that I came into contact with, googled my fingers raw, and kept persisting until I found the solution that was right for my situation.
I cannot highly recommend The Back Whisperer enough. Lynn Grimm is my hero!I started CrossFit in June 2013 and the achiness lasted aday or two more than normal. As the results showed, I excitedly stepped up the weights and ran a few more meters. It was painful the next day, but I pushed thru it - the CrossFit mantra.
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| WOD = Workout of the Day |
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| Junkyard Dog Exercise Part 1 |
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| Junkyard Dog Exercise Part 2 |
That afternoon of the burpee punishment, I took xrays at my husband’s chiropractic clinic, and he saw an L5/S1 bulge. We began therapy and ice packs, but the pain couldn’t be relieved. It disrupted my sleep, it hurt when I sat for too long,it hurt when I drove the car over 30 minutes, it made rising from chairs anawful task, and, most alarmingly, I had a spike of pain when I sneezed while watching the NFL playoffs on tv with my husband.
It was at this time that Nola Paleo Club had a lunch meeting, and my husband and I sat with Lynn Grimm and her husband. I told them the short version of my story and explained my confusion of what professional to see for what. It’s quite a quandary even for someone with the medical and spine contacts like me.
In late January 2014, an MRI indicated two slight herniations. My husband modified the therapy in his clinic accordingly to include multi-time per week decompression, ultrasound, medical massages, and electric stimulation. He was confident the herniation/lesions could heal. Within 2 months, the pain had subsided, but an aggravating, constant cramping on the opposite side of the herniations presented itself. I suffered with this lingering cramping for 6 weeks.
In May 2014, I began yoga for the stretching component in anattempt for relief with limited results. Three other incidences coincidentally occurred in May: 1) my husband took a yoga class with me and when we were incobra pose I told him this was the first time I was in total relief since January; 2) I ran into someone who said he had pulled back from CrossFit due to a cervical herniation and that Lynn Grimm had turned his injury around 180 degrees; and 3) I read and told my husband about Lynn’s blog entry speaking about her specialty of McKenzie Therapy.
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| Cobra Pose |
My first office visit with Lynn was on a Friday at 11am and it lasted about 80 minutes. I was apprx 6-7 VAS at the onset. She put me thru a variety of moves - left, right, forward, backward - and in the end said my homework for the next week was lying flat on my back every 2 hours and hugging my knees. I did my first few sets of knee hugs in her office.
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| VAS Scale |
By the time I saw Lynn for the second time the following Friday I was 5 VAS. She swiftly lectured me for doing my knee hugs too early in the day, in the middle of the night if I woke up (“but they feel so good”), she tried to explain spinal cord imbibition to me and the importance of no rigorous spine activity within 4 hours of awaken, put me thru a series of moves again, and this time assigned my homework of bicep curls, shoulder lifts, toe lifts,and squats assisted with a medicine ball against the wall, and my stretching homework was sitting in a chair, holding my ankles, and slowly reaching thru my legs toward the back of the chair.
The stars were aligned for me with my husband recognizing the cobra pose as a McKenzie stretch and me running into that friend who Lynn had recently helped recover. I wish everyone’s recovery could be like mine but, alas, everyone’s back history, injury(s), and treatments vary. I just feel so very, very lucky to have talked everyone’s ear off that I came into contact with, googled my fingers raw, and kept persisting until I found the solution that was right for my situation.
You know what I am going to say! "Everyone Deserves a Good Mechanical Assessment and Treatment Plan!" Schedule your appointment today at www.grimmpt.com or call 504-228-0524.
love you girl! sorry for so many words that run together. clearly my copy and paste from another blog entry is not compatible, but i hope my message is still clear: YOU ARE THE BACK WHISPERER
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