I posted here a few times about my back troubles. I must say, though at times I was in agony, overall I am not a serious back pain sufferer. These pains are liek your mother in law: annoying, but she is family, and you have to put up with her for the better good.
When I was in my 30-s unusual back trouble bothered me for a while: thoracic back pain. It wasn't the result of lifting or twisting. I just started. Curiously, it appeared in the mornings after long night sleep. In other words, on weekends when I got at six o'clock it was fine, but on Saturdays and Sundays when I could sleep late when I got up I could barely move because of pain.
The solution was exercise. If I had pain I did 10 minutes of mobility drills recommended years ago my my friend. It is difficult to describe these exercises; when I have time I will rather post a video. In any case, thoracic pain was sort of coming and going, the usual for arthritic pains. For years I was pain free.
In recent times I had several episodes of low back pain, and it probably isn't a coincidence that thoracic pain started appearing from time to time. I think this time I can at least partly blame lifting kettlebells for it. It seems that repeated jerks present considerable load for the thoracic spine. I don't know of any studies, with power plates, muscle tension measurements or otherwise, however after a high volume session upper spine feels like it has been mersilessly molested. again, these pains are not interfering with my life to any significant extent; they are more an inconvenience that reminds you of the fact that you are not getting younger.
As luck has it, several weeks ago Denis Kanygin asked me to review his new ebook: Thoracic Mobility and Flexibility for Kettlebell Lifters. It's not like it is a miracle: I had an ailment and - voila - Heaven sent me the Book. But it is something I could read straight away. You might remember my very positive reviews of Kanygin's GS DVD, so I was sure the quality of the material is going to be good.
It is not a large volume, rather a booklet. It gets straight to exercises which are presented on good quality photos and are easy to understand.
I didn't have anything to lose and did some exercises for couple of weeks. My ADD prevents me from sticking to something as systematic as structured mobility drill, so I did this and that, now and then. Even with such chaotic approach I can see results: I get less pain on waking up and generally feel more mobile.
It has been brought several times on Igx that older trainees should probably spend more time on mobility and flexibility drills. I am going to continue doing thoracic exercises from the book sent by Denis and recommend it for gireviks. Material written by Denis is available from his site: http://www.kettlebellsystema.com/
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Girevoy Sport info: methodology of training and sharing my own modest experience and observations.
1 comment:
One apparatus in my gym that I use before and after each training session is a Nordic Trac Inversion Machine. Gravity boots and a chin bar will work just as well. Aside from mobility work which is great the inversion is very helpful.
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