The battle over old age beliefs and back issues in 2023 is ongoing.
I have been working with Principle Physiotherapy and Dave Adkins for a number of years now. We have overcome hip, shoulder, and knee issues to the point where I don’t even think about them when exercising. However, my back is a real annoyance because it is far more complex than other injuries Dave advises on. So, I have always looked at three things: what caused it, how can I stop it, and zoning in on the affected area in my mind’s eye.
Backs are complex, and Dave is slowly changing my mindset with his patience matched only by my stubbornness to believe. Some months ago, my back went, and it took six weeks to calm down. Two months ago, it took ten days to calm down, but I listened to his direction. Last week, my back went again, but we caught the matter early and followed his direction. By Thursday, it had calmed down. However, I thought I could play golf and forgot about my back, which reminded me of my mistake.
The next day, I reverted to old age advice of resting and doing very little. On Monday, I was due to do some physical training and got there early to stretch my back. After 30 minutes, Dave finished with another client and waltzed toward me. My back felt frozen in spasm on a large part from the pelvis up the left-hand side of my spine. Dave did some light work and then set about making me do some other exercises that, at times, made me feel abject horror. But patiently, he waited, and I started. He went, “No, you are bracing, relax, breathe in, and exhale when stretching.” The result was that the area that felt frozen ended up being the size of a ten pence coin, and the next day, it was gone.
The moral of the story is that what we learned as children and young adults was the advice of the time. Times move on, and that is the key word: move. My instinct is to freeze, brace, and stop when relaxing and listening to “is it a niggle pain or is it a real hard pain.” Just do as much as you can at the time and slowly increase the moving and stretching.
To all, I am not writing this as some favor to David Adkins. I like him as my trainer, but that is it. I like him even more because he works out a program for the individual in question, not a generic workout or process. Backs will go, even with me thinking, “No, I want to find out why it happened.” Trust your trainer/physio, move, stretch, feel the fear, and do it anyway.
We are all different, but Principle Physio has helped me. So, if you are patient and work with them, they will work out something that works for you. Results can be achieved, and don’t be a stubborn son of a gun like me.
The choice is yours.
