Lower back injury/ herniated disc advice

[OzBungy]

There are all sorts of medical and pretend medical things you can do to help. Good luck for whatever you choose to spend your time and money on.

In terms of practical things what you can do is to refine your gear and technique so that kiteboarding is a good thing for your back.

As an example, I am currently riding a directional and doing a lot of foot swapping. I can ride around all day with no effort at all if I want to. I can cruise upwind then carve and blast my way back downwind with barely a peep out of my back.

Of course I also do a lot of toeside and that works my back hard but if I could not do that I would be happy cruising about.

Your goal is to find the combination of gear and technique that lets you have fun but does not aggravate your injury.

A few tips:
- lots of toeside is not so good for your back.
- toeside and a seat harness is definitely very bad. Think of having a giant wrench attached to your hips twisting your back.
- I much prefer a waist harness to a seat harness. My back improved heaps after switching.
- Avoid poo-man stance. That is bad for riding, looks really bad and is bad for your back.
- Straight back, straight arms, steer from the shoulder, hips forward, front leg straighter, back leg more bent.

Just a thought, blasting downwind in a series of linked carves is a similar movement to my favourite low back stretches (lie on back, knees bent, rotate legs from side to side). That's got to be a good thing.

[Larse]

Sorry to hear about your back pain. That sucks... I wrote an article on lower back pain and kiteboarding. Maybe it can help you;

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... Itemid=121

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... &Itemid=74

It's not about herniated discs, but more on posture and how that effects your back. Also which kind of training to do, with specific postures to prevent you from getting more pain in the future.

I've trained a lot of people with disc problems and with the correct training, many people can live a normal active life without pain. Correcting posture is one of the most important things! So it's a good thing to learn more about posture and especially training.

If your posture is perfect, you can just do core ecercises to prevent more problems. I also wrote a little something on that;

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... &Itemid=73

[mike dubs]

miked,

Sorry to hear, i suffer as well and its not fun, agree wiuth a lot that's been written by others, but I have definitely felt the following have helped me;

strengthen stomach muscles/core,
I do a couple of really good lower back pilates daily
I do some lower back yoga stretches daily
I have ridden a strapless surfboard last 3yrs solely, a lot less stress on the body and a very subtle challenge.
I use a sliding Dynabar, which is a brilliant purchase that helps twisting the body.

mike

[loco4viento]

Nice stuff, Larse!

Sorry to hear about your back pain. That sucks... I wrote an article on lower back pain and kiteboarding. Maybe it can help you;

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... Itemid=121

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... &Itemid=74

It's not about herniated discs, but more on posture and how that effects your back. Also which kind of training to do, with specific postures to prevent you from getting more pain in the future.

I've trained a lot of people with disc problems and with the correct training, many people can live a normal active life without pain. Correcting posture is one of the most important things! So it's a good thing to learn more about posture and especially training.

If your posture is perfect, you can just do core ecercises to prevent more problems. I also wrote a little something on that;

http://www.kiteboardingexercises.com/in ... &Itemid=73

[WndRdr]

Too bad to hear but been there and know that you can get it back to almost normal and pain free.

These are always very personal cases and it depends where in the back and also to which direction and how bad the herniation is. Mine was big and also the disc was broken. Almost could not walk nor lay down or sleep even with pain killers.

The case to recover was to
- find a position or posture where the pressure is released to have less pain and also to get space to let it start to cure the disc
- have slow walks to keep it active and also the movement is pumping the disc back to it's form and position
- make core muscles stronger. There are static abs and back core muscle moves that can be made when normal abs crunches cannot be made
-physiotherapy can ease the pain and also try to release possible muscle cramps
- slowly when it was getting a bit better hanging from legs or in physiotherapy table eases pressure and gives room for the disc to get back to it's place

it took over 10 months to be able to kite again but it was very nice to kite without any pain.

Kiteboarding is good for abs but the most important core muscles will not get enough training. You need to work for those now and in the future too. Also fix your posture at home, at work and where ever you stand or sit as it may be the root cause. The better shape core muscles are the easier it isto keep correct posture.

Do not push it too hard as it will take the time but it will bet better when you work for it. I would wait the time until pain eases in eveyday activities before going to water but you feel it when you are ready.

[miked]

Thanks you all for the great advices!
WndRdr, you wrote:

There are static abs and back core muscle moves that can be made when normal abs
crunches cannot be made

Can you please elaborate? Did you find out about the above exercises from your physical therapist?

[WndRdr]

The only exercises I could do at the beginning where prone bridge and static version of lateral bridge. I was not able to do any abs crunches as those caused more pain. Bridge exercises to core muscles are very simple to do but they will do the trick. You should be able to find tons of material and instructions about these from web but also physical therapist should be able to help you out and plan an exercise for you.

I knew those from other sports that I have done but got the instructions from the therapist that I could do those to help to get inner muscles activated and support the problem area.

[WndRdr]

Forgot to say that depending on your strength and pain caused by the injury you can start those core exercises by supporting your weight with elbows and knees and not toes. It makes it easier to control the balance and also it is somewhat easier to do at first. When pain eases or when you have the strength then start doing those with full length of your body.

Recovering from this needs some feeling to what makes good and what causes pain and then adapt the duration and the effort of the exercise to that.

[blowhard]

Robin Mckenzies' book "Treat your own back"

got me back on it ,the kind of thearpy that makes sense

[BeautifulBreeze]

This is going to sound really, really odd, but I hope that my condition IS just a herniated disk. Yes, I'm experiencing a tremendous amount of lower back pain, but I'm also experiencing other symptoms on top of that. The reason why I think I MAY have a herniated disk is because I AM an athlete.

Anyway, I have a question for you all. Have any of you guys been experiencing lower back pain (dull but strong) along with migraines, dizziness and blurred vision? I haven't gone in for an examination/evaluation yet, but my symptoms SEEM to be similar to the ones associated with chordoma. These symptoms can be associated with so MANY things. If any of you guys exhibited the same symptoms (due to a herniated disk), DO let me know. I'm worried that my pain is more invasive and neurological. Thanks, everyone.