Recognizing Excellence

It's been another rough February.

Just like last year I'm looking at a nagging rehab of a herniated disc that has already seriously limited all the good winter fun and is beginning to threaten the shoulder season that allows me to train hard enough for full enjoyment of Spring. The days are getting longer, and warmer, and although my thoughts should be on the condition of the North Face of Gothics, instead I'm thinking about the importance of recognizing competence -- excellence even -- in the people from whom you take advice.

Case in point: my back.

The doctor: Due to similarity of my pain to previous episodes known (by MRI) to be related to a herniated L5-S1 disc, she recommended the standard conservative treatment along with physical therapy (PT). She spent a few minutes with me, most of it typing in a computer. She gave me painkillers to get me through the day and muscle relaxers to reduce the spasms which -- I was told -- was the actual source of pain.

The first Physical Therapist (PT): After a week or so of just being barely mobile, with debilitating pain that would occasionally cause near blackouts when getting out of the truck I got my first PT appointment. He had me stretch what I could (my calves!) and do what little bracing exercises I could do. I would spend an hour at PT. He would be in the room for about 1/3 of that, just long enough to put some ice under my back, or hook up the e-stim (which I LOVE, the best part of this hack was he gave me the controls to the e-stim and let me just crank it up as high as wanted... I'm a sucker for this shock therapy. I'd crank that up to just a little less than would cause a full back arch that would lift me off the table. I loved that!), or put on the ultrasound thing. I got progressively worse under his care. It got to the point that sometime 10-15 steps is all I could manage. He couldn't place his care in context except to say that actual spinal manipulation would be a very bad idea. After two sessions and a degrading condition, I dropped that facility (which I won't name here, I'm sure they're nice people and effective in other cases).

The second PT: During the first appointment at Penn States Sports Medicine, my PT spent over an hour with me. Watching me carefully. Talking with me. Making me move and describe the pain, it's intensity, it's quality, how it changes in different positions and how it had changed since we started the session. When she put me in what I recognized from my own reading to be a "Mckenzie" posture, she described what we were going to do, what the reasoning behind it was. When I asked about McGill's evidence that limited flexibility in the lumbar spine actually helped prevent lumbar injuries and my concern that the end range of motion required by Mckenzie's methods might not be helpful. She discussed it with me. She got down at my level (since I was facedown on the table) and we talked about it and was able to place different methods in context. When I left, she gave me her copy of Mckenzie's "Treat Your Own Back" for further study. A week later, when I had improved greatly but plateaued in my recovery, she admitted she could try only one other technique (lumbar flexion, after fastidiously avoiding any lumbar flexion for weeks priot) before reaching the limit of what she might have to offer me, but suggested others I might see if I wasn't improving when we next met. The lumbar flexion worked, despite being contraindicated by most of my symptons, and I'm on a generally positive slope of improvement again.

The important point is this: When you're dealing with anything important to you (health, life, family, even your job, maybe), you have to recognize what excellence is. What it looks like and sounds, how it behaves. How it fits into your broader understanding of life... And how it doesn't. Sorting the truth from the bullshit can make all the difference. Start by differentiating between students of truth and bullshitters.

Low Back Rehab Program: Two Diagnostic Tests

So clearly I'm putting alot of faith in Stuart McGill's expertise. Of course, I'm also putting alot of faith in my ability to understand what he teaches and then use it intelligently to make this the last time I have to "rehab" my back. This is probably simple hubris, though, because the book itself is written to help the working clinical professional and my plan is to simply go it alone. I finished "Low Back Disorders" and I'm ready to get cracking on working out again as long I'm not risking another tweaked back. First though, there are a two simple tests that I think are instructive.

Back Bridge Test
The first can indicate whether a person is correctly activating the glutes for hip opening. This back-bridge test is performed lying flat on your back, legs bent, knees flat on the floor. Tense your entire "core" muscles to maintain a nuetral spine as you open raise your hips off the floor, opening your hip (it's kind of like what they are showing here, but don't extend the one leg at the knee). Use your hands to feel (the fancy word is "palpate", but just start poking and prodding) which of your muscles are most strongly activated. Feel your abs (not just the six pack but all around your abdomen), then check your glutes, check your hamstrings, and check your quads. Which are working the hardest? Can you feel them working? I

Go ahead, do it now. Once you know what it's supposed to feel like you'll never do it the same again.

Your glutes should be most strongly activated. The hamstrings should be only slightly activated However, in people who have had lower back injuries, it's very common to have the hamstrings and the extensors in the lower back take much of the effort rather than glutes. This places much more of a compressive load on the spine. If you pretend to squeeze a coin between your butt and activate your quads slightly, you can feel how the glutes and hips can take the load, and this is how the body is supposed to function. Retraining hip opening to emphasize the glutes will be key.

Abdominal Muscular Enduance (aka my Spinal Fran)
OK, so now to the good measurable stuff, testing muscular endurance. Given that endurance in the 'core' musculature is protective of the spine, defining any defficiencies in this area will help guide the rehabilitation program. It will also provide a useful measuring stick of progress. This will be my "Spinal Fran" benchmark. There are three static hold tests and by comparing the length (in seconds) of static holds in these different positions, one can determine what underlying defficiencies are limiting long-term recovery in low back pain patients. So, I put together a crude test lab in my living room (see picture) and, after a trial run to get everything right, here's what I got on my second tests

Left Side Bridge = 61 seconds
Right Side Bridge = 75 seconds
55 Degree Flexion = 153 seconds
Back Extension = 138 seconds

To interpret the results, he notes that the following ratios are statistically significant in populations with low back pain. I believe these values also have some use as predictors of future back pain.

55 degree flexion/back extension >1.0 -->My value is 1.11
Right Side Bridge/Left Side Bridge outside the range 0.95 to 1.05 --> My value is 1.23
Right Side Bridge/back extension > 0.75 --> My value is 0.54
Left Side Bridge/back extension > 0.75 --> My value is 0.44

So, if I've done these correctly, this indicates that my flexion/extension ratio is aberrant (>1.0), indicating that my back extension endurance is low. I'll be working these with Bird Dogs.

It also shows that the right side lateral abs have statistically higher endurance than my left (RSB/LSB outside the range 0.95 to 1.05). I'll be working both sides with Side Bridges.

Finally, it also shows that the relative endurance of my lateral abs to my extensors is OK (less than 0.75).

Interesting. And it will be interesting to see how these change over the next few months.

A Review of Stuart McGill's "Low Back Disorders" - Part 1

In an effort to resolve my own chronic back issues once and for all, I am making the effort to read -- and try to really understand -- Stuart McGill's "Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation." This review is an effort to very concisely summarize some points that he makes in the book. The book is intended for professional clinicians, which I am not. I will try to summarize in the least technical terms possible the points that are helping me to shift how I think about my back and how I can get to a permanent pain-free situation; one where I don't have to worry about my back giving out every time I head out on some little trip. I encourage anyone who is actually working through their own back pain to consult the original source, it's entirely possible that I've completely misunderstood entire portions of the book.

Parts 1 & 2

The book is divided into three Parts: 1 - The Scientific Foundation, 2 - Injury Prevention, and 3 - Low Back Rehabilitation. I'm still working through Part 3, so this review only covers the scientific foundation and injury prevention. I know, if you're reading this all you really want o know is what to do, but I haven't gotten there yet. The first two parts are164 pages long. I took 8.5 pages of notes in very small print, so obviously I'm leaving alot out.

1 - Most chronic low back pain issues are not the result of a single traumatic incident (unless of course they are the result of, say, a snowmobile accident (see first image), or a fall from height which applies a very high load in a single event); they are the result of "cumulative trauma pathways." This is either the repeated application of a low load (ex, repetitively flexing the spine while picking light objects up off the floor; see second image) or a sustained load for long duration (ex, slouching while sitting at a computer or a carpenter constantly bending over to put nails in a floor; see third image). These loads are typically well below what people believe is damaging to the spine but repeated or prolonged exposure is indeed damaging. So, even though I typically can pinpoint an incident where I 'tweaked my back,' it is more likely that the hours of sitting slouched at work and poor control of lumbar flexion in other everyday tasks is the real culprit. These are the low-level loads that permit me to 'tweak' my back.

2 - Using the "core" musculature (extensors, anterior abdominals, and lateral abdominals along with a bunch of other supportive tissues, like the lumbodorsal facia, is discussed) to lock the rib cage onto the pelvis supports the spine in a neutral position is key to reducing loads on the spine during all everyday tasks from getting out of bed to opening a door to picking up a pencil off the floor.

3 - Interestingly, muscle endurance (NOT strength) and lower (NOT larger) range of motion is protective of the spine. So, even though it's common to think, "I need to be stronger and more flexible," you really need to be more precise. You don't need strength so much as you need endurance in your stabilizing core muscles so that they can maintain the low-level contractions necessary for stabilizing the lumbar spine in all of your everyday tasks; from opening doors to tying your shoes to shoveling snow. Further, more flexibility in the lumbar spine makes you MORE likely to get injured. Now, it might be that you need to increase flexibility in the hip (say, the hamstrings or psoas), but you need to stretch those muscles correctly; which is to say, keeping the spine neutral and being conscious to not accidentally stretch the lumbar extensors. This error is particularly common in the toe-touch type of hamstring stretches, where you bend over (or sit) and touch your toes. This is stretching your extensors more than your hamstrings and exacerbating instability issues in the lumbar spine.

4 - I've already commented on how poor motor control can lead to spine buckling and injury, even when picking up very light objects.

5 - McGill encourages you to think about your spine this way: it's a fishing rod with the reel end on the ground (this is the flimsy flexible spine itself) supported by guy wires that allow it to support a load (the guy wires are the anterior, lateral, and posterior musculature that, when stiff, permits the spine to bear massive loads. The key points: 1 - without stiffened (slightly taught) musculature, the spine is flimsy and flexible under even the most modest loads (few pounds); and 2 - if any of the guy wires are more or less tight than the others, this will lead to instability so all the muscles must work together.

6 - Spinal flexion early in the morning should be carefully avoided. The spine lengthens while you sleep overnight because the spinal loads are lower than the osmotic pressure, therefore the discs fill with fluid. These engorged discs greatly increase the pressure of any flexion in the morning, so absolutely no flexion stretches in the morning (no toe touches, no bringing your knees to your chest, etc) and be very careful when putting on your socks and tying your shoes.

7 - Sciatica symptoms are the result of nerve irritation. Therapy is two-fold: 1 - avoid end ROM in the spine, and 2 - perform "nerve flossing." There's a demo here, but I can't verify that is done absolutely perfectly, but that's the general idea. If you have sciatica, best to review this with you PT, and not rely on a blog or youtube.

8 - It is useful to remember that muscles and other soft tissues are not rigid and static but creep (slowly elongate when under load) and have more viscoelastic properties. This comes up several times in the discussion of herniated discs and how the nucleus of the spinal discs can 'migrate' or flow depending on the posture of the spine. In diagrams, the nucleus is typically shown in the middle of the annulus, but it's useful (if not completely technically accurate) to think about the nucleus moving closer to the edge of the annulus in response to repeated flexion (or extension) or prolonged flexion (or extension). When the nucleus is off-center and then full range of motion flexion/extension or large loads combined with flexion/extension are performed, it is much more likely to result in a herniated disc. Best to give the disc a few minutes to equilibrate while in a neutral posture before beginning to load it. This comes up again and again. It also affects the order in which rehabilitation exercises are performed, so it's an important concept that requires more detail than I can provide here.

9 - Some specific advice for preventing low back disorders:

a - avoid end ROM in the spine, keep it neutral;

b - reduce the reaction moment on the spine by keeping loads close to the body, directing force vectors through, or around, the lumbar spine, and simply reducing the weight or load itself;

c - avoid exertion after prolonged flexion (ex, immediately picking and moving boxes after sitting for awhile, instead stand-up, move around for a few minutes first, then begin exertion);

d - avoid high torques on twisted spines (note that significant torque should only be applied to neutral spine);

e - use momentum properly to reduce loads (note that slow and smooth isn't always the best way to spare the spine);

f - make seated work less demanding on the spine by constantly changing positions (there is no "perfect sitting posture"!), get out of the chair as often as possible (maybe every time the phone rings?), and get a little exercise in the middle of the workday;

g - Limit flexion early in the morning;

h - do as much variety as possible, repetitive work, even at low loads, can be very damaging over the long term;

i - co-contract the lower back and abdominal musculature to stabilize the spine even with very light loads.

10 - In general, workers should not wear any sort of lumbar back support. There's a whole chapter on this, if you really want to know why, check out the book. It's clearly stated and the supporting evidence is convincing (to me, anyway).

11 - During all daily activities and especially during rehabilitation exercises, prevent pain first. The pain is the result of injury and continuing to irritate the tissues causing the tissues to sensitize to even very minor irritation. In addition, the pain results in an entire series of cascading issues that basically makes gives your back a "limp." This "limping back" ingrains poor motion and muscle activation patterns that will prolong back pain and limit recovery and rehabilitation. Never work through the pain. This is not a "No Pain, No Gain" problem. Eliminate the pain first. Only work through a ROM that is pain-free. Always.

IMAGES: All the images above were photographed from Stuart McGill's "Low Back Disorders: Evidenced Based Prevention and Rehabilition" 2nd edition. They are provided here without permmission but with full credit.

The Hunched Back Deadlift & Loss of Motor Control

Some people deadlift with hunched backs. No one argues that this is ideal posture. However, it's incredibly common -- and not just among people new to the lift or the gym. Elite national and international-level powerlifting competitors can often be seen with fully extended hips but with remaining lumbar flexion before the completion of the lift.

It really bothers me because I am extremely careful with deadlift form and I have still occasionally aggravated my disc herniation. If I were to get anywhere near these postures at weights near my 1 RM I'm pretty sure the nucleus from L5-S1 disc would not simply herniate, it would come flying out of my spine like a big hunk of snot. I understand that the thousands of reps and millions of pounds that elite competitors have lifted under the watchful eye of effective trainers probably means their body is prepared for how they lift, but what about the noobs?

McGill's "Low Back Disorders..." sheds some light on this subject (see the (rather poor) photo of pg. 105 of the second edition of this book). He brought in a bunch of powerlifters. He measured the maximum flexion of their spine unweighted. This is considered 100% flexion for a given athlete. Then he used several different means to monitor these lifters as they made heavy lifts. In every case but one (which we'll get to), while these athletes may have flexed their spine (so their spines are no longer in the "neutral" (or standing) posture), they always stopped 2-3 degrees short of full 100% flexion in any of their lumbar joints. OK, so these athletes are so finely tuned that their bodies know exactly how far they can flex and then they flex no more. I doubt the average gym rat or CrossFitter is so self-aware; especially at the end of a wod when completely winded... but it is possible that some people are just naturally more aware of spine positioning that others. And it appears that these people are less likely to become injured.

During the testing, however, one athlete experienced a loss of muscle control in one of the muscles (it's not clear which, and it's not necassarily important) stabilizing the spine. This permitted one lumbar joint (the L2-L3 in this case) to flex to -- and beyond -- 100% flexion. This athlete was injured. This illustrates a couple of points:

1 - It explains how all those hunched backs in deadlift competitions are not constantly injuring people. They probably never reach 100% flexion in any joint, so the soft tissue (ligaments, discs) remains free of acute trauma.

2 - Even if you've gotten away with it before, even trained powerlifters can have a momentary loss of motor control that can injur the spine. This is more likely if you have a 'hunched' spine where there is little room (2-3 degrees!) for error.

3 - This also explains how people hurt their spine doing relatively benign tasks. I 'tweaked' my back one time picking up my toothbrush off the floor! Obviously the loads here are very small, but if there is a momentary loss of motor control, one of the lumbar joints might reach 100% flexion, which results in injury.

Interesting stuff. I've not yet reached the part of the book where McGill will expain how I might rehab and retrain the 'stablizing' muscles of the spine to reduce the risk of 'loss of motor control', especially during hard breathing where these same stabilizing muscles are helping the athlete to breathe. This is howevery the point of the last third of the book. This seems particular relevant to the CrossFitter who is constantly being asked to lift hard, fast and to do so while really sucking wind.

SOUNDTRACK: Hey it's Christmas Eve and even punks (occasionally) write Christmas songs. Darlington's "X-mas" on the Album "Mess You Up" (BTW, I linked to Amazon to show the album cover which is... um.. confusing, but recommend your local independent record store) is slow but still pretty catchy. I know the feeling of the lyrics, "I need a bottle of holiday cheer..." They also have a good almost-cover of the Rocky Horror Picture Show "Timewarp" song. I saw these guys years ago at Upstairs at Nicks in Philly, bought a 7", enjoyed it. End of story I thought. They were called "Mess" then. Years later, though, I borrowed a bunch of CDs from a friend to listen to while I was re-finishing the basement in my house and was surprised to find that they had changed their name to Darlington. Just another slurred-speach version of TheRamones, but good stuff. Very poppy. Hits the spot sometimes. Like on X-mas Eve.

IMAGE: Taken without permission but with full credit from pg. 105 of Stuart McGill's "Low Back Disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation", 2nd Edition.

Hitting the Books

As I eagerly await the delivery of Stuart McGill's "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance", PSU interlibrary loan delivered his "Low Back Disorders: Evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation." Although the title of "Ultimate Back Fitness..." sounds like an amateur bodybuilder's roadmap to "mile-wide lats" and "shredded traps," neither book is directed towards bodybuilders, strength athletes, or other athletes. Rather it is directed toward the doctors and physical therapists who treat injured people, including athletes and workers.

I probably won't read "Low Back Disorders..." cover-to-cover like I will "Ultimate Back Fitness..." but I did start reading it and taking notes last night. I approached it like I do any textbook: skim the whole book emphasizing the figures and charts and their captions; then read the preface; then actually start to read it. Seeing as how this is pretty dry text, a few fingers of whiskey (see image) and some Screeching Weasel in the background help make this more enjoyable. Typically when reading or skimming a book like this I mentally note the points that AGREE with my worldview, but seeing as how my normal worldview is what keeps getting
me into this mess, I'm trying really hard to notice those things that CLASH with my current understanding. This won't be hard, since dispelling current "clinical wisdom" is one of the main points of this book.

Here's a couple of comments that caught my eye:

pg 8 Right off the bat, "Ill-advised Rehabilitation Recommendations" include 1) "Strengthen the muscles in the torso to protect the back" (her argues that endurance is more important than strength); 2) "...bend the knees, not the back" (he argues that very few jobs can be performed this way and there are better techniques) and 3) "Tight hamstrings...lead to back troubles" (maybe but not neccessarily). Interestingly enough, immediately after the recent aggravation, I started planning to really start strengthening my (lower) abs and lower back, stretch my hamstrings, and learn to better recruit my torso muscles to stabilize
my spine. I'm getting the feeling that learning to stabilize the spine is where I'm going to be spending the majority of my time.

pg.144 "Should Intra-abdominal Pressure (IAP) Be Increased During Lifting? Generally the answer is no: At least IAP should not be increased conciously..." with the caveat, "very strenuous lifts...will require the build-up of IAP to increase torso stiffness and ensure stability."

pg 150 "Is it advisable to maintain a reasonable level of fitness? ... well-chosen (ed: not situps, apparently) exercise is the most powerful strategy for preventing occupational back troubles."

pg 156 illustrates the proper way to roll-over in bed!

pg 157 "Reducing the risk in athletes. ...Without exception, they had to change the way they trained. Their backs were breaking down for a reason!"

pg 187 "Train to breathe freely while maintaining the stabilizing abdominal wall contractions"

pg 218 "Eliminating Unsafe Exercises" where three exercises are listed as "inappropriate exercises" that have been "prescribed for people with low back difficulties": sit-ups, leg raises, "traditional extensor exercises" (think back extensions and those "back extension" machines).

pg 239 "Training to Squat and Power Clean...If perfect starting position cannot be obtained, then other means are needed. Many great atheletes can not do these lifts."

SOUNDTRACK: "Three Sides" by Screeching Weasel from one of the all-time great pop-punk records "Anthem for a New Tommorrow". The lyrics "Three sides to every stupid question, three sidees to everything you see" struck me as appropriate last night as I look to challenge what I think I know about my back and my health.

Well Enough to Work, But Not Well Enough to Play

I'm always angry that "well enough to work" precedes "well enough to play" when recovering from an injury or illness. It just isn't right. Or maybe I should take up less active "play." If I lived to play video games, then, man, would I love being immobile. Unfortunately for me, I haven't owned a video game console since my Atari 2600 when I was a kid and the only video games in the house are Ms. Pac Man and Pole Position and so the progression generally goes:


1 - Sick
2 - Well enough to work
3 - Well enough to work around the house
4 - Well enough to workout
5 - Well enough to play

So last night after doing some work in the garage and getting angrier and angrier. I thought I would very gently TRY the hangboard. After all, it's right there, and besides hanging is supposed to be good for herniated disks: it's supposed to open up the vertebrae and give the disc more room to go back to where it belongs... ie nowhere near my spinal cord.

I got my Metolius Simulator (see pics) this summer from a friend who had a long-lasting finger tendon issue from climbing and didn't see the hangboard as anything he would ever risk. It's harder than I thought. After no real climbing in over six months, I couldn't hang at all from the 'hard sloper' and could only manage at most a few seconds on the smallest crimpers. Since I'm brand new to ha
ngboards and haven't climbed in months, my entire 15 minute workout was probably equivalent to the first half of a real climbers' warm-up. Still, I could feel it. I threw in a few hangs on the pull-up bar and some circuits on the ice tools for variety.

It's easy to see why so many people provide such boisterous cautions about overuse with these things, though. It's not easy to imagine that if this is the workout I was limited to for a few weeks that I would very quickly overdo it and then really be up the creek as overuse injuries in the hand are notoriously slow to heal. Therefore, I consider my biggest success last night one of discretion: I cut the workout short and refused to do even one slow strict pull-up. And my back was the better for it.

Soundtrack: "Pack Your Bags" by The Bodies. I love this song. So funny. I can't find a link to a sample or even the lyrics but it's on TKO's original "Punch Drunk" comp, which is pretty good and cheap (if you can find it). The summary: Guy kicks out girlfriend ("f-ck off and don't you know, I don't give a damn where you go!"), then see's her picture during the bridge and begs for her to come back ("Alright, I'm not mad, won't you please, please come back?") It's a staple in my wod playlists where it always get's me pumped up AND makes me laugh. A rare combination.

The CrossFit Comeback! ...Interrupted

Well, two weeks and just one and a half full-intensity WODs into my long-anticipated Crossfit Comeback and I've aggravated my herniated disk. Unbelievable. Nothing "popped" as it has in the worst cases in the past, but anything other than walking (except maybe the hangboard... we'll have to see) is not happening right now. And it couldn't have come at a worse time either. Tussey Mountain is starting to blow snow and should open this weekend, a deep freeze
has settled over the entire Northeast creating favorable conditions for ice to finally start to form, and lake effect snow is blowing all the way to Maine. ...And my back is screwed again. Let me see I can get the timeline right and then start thinking of a way out of this.

The comeback was going well. I'd been eating zonish all of November. My first week of wods(starting after Thanksgiving) was all half-volume, medium intensity just-get-back-into-the-groove type stuff from the main site or from CrossFit KoP. I felt good. I was stiff and sore in all the right ways. I was happy to learn that the skill-based "crossfit tricks" (things like double-unders, kipping and butterfly pull-ups, against-the-wall handstand push-ups, pistols, etc) all pretty much picked up where they left off, and I was finding a way to fit the wods into my schedule. Of course, my strength and stamina were seriously degraded, as was my mental ability to push the intensity... but I knew I'd get those back quickly.

After one week of this, the wod called for a 1000m row, then 21-15-9 reps of GHD sit-ups and back extensions. Pretty straightforward. I'd sub 45lb sumo deadlift high pulls for the rows, abmat situps for the GHD situps, and supermans for the back extensions. A not-bad workout that I could do full-volume. But I felt the tug in my lower back during the SDLHPs. So, being very cautious about my lower back, I cut them short and wrapped up the situps and supermans without issue or discomfort. "Damn. I'm so smart and approriately cautious," I thought.

I took a much needed day-off just to catch up on my sleep and everything felt fine. The next day I decided to go full-on intensity for a couple of short benchmark wods. The first was 200 double-unders for time. That felt OK, and I was surprised to find my time (5 minutes and some change) not as bad as I thought it would be. I rested a bit. Played on the hangboard for a few minutes. Then I did a couplet "ramp" or "half pyramid" from CFKoP: 1 burpee and 1 53lb kettlebell swing the first minute; two each the next minute until I couldn't complete a round in one minute. I love these types of wods! It was GREAT! I mean, I only made 8 full rounds but it felt good to take the governer off and just go for it. Not exactly an impressive score, but I was happy to find my mental ability to increase the intensity on these burners was coming back. My lower back
felt OK but I could tell it wasn't 100%.

The next morning I spent about an hour shoveling extremely wet, heavy snow. Thank god my
neighbor cleared the bulk of my driveway with this tractor-mounted snowblower. I was as careful as I could be, but my back didn't much care for it. But still, I felt no sharp pains and was expecting to have to work through a bit of discomfort as I got back in the groove. "So far so good," I thought.

That night the main site wod was to run a 5k. No way was I doing that in the dark at 25 F. That would be a sure-fire case of bronchitis. The famous "300" wod was on the CFKoP site. I could do that with the weight scaled back a bit. The deadlifts were already plenty light (135 lbs) and I'd just cut them short if it bothered me.

Well they did bother me, and I did cut them short, but by the time I got halfway through the box jumps, I knew I should stop. Unless I very consciously tightened my abs and held my breath, I would feel a little twinge when I landed at the top. So I stopped. It still didn't feel that bad and again I congratulated myself on my ability to make the tough decision to just cut the workout short. "This is how I will avoid a serious injury," I thought.

That night it bothered me when I slept. It kept waking me up and I couldn't sleep on my stomach like all good people prefer. The next morning it was obvious that this wasn't gonna heal up in a day or two....I would be lucky to be able to ski ro board by christmas and make the first climbing trip by the end of the year. "Damn it!" I thought.

Last night's therapy was a whiskey-soaked, rest-the-back-and-ice-it-continuously viewing of "Old School". Tonight's plan -- after I stop at the liquor store to get some vermouth and bitters -- is to perfect my Jim Beam Manhattan so that I can have a Jim Beam Manhattan-soaked, icing-and-resting-the-back-viewing of say, The Big Lewbowki.

I've started to formulate a path to comeback to the comeback. This will be tricky, though. I need to "fix" this once and for all. It's really the only part of my health that I can complain about. For that I am very thankful, but it is still a significant hit to my life and lifestyle, so it's worth doing right... finally. "So, what is 'right'?" I thought.

Soundtrack: Swingin' Utters "Nine to Five"