Keep my form alive | Uphill Athlete

Keep my form alive

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #36081
    Dada
    Participant

    Hi guys,

    I was knocked down by neuralgia caused by my 6 month old fellow herniated disc this week. I think I recover but slowly. Before that I had a pretty decent endurance through Z1 ski mountaineering.

    I want to preserve this as good as possible. Since I’m supposed to walk/hike asap, I’m wondering how I can structure my hikes to keep my form alive. For the next weeks, I’m almost certain I can’t do the long Z1 hikes due to location and volume. What would you do, besides listen to your body, in a metropolitan area w/ access to 50 meter hills and a lot of time to try to maintain your level?

    Hint #1: wearing a proper backpack (w/ some weight) is quite excellent bc the waist strep is unloading my discs

    Hint #2: running is not possible since it worsens my herniated disc

    Thank you very much!

    Dada

  • Inactive
    Anonymous on #36104

    I wouldn’t worry about training until your back is fully recovered. You’ll lose some fitness, but that’s not as important as protecting your back.

    When you say “supposed to walk/hike ASAP”, do you mean a doctor is telling you to? If so, that’s great. I would ask the doctor how much they recommend.

    Participant
    Dada on #36109

    Hi Scott,

    Thx for the advice. Yes the doc said that I should do hikes asap. What would you recommend about the targeted zone? 1 or 2?

    Best regards
    Dada

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #36111

    I would err on the conservative side: Zone 1 or lower and volume or limitations determined by your doctor.

    Participant
    Dada on #36360

    Bad news. I need surgery and it’s scheduled tmr. Will post into the injury subforum.

    Participant
    Dada on #39949

    Maybe some anecdotes about my recovery and what worked and what is still not working.

    I had surgery due to a sequester (large junk of my disc material was in my spinal canal).

    In the first two weeks, I was just resting and lying on my back. No sitting.

    After three weeks, I started cycling which was causing no problems at all. After 3.5 weeks, I started what we call Nordic Walking. It’s walking with poles but you use the poles very active. Like classic cross country skiing. I did this on hilly terrain. This was very, very good. I was still benefiting from my Z1/2 training four weeks before and was still very trained. On the downhills, I started to walk very slowly and carefully. I pretty much did fartleks, 95% below AeT and 5% Z3 mainly uphill to train also ME. After 5 weeks, I started to throw in first running periods. Not all the time but when I felt like it. I can now fully run my standard route again.

    I also started core exercises after 3.5 weeks. The core exercises are based on the book of Stuart McGill. Still doing these. Also very good, but make sure to do these just isometric. No dynamic excercises.

    After 6 weeks, I did my first ski tour. I skinned up, but then took the cable car to go down. Skiing downhill is still not possible, I think.

    Yesterday, I did my first hike. Very good uphill, despite allergy made me feel I was at 5000m. On the downhill, I used a corset to stabilize my core. Since my belly muscles are sore today, I think I use them still a lot to stabilize my core 😀

    Last week, I tried to do one exercise from the UA indoor runner ME, the lunge. I still refrain from the other excercises in that program. Unfortunately, that excercises was very good for mobilizing psoas but caused backpain for two days. So stopped doing these. I was also thinking about box step-ups but not sure if the step-down is too much for my back. Maybe try that next week.

    Sitting is still causing the major problems but I’m pretty much pain free while doing sports. I started to stretch. Basically, calves, hamstring and Psoas.

    And of course, I was doing physical therapy after the first two weeks up to now. But focus there was mainly to get rid of tensions. Strengthening the core was my duty so far.

    I hope this proves useful for others.

    BR
    Dada

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #39964

    Great approach!

    Participant
    Dada on #40582

    Update:
    Today, it’s exactly 12 weeks post surgery. Last weekend I managed my first trail run and two days ago I did the indoor ME training. No problems afterwards.

    Maybe some advice for lunges. Keep the legs closer together. This reduces the irritations for the lower back massively.

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