It’s been awhile but I am happy to say that physical therapy has worked to help my back pain!!
I attribute the improvement to 2 things:
- PT
- Yoga
I have been going to Yoga (Stationary Sequence-focuses more on super slow movements and holding of postures and stretching) at least 1-2/wk for about 5 weeks now. I love it!!
In my opinion, both yoga and PT, have been instrumental in helping my back pain. I no longer have pain down my leg. At its worst, I could not sit on the couch in the evenings (I stand all day at work) without pain running down my leg.
Thankfully through all of this, I have been able to run. As I said, standing does not elicit symptoms so I was able to run my usual mileage.
As for running, last week was amazing. I did quite a bit of outdoor running with Bill and it was so much fun. I live in a college town so we have to run through town at some point-the people watching is so great!
I ended up running 6 days last week. I haven’t run that many days in a row in a long time.
So what body parts are bugging me?
You knew it was coming. My foot is still giving me a bit of trouble and ever since I ran a 15 mile trail race in January I am also having some hip flexor soreness. I am running outside in Hokas which have helped. I also have inserts from my podiatrist for my Nike frees.
What else is new?
I signed up for a 5k running series that begins in May. I want to PR the 5k. My current PR is 23:34. I hope my hip settles down so I can get some quality speed work in- right now I am shooting for once a week.
I am back on the strength training bandwagon. While I love body pump, and think it is an amazing workout, I thought it might be aggravating my back so I stopped going.
Moving forward, I am focusing on exercises using my own bodyweight-lots of pushups, planks, bridges. I also do my PT exercises- prone press ups and clamshells.