oops
I must have done something I shouldn't have yesterday. During the second break at fighter practice I noticed that my lower back was hurting a bit, but when the other three fighters suggested we put our hats back on and do a Frostheim Imperator set I decided to participate. Never mind that having eight lives at the start of the tourney meant that I was going to have to do eight more bouts. I didn't manage to kill anyone, but I did manage to leg the knight, who had only two lives going in, which probably made it easier for one of the others to take him out. Having so many more lives than the others present meant that I was one of the last two remaining, which is why the winner decided to give me the life, so now have nine lives for next time (which is so right for someone with a cat on their coat of arms). But after that my lower back was bothering me even more than before the set, so while the other fighters relaxed in their chairs and discussed fighting and armour making, I took off my gear straight away, and did stretches while sort of participating in the conversation.
After I got home I spent some time stretching on the floor, and laying on a small foam ball that always helps back issues on the rare occasion they come up, followed by a hot shower. That helped, but sitting in the recliner while using skype to visit with lord_kjar made me realize that while the recliner is quite good to ease middle and upper back discomfort, it actually makes lower back issues worse. Oops.
So I took another hot shower, after yoga, rubbed on some tiger balm, and went to sleep. This morning's situps helped some, but the back still hurt, and I didn't like the idea of sitting in an office chair all day. Neither did I like the idea of sitting in the recliner. Luckily, while eating breakfast I sat down in the rocking chair, and discovered that while the recliner curves the lower back, the rocker supports it.
Therefore I took the car to the office, left a note on my door, and brought home the computer. It took a bit of effort to rearrange things (carefully!) so that I can sit in the rocker with the second monitor in a good position in front of me, the laptop on the shelf to the side, and a keyboard on a pillow in my lap, but it seems to be working. I have accomplished a fair bit of work with my data already this morning, and am just about to be done with a lunch break and return to work. My back still isn't *happy*, but there is no pain as I sit here, which is good.
Note for those of you who deal with real and/or chronic pain: You would laugh at what I have felt with this "issue"--on a scale of 1 to 10 this is probably no more than a 2 or a 3. It is only the fact that I normally never have pain at all that makes me so aware of it, and so careful with my attempts to make certain that it doesn't get worse or last any amount of time.
So, what are the likely causes, so I can avoid this next time? Well, one possibility is that I carried my own armour box from the car to the porch where we armoured up, instead of asking for help (vanity on my part!) and after practice I also carried it back (but I left out the sweaty gambeson and fighting pants to carry separately, so the box wasn't quite so heavy).
Another possibility is fighting technique itself. I felt no back pain before fighting, nor yet during first break. However, during the first break the knight pointed out that I wasn't moving my hips much, but only throwing with my arms, and so there was no power behind the shots, so even if I got lucky and hit them it wouldn't be good. So during the second set I told myself before each bout that it didn't matter if he hit me, I needed to throw shots with lots of hip behind them, and I did. They commented on the improvement, but it was after that set that I noticed the pain in the lower back. Therefore it is possible that I simply failed to stretch enough before fighting, and the twists at speed, combined with the shock impacts from hitting them (ok, usually their shields or swords with which they were blocking), and possibly even the hip shots I took added up to sore muscles in the lower back.
You can be certain that I won't armour up again till I have had several days with no pain/discomfort in that area, *and* I will do lots of stretching before fighting, and I will lower my ego enough to either get help carrying the armour box, or open it up and carry part of it (like gambeson and helm) separately. I also intend to do more back-strengthen exercises, over and above my daily yoga and situps etc.
After I got home I spent some time stretching on the floor, and laying on a small foam ball that always helps back issues on the rare occasion they come up, followed by a hot shower. That helped, but sitting in the recliner while using skype to visit with lord_kjar made me realize that while the recliner is quite good to ease middle and upper back discomfort, it actually makes lower back issues worse. Oops.
So I took another hot shower, after yoga, rubbed on some tiger balm, and went to sleep. This morning's situps helped some, but the back still hurt, and I didn't like the idea of sitting in an office chair all day. Neither did I like the idea of sitting in the recliner. Luckily, while eating breakfast I sat down in the rocking chair, and discovered that while the recliner curves the lower back, the rocker supports it.
Therefore I took the car to the office, left a note on my door, and brought home the computer. It took a bit of effort to rearrange things (carefully!) so that I can sit in the rocker with the second monitor in a good position in front of me, the laptop on the shelf to the side, and a keyboard on a pillow in my lap, but it seems to be working. I have accomplished a fair bit of work with my data already this morning, and am just about to be done with a lunch break and return to work. My back still isn't *happy*, but there is no pain as I sit here, which is good.
Note for those of you who deal with real and/or chronic pain: You would laugh at what I have felt with this "issue"--on a scale of 1 to 10 this is probably no more than a 2 or a 3. It is only the fact that I normally never have pain at all that makes me so aware of it, and so careful with my attempts to make certain that it doesn't get worse or last any amount of time.
So, what are the likely causes, so I can avoid this next time? Well, one possibility is that I carried my own armour box from the car to the porch where we armoured up, instead of asking for help (vanity on my part!) and after practice I also carried it back (but I left out the sweaty gambeson and fighting pants to carry separately, so the box wasn't quite so heavy).
Another possibility is fighting technique itself. I felt no back pain before fighting, nor yet during first break. However, during the first break the knight pointed out that I wasn't moving my hips much, but only throwing with my arms, and so there was no power behind the shots, so even if I got lucky and hit them it wouldn't be good. So during the second set I told myself before each bout that it didn't matter if he hit me, I needed to throw shots with lots of hip behind them, and I did. They commented on the improvement, but it was after that set that I noticed the pain in the lower back. Therefore it is possible that I simply failed to stretch enough before fighting, and the twists at speed, combined with the shock impacts from hitting them (ok, usually their shields or swords with which they were blocking), and possibly even the hip shots I took added up to sore muscles in the lower back.
You can be certain that I won't armour up again till I have had several days with no pain/discomfort in that area, *and* I will do lots of stretching before fighting, and I will lower my ego enough to either get help carrying the armour box, or open it up and carry part of it (like gambeson and helm) separately. I also intend to do more back-strengthen exercises, over and above my daily yoga and situps etc.