MRI results

I had an MRI of my back today and I guess I have a good reason for all my whining! (Not that anyone was accusing me of being a whiner, I just felt like I was complaining a lot!) I have a large disc herniation between L5 and S1 that is protruding posteriorly and slightly to the left and it's pressing on my nerve root. Your disc should be flush with your vertebrae, but this one is stuck out more than a cm past the vertebrae and it's more than a cm wide too.

I work with an MRI tech and she went over the images with me. When she first saw them, she used words like: "Jesus", "Oh my God Heather" and "that's really nasty". So I guess it's pretty serious!

I spoke with my doctor and she wants me to go to physio, take anti-inflammatories, ice and rest, and I'll see her in a month. I'm hoping that I can get this fixed enough so that I can stop limping and start playing soccer again. I have my doubts that I'll be playing this season though. But there may also be the possibility that I'll need surgery down the road. My mother had the same problem at my age and needed a spinal fusion. Yikes!

So I guess P90X is out of the question for a while at least. I do hope to get back into it sometime down the road, but for now I guess I'll just take it easy. I'll keep you posted.

Checking in again

Hi all. Yes, I'm still here. This month has been terrible for working out for me and I feel so guilty! I'm still having major problems with sciatic nerve pain and it's making my life difficult. I limp around most of the time and it's hard to play soccer and to do a lot of different activities. I'm so close to being done P90X, but since I've been away from it for so long, I feel like I might need to repeat a couple of my last weeks before I finish. I'm losing a lot of the muscle tone that I've worked so hard to build up and I know that my fitness test at the end won't be accurate because I haven't exercised in so long. Argh! This is really frustrating!! I want to be more active but my body just won't let me!

I have an appt with a physiotherapist today and I've been seeing my chiropractor as well. I've also made an appt with my family doctor to see if I can get an MRI done to see if my problem is in fact a disc issue. It may end up that I need to take of the summer off from soccer, or just plain take it easy from exercising and rest. I really hope it doesn't come to that because I've been working hard to get into better shape. If I can't exercise, I'll really need to work on my diet alone in order to lose lbs.

Days 69, 70, 71 - Kenpo, Stretch, and Chest, Back & Abs Ripper

This will be another quick post because I've gotten myself really behind again. My sciatic nerve is still bothering me, so exercising has been a bit difficult. But I managed to do the last 3 workouts pretty well, plus I played soccer on Friday night. I took a day off on Saturday too (unintentionally) because I had to work, then we were with friends for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I really hope this nerve problem goes away soon. I'm finding it difficult to put my shoes and socks on and I limp for a bit every time I get up off a chair. Also, oddly enough, when I laugh, cough, sneeze, etc, it hurts my ass! (see previous post if you aren't sure what I'm talking about).

My massage therapist and fellow soccer player assessed me on Friday before my game and she can't figure out what's going on. She did a few tests on me to see where the pain originates, but they didn't really tell her anything. But she thinks the problem either originates from a tightness in my piriformis muscle in my bum, or from a known disc problem in my back...or both. So I'm not really sure what to do about it, aside from stretching the muscle. I'm going to try icing my back tonight instead of my bum and see if that helps. If it does, that will answer my question at least.

I shouldn't be having this many problems!!...back issues, sciatic nerve issues. The whole point of getting into shape was to get rid of these problems! I'm only 33! I can't imagine what I'll be like at 50 at this rate!

Day 12 - Legs & Back and Ab Ripper

I split up the two workouts today. I did Ab Ripper after I got home from work and before a group of us went out for supper. Then after supper, I did the Legs and Back workout. I should be off to bed now after I shower, but I'm stuck on the computer and feel the need to write about my workout first!

Today was the first day that I was able to do all of the ab ripper exercises without back pain!! Yay! I still can't do all 25 reps, but I can do more than before. I can feel my abs getting stronger and I think that is helping me from putting strain on my back. I love seeing progress! I was also able to get more of a workout doing legs and back and now my legs feel like jelly.

I'm also quite proud to say that since I started P90X on March 1st, I've exercised 15 out of 18 days, between playing soccer and my 12 days of P90X! One of my days off was because I ate too much on the 6th and the other two I took off to rest my back.

Now one last thing before I go to bed, I'm going to decorate my blog! I know...sad!

Day 10 - Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper

I felt I got a much better workout on my arms and shoulders this time around. Last time I only had 5lb weights and it didn't feel like enough, so I bought 8 and 10 lb weights. I'm not strong enough for the 10lb ones yet, but most of the moves I was able to lift 8lbs. I have to go to the 5lb weights for triceps though. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

I'm still having some trouble with the Ab Ripper. A lot of the moves hurt my back, especially the ones where you start from lying down and have to roll all the way up to touch your toes. Ouch! So I've been doing a lot of modifications on this workout. I also think it will be a while before I'm able to do 25 of any of the exercises!

Day 8 - Core Synergistics

I'm back at it again! That three day rest for my back did a world of good. Even though it's not completely better, it feels way better than it did for the past 2 weeks. And the neoprene back brace seems to work really well too. It doesn't provide a huge amount of support, but it does support a bit, and it keeps the heat in, which seems to help. I still have to take it easy, but the moves were a lot easier to do than before.

The second time around for core synergistics seemed to go better than the first. I was able to do more of the moves properly (not all of them, mind you), and I could do more reps. I still can't do everything they can do, but I do see progress, and I'm only just starting my first week! That's encouraging! Tomorrow night I have another soccer game, so I'll probably continue with day 9 on Saturday.

Ready to go again!

I took 3 days off to rest my back and I think I'm ok to continue on to week 2 of the program. It still bothers me a bit, but it's feeling much better than it was before. I had a soccer game on Tuesday night and it actually felt pretty good. I bought myself a neoprene back brace for exercising while my back is still bothering me and it seemed to help at soccer. So fingers crossed that it goes well tonight when I try core synergistics for the second time around!

Day 7 - Stretch!

Ahh, it felt good to do the stretches today. It was a nice, relaxing video, what else can I say?!

So I've finished my first week. I haven't taken any new measurements or anything, but I can tell you that I've actually gained a couple of pounds since I started last week. Let's hope it's just muscle and that it doesn't continue for too long.

Unfortunately, my back isn't getting any better. I don't think that the exercise is hurting my back, but I have a feeling it's aggravating it and preventing it from healing. I've been icing it a lot and I've been seeing a chiropractor, but I'm starting to think that maybe I should take a couple of days off and let it heal a bit better. I REALLY don't want to stop this workout, because I know my core has to be strong in order to help my back. So I think what I'll do is take 3 days off, ice it a lot and hope for the best.

I'll keep you posted and hopefully I'll be back at it again soon.

Day 6 - Kenpo X

I feel kind of guilty because I missed my workout yesterday and I don't really have a great excuse either! I had a few things to do right after work yesterday and I'm also taking care of my friend's dogs, so I was late getting supper. We ran into town to get a sandwich from Great Canadian Bagel (so yummy!) and oops, made a quick stop at Dairy Queen on the way home! I was so full by the time I finished that I couldn't make myself workout at 10pm. On the plus side, I have been eating really well all week, so I don't feel too bad about cheating with a sundae.

I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but I'm not doing the P90X nutrition plan. I just decided that I'll try my best to eat healthy and see how that goes. If I need to, I can always try the plan and see if it works any better.

So today I did the Kenpo X workout. It was fun! I really like doing kick-boxing exercises, so I found this one was quite enjoyable. I still have to be careful of my back so I didn't get as much out of it as I probably should have. But it was better than nothing and it still had me sweating pretty hard.

I'm looking forward to the Stretch video tomorrow.

Day 4 - Yoga

I was really pleased with myself that I actually did this workout today because I was thinking of skipping it. I had a bunch of things to do right after work today and then we met some friends for supper at 6pm. I tried my best not to eat too much (which was hard!) so I could do yoga once I got home. I figured Chinese food and up-side-down poses wouldn't mix well!

We got home after 8pm and I'm proud to say that I still did my workout, even though it made me late getting to bed. The workout is 1 1/2 hrs and I like to get to bed early when I'm working at 7:30am. Even as I was doing the workout, I was tempted to cut it short, but I didn't and I finished it all. I did have to skip a few exercises that hurt my back a bit, but I was able to do most of them.

I have been a little worried about my back while doing this program. I found out recently that I have a slightly compressed disc between L4 & L5, which has been bothering me on and off for quite a long time now, but it's been worse lately. They warn you not to do P90X if you have any problems, including back issues, and I was worried that someone might tell me not to do the program. But so far, I think I've been ok. I know my limits and I think I can adjust the moves so that I don't make my back worse, or I can just skip any moves that put strain on my back. I know I have to strengthen my core muscles to help support my back, so I don't want to stop exercising. So I guess I'll just continue on and hope for the best!

As for the Yoga X DVD, it was a lot more intense that I had expected. I have done lots of yoga and pilates in the past, so I didn't find it too bad. It was definitely challenging though and I just don't have the strength yet to hold some of the poses. I wonder how others would find it though, particularly guys who have never done yoga before. It would be pretty tough I would imagine! But then again, some of the people on the video weren't able to do a lot of the moves when they started either and they seemed to do a great job now.

I liked this video a lot and I was pretty limber by the end of it. It is a little long, but definitely manageable.