Bad Back?

[ellipsis]

I have been putting up with a massively fucked back for the last ten years and a very damaged lumbar vertebrate for about eight of those years. It has degenerated over those years from giving me big shit a couple of times a year to the last couple or three years living with medium grade pain every day spiking to intense pain whenever it decided I was in need of a wake up call. After a small fall about four months back it went off the scale and after weeks of grade eight to ten pain and me being cast on the lounge floor 24/7 for three weeks and shoveling back handfulls of tramadol which didn't even take 10% of the pain away it settled down to me having to put up with five to six grade pain every day for the last three months. Couldn't work, lost lots of grands and my wife had to float our boat on her own with her small business.
Being a few months off sixty and having played and worked hard since I was 14 I kind of accepted this as payback from the mortal frame. I was getting very depressed thinking that I was fucked and would be like this from here til the end. Not being able to ride or race was another very freaky and oppressive thing on my mind as well.
I risked the pain and danger of doing more damage racing at Methven at Easter this year. Even I thought I was a dumb cunt but I did anyway, 'cos that what dumb cunts do.

The story changes here.

Spyda was down to do his thing with a microphone and we were chatting about stuff when he told me of his back problem and his use of an 'inverter', and it's benefits. I was actually thinking wires and electrics when he said 'inverter', him being a sparky and Spyda etc. I was envisaging him hooking up a wire to his hip and earthing it with a wire up his date or something similar.

Anyway I checked out the inverter thing on google and was enlightened as to what the apparatus was. Some were expensive and some were Chinese. Being a complete cynic I opted for an ex shop demo model, Chinese and lots and lots cheaper than the other ones. $160 I paid for what is usually $200 new in a flat cardboard box.

I had difficulty just getting in my truck to do the 150k round trip to town to pick it up. I was that sore when I got home I had to lay on the floor for half an hour before we got the already assembled thing out of my truck and into the kitchen. The cynic adjusted the table to his height and locked his ankles into the leg hanging device and tilted himself back to a 45 degree tilt and lay there for all of five minutes. I felt some small movements in the spine but nothing significant. I righted myself got out and stood up. No fucking pain, none whatsoever. The cynic thought that this was great but how long before it raced back to fuck with him...five minutes, an hour?. Well that was last Friday evening and I have been like a rejuvenated little boy since and my problem has been alleviated to the extent that I have forgotten that I even had a bad sciatic and fucked hip problem. I have been doing things that I could not even entertain in my wildest dreams just a week ago. A week ago I could not get to my shed without the aid of crutches.

I've been on my shed roof sealing leaks that were fucking me off so bad but couldn't get up there to fix, the eighty meter monstrosity of a hedge is now looking good, I'm off to unload 200 meters of framing timber from my trailer for my next job shortly before I go down and do some repairs on the local pub roof and I'm then throwing the bike on the trailer to take out to Ruapuna to race tomorrow. I'm back with a smile and it's just like I was transported back ten years to when my back was just a working back. This has not cured anything just made it all go away.

I can't believe that my encounter with Spyda would be a life changer and I can't believe that the specialists, doctors, osteos and physios over that ten year period did not tell me about inversion tables. But the cynic in me knows why. Something to do with money, I'd say. Close to $200 for a 45 minute visit to a specialist and 50 bucks for quarter hour doc and physio sessions would have a lot to do with it.

Cheers Spyda, you have made me a smiling, happy, hippylike, cynic, once again:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::wooh oo::woohoo::woohoo:

If you suffer from back shit I urge you to check these inversion tables out. They are amazing and work

[TheDemonLord]

TL:DR - Inverter Tables are pretty Rad

I've got a few people who swear by them for Back issues.

[nzspokes]

Hmmm, for $200 to get rid of sciatica? Fuck thats worth a crack.

[Blackbird]

Cheers Spyda, you have made me a smiling, happy, hippylike, cynic, once again:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::wooh oo::woohoo::woohoo:

If you suffer from back shit I urge you to check these inversion tables out. They are amazing and work


Congratulations and thanks for the heads-up! Bad backs are totally debilitating. I suffered for several years. A chiropractor finally made a big improvement and regular cycling keeps it in tolerably good nick. Will certainly bear the inversion table in mind if things ever go pear-shaped again. :2thumbsup

[nzspokes]

Congratulations and thanks for the heads-up! Bad backs are totally debilitating. I suffered for several years. A chiropractor finally made a big improvement and regular cycling keeps it in tolerably good nick. Will certainly bear the inversion table in mind if things ever go pear-shaped again. :2thumbsup

Cycle upside down, best of both worlds. :woohoo:

[HenryDorsetCase]

this is interesting and I am keen to give it a whirl. REally pleased its worked out for OP.

I found a good chiropractor too - I'd thought it was quackery but she has been excellent.

[JimO]

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Akzle]

chiros are quackery. they snap your joints and all the adrenaline and cortisol is released and you feel good for a while. then... next visit, next payment...on and on.

good to get a positive result though. stretching your spine and retraining stressed/bound muscles... huzzah.

also. smoke weed nigga.

[Swoop]

chiros are quackery. they snap your joints and all the adrenaline and cortisol is released and you feel good for a while. then... next visit, next payment...on and on.

Good to know.
I'll inform my chiro that my yearly visit is not needed.
Walking into see him with pain and out without - and it lasting for ages, is obviously not real. Perhaps the same should be used in churches?
"I believe!!" - crack "what's with all that imaginary friend bullshit?"...:msn-wink:

[HenryDorsetCase]

chiros are quackery. they snap your joints and all the adrenaline and cortisol is released and you feel good for a while. then... next visit, next payment...on and on.

good to get a positive result though. stretching your spine and retraining stressed/bound muscles... huzzah.

also. smoke weed nigga.

I've also started a Pilates course. SWMBO has been doing it for years. Its about core strength, alignment and stretching. Early days yet but it seems good.

Thanks but no thank for the offer of weed. Not my thing.

[Akzle]

I've also started a Pilates course. SWMBO has been doing it for years. Its about core strength, alignment and stretching. Early days yet but it seems good.

Thanks but no thank for the offer of weed. Not my thing.

yeah. i don't sit on my arse all day. my job is my gym and my food is my medicine and my drugs are my hobby.

healthy as fuck yolo.

[jellywrestler]

Spyda was down to do his thing

hey, what goes on on tour stays on tour mate!!!

[Ocean1]

Fucking excellent.

Her indoors used an inversion table regularly for a few years with good results. I wanted to use the very same one last year but she'd sold it. :facepalm:

Thing about doctors is they tend to see problems in terms of what their tools can fix. Surgeons want to operate, MDs want to prescribe drugs. Guess you just have to talk to a sparky, eh?

A word, though. Inversion tables sometimes cause artificial hip joints problems.

[russd7]

my wife has badly ruptured disks in her lower back and was on twenty plus painkillers a day for pain management, she had been to chch for cortisone injections (waste of fucken time due to having to drive up from invers then back again), finally after a visit to the specialist in dunners they dicided they were going to fuse three vertabrate, she also had an appointment with a muscular skeletal specialist in Te Anau so we drove up to see him thinking that as they were going to operate this trip would be a waste of time.
long story shortened, he looked at mri and xray and said do not get fused, he taught her how to move and breath properly and although the damage still exists she no longer needs pain meds and never had that op.

all it took was some outside of the box thinking and different exercises and learning to move from the diaphragm

cant remember his name but would highly recomend him

[caspernz]

Interesting topic. Pleased to hear the OP has made a huge improvement in his predicament. Have known a few fellas with back problems over the years, varying remedies used, mostly temporary. Have no issues myself, but good to know a simple inverter table can be a solution. :niceone:

[Voltaire]

yeah. i don't sit on my arse all day. my job is my gym and my food is my medicine and my drugs are my hobby.

healthy as fuck yolo.

Thats right, you use your arse for talking out of :yawn:

[jellywrestler]

all it took was some outside of the box thinking

there's a book called 'Thinking outside of the Box', it's not for bad backs, it's for recovering sex addicts though...

[pritch]

my job is my gym


You've got a job?:gob:

[nadroj]

Back in the early 1990's I met Precious McKenzie when we were building a gym at work. After changing jobs the boss was looking for someone to take a manual lifting course. I put him in touch with Precious who subsequently took the staff through correct techniques etc. He had an inversion table with him as he was selling them and after the boss refused buying one the social club bought one. We loaned it to staff members with great results & also hired it to joe public for social club funds.
Years later and in a different job I was talking inversion tables to an ex boss who said he had one a tenant had left behind and still hadn't collected after over a year that I could have for a slab. Now I have my own & swear by it. It is the ankle clamp type where Precious's model you hung from the knees.
The advice I can give with them is to twist gently, do semi situps etc to loosen the muscles around any injury while inverted but most importantly is to get up straight & gently when finished.
It simply works by taking gravity compression off of the spine, ( the gap between the top of your head & the ground can decrease up to 50mm while inverted ) & then let's it fit back together properly when getting up.
For muscular strains my recommendation is a "ten's" machine that used to be only available at the physio's but now available online.
eg http://www.trademe.co.nz/health-beauty/massage/massagers/tens/auction-1320348569.htm

[granstar]

I took bee venom pills (not for everyone, basically a natural anti-inflammatory) for a cervical issue, prescription ones were too hard on the gut, as well I did exercises from an exercise book titled 'Treat your own neck' by Robin McKenzie, yeah quakery but i've never looked back (oh wait, I can look back now).

Up to that point it appeared local GP's tend to throw something at it (pills,and shots), Physiotherapists give it a crack where its tender and exercises ( different to what I did from the book), and chiropractors headed to the root cause of the problem, in my case xrays told no can do with premature degeneration, bones out of whack causing out of whack muscles, a fuse being inevitable, so a look at alternatives and i'm good, ...so far. My point consider all options before doing anything drastic.

[Woodman]

I used to get terrible back issues in my early to mid 20s, tried chiropractor, physio, painkillers etc, didn't work. Then switched from playing blindside flanker to prop, played their for 15 odd years and haven't had a back ache since.

[oldrider]

I used to get terrible back issues in my early to mid 20s, tried chiropractor, physio, painkillers etc, didn't work. Then switched from playing blindside flanker to prop, played their for 15 odd years and haven't had a back ache since.

Well - you know what they say about tight forwards - don't you? :psst:

[HenryDorsetCase]

I took bee venom pills (not for everyone, basically a natural anti-inflammatory) for a cervical issue, prescription ones were too hard on the gut, as well I did exercises from an exercise book titled 'Treat your own neck' by Robin McKenzie, yeah quakery but i've never looked back (oh wait, I can look back now).

Up to that point it appeared local GP's tend to throw something at it (pills,and shots), Physiotherapists give it a crack where its tender and exercises ( different to what I did from the book), and chiropractors headed to the root cause of the problem, in my case xrays told no can do with premature degeneration, bones out of whack causing out of whack muscles, a fuse being inevitable, so a look at alternatives and i'm good, ...so far. My point consider all options before doing anything drastic.

Robin McKenzie is anything but a quack... just saying. That system of exercises based on range of motion and repetition is the basis of what most physio's use. Next time you're in have a look round and you might notice a McKenzie accredited sign. Certainly the one I use (Physio South) is.

[jellywrestler]

It simply works by taking gravity compression off of the spine,

that's no quite correct, sleeping or lying flat does that,
lets pick one joint between vertebrae and say while standing you have 50kilos of weight on it, when lying down zero, when hanging almost upside down it becomes about 50 kilos of traction so is doubly good for the joint, letting blood flow back in etc to revitalise the area.
one of the reasons we sleep is to let the spine relax

[roogazza]

Interesting read all this if you are a sufferer.
I went to the top man many years ago,Tregonning or a name close to that ?
He advised anti inflams and to lie flat for two weeks,getting up only to pee !!! It worked and I have used it ever since.
But the main culprit was Squash,I didn't come right until I stopped playing that game !

I sympathise with anyone who has back pain.

[haydes55]

Just borrow a couple grand from some Italian gangsters and don't pay it back. In 2 or 3 weeks 2 Guido thugs will escort you up a multi story building and hang you by your ankles over the edge.

[WNJ]

Just borrow a couple grand from some Italian gangsters and don't pay it back. In 2 or 3 weeks 2 Guido thugs will escort you up a multi story building and hang you by your ankles over the edge. The local natives will do it for a hundy "bag o P "

[tri boy]

I can't believe that my encounter with Spyda would be a life changer

Many AA meetings and Deveants have murmered those words.
(Usually in the fetal position)

[granstar]

Robin McKenzie is anything but a quack... just saying. That system of exercises based on range of motion and repetition is the basis of what most physio's use. Next time you're in have a look round and you might notice a McKenzie accredited sign. Certainly the one I use (Physio South) is.

Agree, I was referring to myself being a self quack, and I do have duck's disease to prove it.

Robin (yes folks a pro therapist with a lot of credentials in the field) put out another book ' The Lumbar Spine" , may be of help to someone if you can find a copy.

Was in this morning and had a look around, all I noticed was a spider web in the corner of the room :gob:

[Crasherfromwayback]

Cheers for the heads up. My back is fucked and I've had bad sciatic pain for years. I see a good Osteo once a month, and he makes it bearable...but I'll give one of these fangdangled contraptions a go!

[ellipsis]

Cheers for the heads up. My back is fucked and I've had bad sciatic pain for years. I see a good Osteo once a month, and he makes it bearable...but I'll give one of these fangdangled contraptions a go!


...my osteo has become a good friend over the years he's been helping to make things work, but I will still be asking him why they didn't suggest the use of this kind of apparatus before now... like eight years ago :angry:...he rides a couple of immaculate '70's Trumpets, so I wont be too hard on him...much...

[ruaphu]

Cheers for the heads up. My back is fucked and I've had bad sciatic pain for years. I see a good Osteo once a month, and he makes it bearable...but I'll give one of these fangdangled contraptions a go!

They are brilliant man, got one, sorted my back out in no time. The gentle stretching part is the trick to it. Knocks ten years off ya age, lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ellipsis]

. Knocks ten years off ya age,

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


...fuck yeah...I'm still coming to grips with this, 'reality'...

[R650R]

Just re read this thread to justify to myself my expensive life and health insurance package just bought....

One thing I find therapeutic is a good ocean swim (mostly floating corpse style) in summer. The combination of sunshine, body equally and naturally supported from all angles taking weight and strain of usual places and also the pressure of the sea water against you chest making your lungs work a little harder in a good way.

If all else fails theres' chocolate and alcohol

[jellywrestler]

...my osteo has become a good friend over the years he's been helping to make things work, but I will still be asking him why they didn't suggest the use of this kind of apparatus before now... like eight years ago :angry:...he rides a couple of immaculate '70's Trumpets, so I wont be too hard on him...much...

cause repeat business puts food on his table...

[Daffyd]

Robin McKenzie is anything but a quack... just saying. That system of exercises based on range of motion and repetition is the basis of what most physio's use. Next time you're in have a look round and you might notice a McKenzie accredited sign. Certainly the one I use (Physio South) is.

Robin, (well the Mackenzie Institute) is the outfit that designed the seats for the NZ built Corollas. Unfortunately they were no longer used when Toyota ceased NZ production.