Hey everyone. I decided to take a little sabbatical from my normal Palnet/Steem posts for the night — Let’s talk about something equally as important to me: Health & Fitness. As you may know from reading previous posts of mine, I injured my back pretty seriously about 6 months ago.
The back pain has been debilitating, to say the least. It keeps me from being a normal human in just about every way that you can imagine.
Just to give you a sense of how debilitating this injury has been, let me tell you the things that I can’t do without feeling pain in my back and neck (although, it would be much easier to just list the few that I can do):
- Sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time
- Standing still for more than 5 minutes at a time
- Running
- Lifting weights (my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world)
- Driving for more than 15 minutes (sitting in the car hurts a great deal)
- Reaching for things, especially to my side or behind me
- Rolling over in bed (I have to lie flat on my back and not move)
- … you get the picture — I can’t do much without having back pain
So with all that said, I have come up with a very strict routine that I have been constantly seeking to improve. I feel about 15% better from the point when I first hurt my back. It doesn’t seem like much, but let me tell you — 15% better from where I was at before (literally not able to get out of bed) is quite a lot better than 0%!
What’s the Point of It All + My Routine For Back Pain
You may be wondering what the point of me sharing my routine is. Well, I think a lot of people out there find value in learning about someone else’s daily routine. I know I love to hear about daily routines and find the similarities and also the disparities in my own routine and how I can improve.
Now I’ll stop rambling and share the routine:
Some days are different than others. I go to the chiropractor 3x a week at the moment and I also get acupuncture 1x a week. I’m not big on doctors, so I like these alternative forms of treatment and I actually derive a relatively decent amount of benefit from them.
For those most part:
- I wake up in the morning. Make a cup of coffee (or 2)
- I take 3-6g of Kratom (you can research this, it’s a little controversial but it’s a plant from Asia that can aid with a lot of different ailments. I like it for the pain-killing/mood-enhancing effect. I feel like it helps a lot with inflammation too)
- Then I do 35 minutes of yoga. I found a really great “Yoga for Back Pain Video” on youtube and it has been my gateway into the world of Yoga… Man, have I been missing out all these years. What a peaceful way to spend some time each day!
- I go to either my chiropractor or acupuncturist for about an hour (otherwise I go straight to #5)
- I head to the gym — normally, I would work out by lifting some weights and doing a little cardio/stretching/sauna. Now I focus on doing about 35 minutes of yoga again and then also doing some light bodyweight exercises in the sauna to strengthen my gluteus and abs for better back support
- Get home from the gym, and break my fast (I do intermittent fasting and wait to eat my first meal until the afternoon — I also eat a strict ketogenic diet)
- Go about my usual work. I try to minimize sitting as much as possible
- Do a Peloton session (peloton is a home cycling unit. They’re pretty neat. You can google it to learn more!)
- Take a long walk
- 1 last meal and then it’s off to bed
- Rinse and repeat — this is how pretty much every day looks for me!
I hope you enjoyed this post as a nice little break from all the more serious economical style posts I usually make. I’m going to start throwing these lighthearted ones into the mix more often! Have a good rest of your night/day!