Well, more reverse hyper for me then! Muahahahahahaha, .

GL on the recovery, it sounds like you are coming quite a long way through your own hard work and due diligence.

I was getting ready to ask you a good way to do GHRs without a GHR machine, but then I found this article and I was content. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...lute_ham_raise

thanks!

Here's something really good: http://www.tonygentilcore.com/blog/e...lute-ham-raise

Oh wow. That is super doable. I think I may need to add these into my routine with or instead of pull throughs.

Today is a great day!

The TWolves finally fired Rambis!

Also, the physical therapist says I'm basically doing everything right. He tweaked my rehab exercises just a little, and suggests I do McKenzie #3 ~4 times a day.

Here's the big one though: he says I can start doing upper body stuff as long as I dont compress the spine (no OHPs, careful, light bench pressing, light pulling stuff, etc.)!

Ship it!

yeah, I'm hoping it wont be much longer for lower body stuff too. He says when I start using weight to squat, I should do front squats, not back squats because the torso is more upright. This is cool because I got my front squat harness a couple weeks ago.

If anyone is wondering what McKenzie 1 2 & 3 are, here's a good description:

Exercise One

Lying Face Down

Lie face down with your arms beside your body and your head turned to one side Stay in this position, take a few deep breaths and then relax completely for four to five minutes.

You must make a conscious effort to remove all tension from the muscles in your lower back; without COMPLETE RELAXATION there is NO CHANCE of ELIMINATING any DISTORTION that may be present in the joint.

This exercise is used mainly in the treatment of acute back pain that is pain that is short-lived and is one of the First Aid exercises.

It should be done once at the BEGINNING of EACH exercise session, and the sessions are to be spread evenly six to eight times throughout the day. This means that you should repeat the sessions about every two hours. In addition, you must lie face down whenever you are resting. When in acute pain you should avoid sitting, at least during the first few days.


Exercise Two

Lying Face Down in Extension

Remain face down. Place your elbows under your shoulders so that you lean on your forearms. During this exercise you should commence taking in a few deep breaths and allow the muscles in the lower back to relax completely.

Again you should stay in this position for about five minutes. You must make a conscious effort to remove all tension from the muscles in your lower back; without COMPLETE RELAXATION there is NO CHANCE of ELIMINATING any DISTORTION that may be present in the joint.

This exercise is used mainly in the treatment of severe low back pain and is one of the First Aid exercises it should always follow exercise one and is to be performed once per session. Should you experience severe and increasing pain on attempting this exercise, there are certain measures to be taken before you can continue exercising, these are discussed in the section 'No response or benefit'


Exercise Three


Extension in Lying

Remain face down. Place your elbows under your shoulders in the press-up position. Now you are ready to start exercise 3. Straighten your elbows and push the top half of your body up as far as the pain permits. It is important that you completely relax the pelvis, hips and legs as you do this.

Keep your pelvis, hips and legs hanging limp and allow your back to sag. Once you have maintained this position for a second or two, you should lower yourself to the starting position. Each time you repeat this movement cycle you must try to raise your upper body a little higher, so that in the end your back is extended as much as possible with your arms as straight as possible.

Once your arms are straight, remember to hold the sag for a second or two as this is a most important part of the exercise. The sag may be maintained for longer than one or two seconds if you feel the pain reducing or centralising. This is the most useful and effective first aid procedure in the treatment of acute low back pain. The exercise can also be used to treat stiffness of the low back, and to PREVENT low back pain RECURRING once you are fully recovered.

When used in the treatment of either pain or stiffness, the exercise should be performed ten times per session and the sessions are to be spread evenly six to eight times throughout the day. Should you not respond or have increasing pain on attempting this exercise exercise, there are certain measures to be taken before you can continue exercising, these are discussed in the section 'No response or benefit' read it now.

I actually tried to use that lat pulldown seat machine to do GHRs yesterday, but I found that the seats were just too small to fit my knees/legs on. On the way back up from my first one I had a spasm in my right calf, so I stopped immediately. I can't be sure whether the spasm was due to the awkward way I had to position myself on the seat or activation of something I've never used.

He gave a couple alternate options that I will try. Thanks for the link.

yeah, my calves screamed at me the one time I tried ghetto GHRs too - I had way too many adhesions in my calves at the time. I'd like to try real GHRs someday.

Sounds like you're making pretty solid progress, all things considered


ETA: missed the newest page, even better, re: upper body stuff!

Glad to see the progress...

thanks guys!

7/12

DMS - hips & upper legs

physical therapy - several tests and McKenzie exercises, including him pushing down hard in a few different spots on my back during McKenzie #3 for a couple sets of 10.

later

McK 3 - 10

pushups - 10

later

McK 3 - 10

inversion table - 12 mins

cat/camel - 10

box squats (lower box now - 18") - 10

neutral grip chins - 4

bench press, feet on bench - 55 lbs x 30 reps

blast strap rows (straps high, making this pretty light) - 20

standing PNF D2 flexion - 10 lbs x 20 reps

DMS - hips, upper legs, front delts & pecs

7/13

McK 1 & 2 - twice

McK 3 - 4 times

cat/camel - 10

box squats (18") - 10 .....Thinking about adding a small KB soon.

side planks - 6 x 8 sec. Did these on the exercise mat downstairs instead of on the carpet upstairs. That makes them a lot more comfortable because of the friction.

bird dogs - 6 x 8 sec.

DMS - hips, upper legs

inversion table - 15 mins. I'm thinking about increasing the angle soon.

7/14

DMS

Inversion table - 15 mins @ low angle, later 5 minutes at as sharp an angle as the table goes (almost upside down) - this went well.

McK 1 & 2 - twice

McK 3 - 4 times

cat/camel - 10 - twice

box squats (18"), goblet style with 10 lb KB - 10. To be clear - on this one, I'm sitting down all the way on the box, deloading the quads & trying to fire the glutes & hams to stand up.

front squats to 18" box - 15lb bar x 10 reps. On this one, I'm just barely touching the box before standing up. The box is just there to gauge depth.

pushups - 10, three times through the day

band assisted chins - black (huge) band - 10, 10

bench press with knees bent, feet on bench - 65lbs x 30

high blast strap rows - 20

standing cable row - 25 lbs per arm x 30

face pulls - 35 lbs x 30


I'm feeling better every day Walking is getting much easier, and I can almost go up & down stairs normally now.

Sleeping is still not normal. I didnt get much last night. The night before was a little better. Hopefully this comes around soon.

Physical therapy this morning, followed by visit to neurosurgeon.

Good luck Cha! Glad to see you back at it.

Thanks TE!

Surgery unnecessary says the surgeon. He says I should be all healed by about the end of the summer. He says he can see exactly which nerve is irritated (L3) from the disc herniation and described what irritating that nerve causes in the right leg. It matches my symptoms. He showed it to me on the MRI, which was pretty cool. I like this guy a lot, but hope I never need to see him again.

Physical therapist added a goofy, hard exercise that I need to do twice a day - 10 reps with each leg. I dont know what its called. It works the Transversus Abdominis muscle, which is an interior ab muscle below the belly button. Apparently this muscle helps protect the low back.

To do it, I lay on my back with both knees bent, suck in my gut, and try to contract the muscle (I cant even describe how to make that happen). While the muscle is contracted, I have to lift one foot up for a few seconds. I get painful feedback from my right adductor when I am doing this wrong, and feel no pain when I'm doing it right. Maybe I'll call this exercise "TA" until someone tells me what the name of the exercise is.

PT also tells me not to do goblet squats with any weight. wuss imo. He explained why, and I understand why he thinks what he thinks, but he's still a wuss. I'll stop with the weight on that one until someone (him or my chiro) gives me the green light. He said front squats are ok, even though those felt less comfortable than goblet squats.

That's great news that you don't need surgery! Have you thought about some kind of sleeping aid? Sorry if you mentioned it I have not read every post in this thread since you got hurt. You might be against that but not being able to get a full nights rest has got to be terrible......

Thanks!

yeah, I take a percocet, a muscle relaxer and melatonin before bed usually. That helps me get to sleep when I remember to take the muscle relaxer. I dont want to take sleeping pills. I typically dont feel tired in the morning or most of the day, but sometimes during the day I get tired.

I don't know what 95% of the exercises you are doing are but I'm glad your on the way back to healthy! End of summer is great news.

Hopefully you never need to know them. Keep your back flat on those DLs! & thanks!

Got a new dl vid in the form check thread lmk what you think

My PT gave me this exact same exercise to strengthen the TA this week. I'm there for shoulder re-hab, but he's awesome and working on my pelvis and spine health as well.

I was curious about what McGill had to say about this new (to me) muscle my PT wants me to isolate. I remembered reading about how isolating muscles while rehabbing the low back is stupid, so I found that place in the book and re-read it. Sure enough, McGill thinks this is stupid.

Putting his "single guy wire" comment into context:

Imagine a fishing pole. You put weight at the top of it and it bends over. If you attach tight guy wires around it in a way to make it stable, it can support a lot of weight. Now take one of those wires away. Its not stable anymore.

Your spine is like the fishing pole and your muscles, tendons & ligaments are like the guy wires.

With that in mind, read what he has to say about isolating rehab exercises for the low back:



I'm going to continue doing this TA exercise for now unless someone here or at Mike Robertson's site changes my mind, only because of the way my leg felt when I raised it while I had the TA muscle contracted - I felt no pain.

McGill says that muscle gets activated by doing side planks. I wonder if I'm doing the side planks correctly because I get pain in the right adductor when I do them. Maybe learning this isolation exercise will re-teach me good side plank form.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

7/15

McK 1 - once
McK 2 - once
McK 3 - 4 times
TA - twice
DMS
inversion table - 5 mins & 8 mins, steep angle

cat & camel - 10

air box squats 16" - 10

side planks - 8 sec x 6 reps per side

bird dogs - 8 sec x 6 reps per side

7/16

McK 1 - once
McK 2 - once
McK 3 - 4 times
TA - twice
DMS
inversion table - 7 mins, steep angle

Yugo, GreekHouse & another friend came over to help put the reverse hyper downstairs. I stripped one of the allen screws which created a huge problem. After two trips to Lowes and trying a lot of weird ways to get the screw out, we decided to try to carry the thing downstairs partially assembled (they carried it and I watched to make sure it didnt wreck the walls. It was a lot of work, but it all got down there and put together. Thanks again to Yugo & Greek!

Yugo & Greek did some RHs with no weight & with 50 lbs. It looks a lot harder than I expected it to be. I hope to be using it within the next month or two.