Thoracic Back Pain

For years now, my back around T4 and T5 gets sore on occasion. In most cases, it is due to some change in posture or holding a bad posture for far too long. This could either be from how I sleep in bed or even sit in a chair in front of the computer.

When I was a kid, doctors did say that I have slight scoliosis issue. I have never gone back to really check into that and to see what remedy may work in my situation. Perhaps this soreness is a build up of bad posture and an abnormal curvature over time.

At Spine Universe, there is an interesting article called Take Charge of Your Upper Back Pain that touches on pretty close to what I am experiencing. In addition to keeping the area stretched, you can build muscle mass in the area using some type of Row exercise. For example, a Dumbbell Row.

It's about time that I return to Chung Shan Hospital where I originally had leg surgery and have them do a thorough check on how my exercise program has affected my leg and my back. Maintaining a running program on a previously broken leg seems to be a scary thing to do. But, I'm coming close to two years doing it and so far my leg hasn't felt any worse than it did previously. In fact, it feels stronger. Nonetheless, it's better to be safe than sorry for these kinds of things.

Calf Cramps

Last week I went to Seoul, Korea for a business trip and stayed in the Renaissance Hotel. The Hotel gym facilities were really good and had everything I needed to continue my maintenance workout program throughout the week.

Because of the one hour timezone change, I put myself on a sleep schedule to help me get out everyday .. 10:30pm sleep, 6:30am wake up. Including exercise, breakfast, etc. it currently takes about 90 minutes from when I wake up to get ready for the day. Perhaps I can optimize this in the future.

On Friday, my last day in Seoul, I went for the exercise bike instead of the usual treadmill run. I went through a few minutes of casual pedaling and then put the bike into a medium difficulty to pedal for 5+ minutes. Following this, I pedaled a few minutes to warm down. This cardio preceded my regular swiss ball exercises.

Throughout Friday, everything was normal and I felt great from the workouts I was able to get in that week. However, I apparently did something wrong that caused my body to have a strong reaction on Saturday morning.

While I was gone in Seoul, a little bug had made its way into our family and had been making the rounds .. my wife, kids, sister-in-law, etc. were all getting something. Well, it took me just Friday morning to tip the scales in favor of the virus. I was sick in the morning and not feeling well.

To make matters even worse, when I woke up on Saturday, I stretched my legs in one particular way that made my calfs cramp up. Probably the worst cramps I have ever had. It's hard to explain how painful it was but just imagine getting your leg stuck in a vise and being squeezed really hard.

I spent the better part of the day massaging my legs on occasion and just relaxing as much as I could. After reading a few articles on the net about calf cramps, I found out that it may be due to:

• Dehydration
• Lack of salts
• Insufficient warm up / warm down

Perhaps change in sleep times also was a contributing factor.

In any case, I focused on getting more water and drinking a sports drink to recover needed salts in the body. Doing this actually helped prevent a reoccurrence of cramps and my legs feel much better as a result.

My Body Thanks Me, For Not Being Lazy

The hardest part of exercise is really getting out of the door in the morning. It's so easy to be demotivated to spend an hour a day to stay in fit. Meetings. Getting the kids ready. Email. Catching up on news. Etc. Some things are important to maintain, others are distractions you want to move out of the way.

Today, I went through a 10 minute HiiT (30 second intervals) out on the street followed by abs exercises and yoga on wiifit. I use the wii to check progress and balance. During rest periods on the swiss ball, I downed a protein shake. I'm missing the Müsli, though; gotta stock up some more at Costco.

One thing that I notice is that although there's discouragement at first, I find that if I stick to it, that my body thanks me. I can definitely feel it now. What I eat is also a big factor, something that I've noticed is that its really important to be cognizant of how you *feel* after you eat. That really is a motivator to stick with what's right for your body.

Full Week

Had a great full week. Everyday, I went through the exercise sets. Trying to squeeze the time down to 30 minutes, but it depends on familiarity with the exercises.

Starting next week, I'm going to only do HiiT twice a week. I think this will be better for more knee and ankle on the right side. Sprints three times a week might over do it.

This week I've noticed two important things. 1) A reduction in my double chin, and 2) more definition around the chest and core muscles. The exercises are working.

Leg Exercise on the Swiss Ball

After a month working on the Swiss Ball exercises, I have finally brought together the discipline to go through the Hamstring Curl, Quad Extension, and Leg Lift. In previous weeks, I did what was the easy route for me: 10 minute HiiT and basic core exercises. Going through the leg exercises helped me get familiar with some new techniques that will help my lower body. 

In these exercises, I started to feel areas and muscles that I do not work on in a typical workout. Keeping balance throughout in the Hamstring and Quad helps develop many of the supporting muscles all around. Warming up with the pelvic twist helped me realize that I have a ways to go in controlling my core. The leg lifts surprised me in that they really burned the lower abdomen.

I look forward to Thursday's back exercises where I'll learn and go through even more exercises. Once I get this down, I hope to reduce the amount of time in exercising to about 30 min. / day. 10 min. run or HiiT with 20 min. of swiss ball. Saturday I can work on Taiji, if I can work out a plan on the instructor side.

Swiss Ball Roll Out

Don't let Adam Ford fool you. The Swiss Ball Roll Out is really, really hard! Gave it my first shot today and could only make it to 5 reps. More work to be done here.

New Year - New Start

Wrapped up my second session for the year today with 10 minute HiiT, 30 second intervals followed by 4 different swiss ball exercises. Had a protein drink for breakfast along with the exercise session. So far, the program looks like it'll put me on good footing for the next quarter.

Still need to figure out the taiji class. Turns out that it's not taught by Chen Xiao Wang, who is the head of this particular form of Taiji. It's taught by one of his "disciples". One of the biggest challenges with taking the class is being available every Saturday morning over the next few months. That'll be hard due to various trips, etc.

Nonetheless, I look forward for better muscle tone, endurance, and flexibility over the next quarter with a follow on strength transformation to get me ready for the summer.