Notes by Nectar

I cancelled my Sunday morning session with Trevor as I’d managed to get an appointment with an osteopath to sort out my back pain. I got to the Osteopathic Health Centre on Al Wasl Road (I was a few minutes late as I hadn’t anticipated the traffic) and went straight into my 9am appointment. The osteopath asked me what the trouble was and I explained I had a band of pain across the back of my waist that had been worsening for about four days. I told her it was constant pain, but it was worse when I was turning over while sleeping or transitioning from sitting to standing and vice versa. She asked me if it radiated down my legs (yes) and whether one side hurt more than the other (yes, the left). She asked me to stand up and lift my knees one at a time and then lean forward. She told me I had a lumbosacral strain and then asked me to lie face down on her table. She knew exactly where to press and I could feel instant relief as the muscles started loosening up. At times it was uncomfortable but still not as painful as the back pain itself! She told me to take it easy for a few days and to make a follow-up appointment for Saturday, just in case I needed to see her again. I could always cancel it later.

I took it easy for a few days and on Thursday had my session with Trevor. We did some isolated exercises which wouldn’t put any strain on my lower back. As I was doing lateral pulldowns the cable kept scraping against the ceiling. This has been happening for a while now and I don’t understand why the building maintenance don’t pull the machine out just a few inches instead of having to replace the cable every few months. Scrape, scrape, scrape. I said to Trevor: The only thing getting shredded in this gym is that cable.

He thought that was hilarious.

It was still a tough session and I could feel my triceps aching for two days afterwards.

By Friday my back felt almost normal so I cancelled my appointment with the osteopath.

Low point of the week? Still being in pain and not being able to work out as much as I’d have liked. Oh, and having one of the heaviest weekends this year – after a long time!

High point of the week? Finally feeling like my back had improved later on in the week.

Weight loss? My weight is still 75/76 kg…

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