After 4 States In 6 Days…
This weekend felt a little odd for me because I only worked one day last week. That’s because last Saturday I left for a 6 day family vacation that included stops in Las Vegas, California, Utah and Arizona.
It was amazing.
We saw a Cirque Du Soleil show (complete with a free backstage tour thanks to one of my amazing clients), and we also went to Death Valley, Zion National Park and The Grand Canyon. Needless to say, it was a lot to pack in to just 6 days.
It was also A LOT of sitting.
Sitting at the airport (when our flight was delayed 5 hours), sitting on the plane, sitting in the car (for about 800 miles of driving), sitting for meals and sitting for the show. By my calculations at least 40 hours of this trip was spent on my butt. That may not seem like a big deal but if you knew where I was just a few years ago, you’d realize that for me, it is.
Back in 2007, while moving a very large filing cabinet into my old office, I pulled something in my back. About a week later I had terrible spasms that laid me on the ground. Literally. Thankfully, I was able to immediately alleviate the pain and tightness with self administered Muscle Activation Techniques, but ever since, I’ve had to be much more cautious with my back.
For several years afterwards I didn’t have much pain, but around 2012 that started to change. That year, as my practice grew to the point where I was working way longer hours and continually managing a waiting list, my muscle training routines began to fall by the wayside.
Around that time my son was also getting old enough to enjoy amusement parks, so we would often take him to ones in Tampa or Orlando on the weekends. This meant longer drives in the car.
It’s almost hard to believe now, but at one point even 45 minutes in car was agonizing. Pain in my back, numbness in my glute, mild tingling moving down my leg, all that fun stuff. I didn’t find this out officially until much later, but I had a 15 degree scoliosis in my lumbar spine that was causing tremendous strain on my back and hip.
Fast forward to 2019- my scoliosis is gone and my back rarely ever gives me any trouble. I can even work out hard, play basketball and sit for 40 hours in 6 days and have no lasting issues. All this despite the fact that I’m also older now!
This isn’t exactly a surprising thing. Not to me anyway. I’ve implemented proven strategies and I’ve gotten the expected results. I feel that it is worth sharing with you some of the highlights of how I’ve gotten my body to get better with age because I firmly believe that if you do what I did, you can get what I got.
First off, I firmly embrace the fact that how well my muscles work matters. A lot. In fact, I even wrote a book about it, which you can find here. Muscles hold bones together and protect us from mechanical stresses that can cause injuries, pain and degenerative orthopedic conditions. Optimizing how they function with specialized techniques, makes a big difference in how good you feel and how well you recover.
This has has been proven in multiple studies such as this one- Correlations Between Lumbar Spine Muscle Function and Pain
And this one- Poor Muscle Function Is a Limiting Factor in Joint Rehabilitation
I also consistently do the other things that make a BIG difference such as practicing proper posture, eating an anti-inflammatory diet, drinking lots of water, managing stress, getting optimal rest, minimizing sitting and of course, lots of prayer.
I’m also very impressed with the results I’ve gotten from of a mixture of cannabis derived CBD and THC. This supplement is not only known to reduce pain and inflammation but it is also suspected to possess the ability to actually REVERSE arthritis. Studies are being done now to verify this.
Read about that here- Cannabis Could Reverse Damage to Arthritic Joints
Anyway, that’s a glimpse into my own personal health plan. I’m sure you can glean a few things from this for yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to email me back.
Also, if you want to see my vacation pics and are on Facebook, look me up and shoot me a friend request.
Have a great rest of your weekend!
Chris
P.S. As fun as it is to tell you how well I’m doing, it is in many ways more fun to share how well one of my clients is doing.
Steve’s body has been through a lot. He had his first hip surgery many years ago and has since had several more. He has struggled with hip, back, and neck pain for years and he recently began having severe shoulder pain as well.
Steve is a church janitor and didn’t have the funds to explore many options to help himself. Thankfully a dear woman who goes to church with Steve saw his struggles and offered to pay for him to come and see me. She also wanted to keep her identity a secret so I won’t publicly mention her name. It was an amazing act of kindness that left Steve in awe.
Now, 6 weeks later, by the grace of God, Steve is already doing a lot better. He is not only feeling better physically but he is also way more optimistic about the future. I recently recorded a video of him sharing his experience, and although he was a little nervous, you can definitely hear the joy in his voice.
Check that out here- Steve’s Recovery Story