It’s been two weeks since surgery and I’m extremely satisfied with the procedure, no more nerve pain!
I’ve been doing a lot of walking and I’m starting to use EMS tonight. Additionally I’m going to start with some isometrics and walking speed sprint drills then progress to doing bike series on the recumbent bike.
The only tricky thing is that pain is no indication whatsoever because there isn’t any! I’m going to be conservative and smart with this and build up slowly.
Very good - glad it went well
i had a back operation in 1984, my wife was told i would never walk again.
suggest you do some balance work, CF has covered this somewhere, never take the knee in front of the ankle. a broken bone or ruptured discs heal pretty much the same. how heavy would you have the weights 2 weeks out from a broken arm.
Glad it went well…from what I remember when I was a PT aide when people had any spinal surgery we did overall flexibility more than strength work right after surgery then shift focus to strength work (following the doctors recommendations) we would do isometrics all over the body/underwater treadmills/pnf stretch/EMS/and some machines mostly seated rows and lat pulldowns/isometric back holds
sorry for being so vague but that is all i can remember
9/16/09
EMS- glutes, hamstrings, shoulders- 10 on/50 off x 10
1/4 Squat Isometric (focus on contracting glutes)- 5x20’’
Lunge Iso (focus on contracting glutes)- 5x20’’ each leg
Side plank from knees- 90’’ ea. side
Front plank from knees- 60’’
Kneeling prone hip extension- 45’’ hold ea. side
Standing static hamstring stretch- 30’’
Hip flexor/ quad stretch- 30’’
Comments:
Started out with lower volume to stay on the cautious side, will progressively build up each day from here. Making sure to maintain neutral spine on every exercise. Left hamstring is very tight, seems like a lot of neural tension. Any suggestions for this? Right quad is also tighter than my left one. Not a bad start, hardest part will be restraining myself to some degree.
9/17/09
Stretch and gentle circles on Swiss ball
X band walks- 2x10 strides ea.
1/4 squat ISO- 6x20’’
ISO Lunge- 8x20’’ ea.
Hip Adduction- 2x15 w/ 30 lbs.
Hip Extension (not to full range)- 2x8
A1. Hammer Bench Press- 4x12
A2. Hammer Row- 4x12
Comments:
Very sore from yesterday’s session, glutes and hamstrings are hammered. Left glute med. is acting up a bit, fairly tight. Tonight’s workout went well, nothing too difficult. Starting some formal PT on Monday.
Did you ever have any tight muscles from neural tension before the surgery? Or do you think you did?
Yes I’ve had some tight muscles, something I’m looking to remedy to ensure that I’m keeping as much pressure as possible off the disc.
In my case, tight muscles especially in my hamstrings was a huge cause for putting undo forces on the discs. But it seems that no matter how much stretching and massage I did, the muscles would still be tight after just walking. This was before the surgery.
After the surgery the neural tension wasn’t as near as bad. But as I started doing speed work, etc there were still some areas that just don’t seem to get loose no matter how much therapy I get. Particularly the whole posterior chain (usually one side is tigher than the other).
I can definitely see that. In the past, tight hamstrings have put pressure on my back and glutes, I need to get them to an optimal length and tone. I’m going to make sure that I keep the muscles around the hip girdle very loose and supple. I’ll probably front load the therapy hard core over the next few months and then maintain those gains.