Common Lower Back Injuries for Runners
This is part of a supported campaign with Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary. However, all opinions expressed are my own.
You may know by now that I love to run, I think this is the right exercise for me because I can do it pretty much anywhere and everywhere without spending a fortune on gears. As the years have passed I am getting pretty good at it, considering that I didn’t like to run at the beginning. Little did I know about the common lower back injuries for runners and how scary and confusing this can be.
Three weeks ago I felt a terrible lower back pain that put me into bed for a few days and under pain killers for weeks. The thing about lower back pain is that you feel the pain in the back -obviously- but also in other areas of your body which made me really confused and scared. At one point I was feeling the pain in my lower abs which made me go to the gynecologist because I thought I had a tumor or something; yes the pain was so bad and confusing. I was so scared that I went to different specialist which turned out to be the scariest days of my life.
When you are trying to figure out where a pain is coming from (I didn’t know it was from running) all types of thoughts filled my mind including death and how prepared I was for it. This terrible lower back pain happened at the beginning of lent, which made me think even more about self-examination and the reflection of the sacrifices, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to strengthen my faith and relationship with God.
These past weeks I thought a lot about the importance of pre-planning and strengthening my relationships with my family and friends. It was also a good time to bring my family together to plan for the unexpected – death. I understand it is not an easy conversation to have, but once you plan ahead, you’ll feel much better -I know I am-. If you want to know how to be prepared for the unexpected visit www.rosehills.com for more information.
I am much better now, I have to thank that terrible lower back pain for the wake up call and here is what I learned.
- I have to do more core exercise to strengthen it.
- I have to keep a good form while running.
- I have to do yearly check ups with a specialist, I know it’s horrible to spend days at doctors appointments, but you deserve better, and you will feel more safe..
- I need to stretch my hips and pay more attention to my warm up routine. I will never ever rush into my workout or run ever again.
- I have to include yoga in my routine at least once a week. Swim is a good option as well.
- The worse thing you can do when you have lower back pain is be in bed, trust me, once I realized this and started doing lower back pain exercises I was so much better.
Have you ever suffered from lower back pain? How do you deal with it?