Stretching good, long-jump bad
A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease. I remember the moment of truth vividly. Doctor walks in holding x-rays, sticks them in that light box, sits down on the little stool and says “Yep, you’ve got degenerative disk disease. Not surprising really. You’re 39, you’ve had a spinal fusion.” Blink, blink. “Oh yeah, and life’s a bitch and then you die.”
Thanks for the great bedside manner, doc. But hey, DDD was better than what my borderline hypochondriac-self had been trying to turn the nagging lower back ache into during the last few weeks as I’d been gimping around like an old man.
“Are you taking anything for the pain?”
“No.” (I hate taking any kind of pills.)
“Well, I recommend you start on Ibuprofin and we can get you started on physical therapy.”
Pills maybe, I thought. But there’s no way I’m going to pay good money to have some 20-something show me how to lift things properly.
I gimped out of the office and to the pharmacy. But those 20-something PTs never got a dime of my money (ha, showed them!).
Fast forward a couple months and my daughter and I started taking TaeKwonDo classes. The back was still bothering me, but I was determined not to be one of the stiff, bent dads watching their kids from the sidelines.
And then something amazing happened. After a few months of TKD I was off the Ibuprofin and pain free. My theory: I was stretching for the first time in my life as part of the TKD training. (hmmm, maybe that’s what those 20-something PTs would have done with me.)
Needless to say, I’ve become a huge advocate of stretching. Stated another way: I believe stretching can work apparent miracles. One more time in a more useful way: If you have lower back pain attributed to DDD, start stretching. Stretch, stretch, stretch!
With my DDD in apparent remission, I was running around like a kid playing soccer, basketball, doing TKD, rough-housing with my aspiring WWE star; all essentially pain-free. Then I tried a long-jump.
The thing is that my daughter, a budding track star, is a sprinter and a long-jumper. Being the fit, helpful dad that I try to be, I’ve done some research on long-jump technique and have been trying to coach my young Jackie Joyner a bit.
Then I tried to lead by example. Bad idea.
Oh it wasn’t a 100% effort mind you. More like about 75%. But the mistake was not in the level of effort. Rather, the mistake was my failure to consider the physics of 200 pounds becoming airborne then landing in surprisingly hard sand. Specifically, I had failed to even back-of-the-envelope consider IMPACT FORCE (I’m assuming there is such a variable in physics, and if there ain’t there should be).
Well, on impact I experienced two very noticeable sensations. My knees, having bent further and more forcibly than they had since I was about eight and jumped out of my grandfather’s apple tree, began tingling. And my lower back…how should I say…got woken up. It didn’t tingle or hurt immediately, but I had this sinking feeling, kneeling there in the sand, that I had just really f*ucked up.
When I wrote this, it was with my laptop computer between my legs; legs stretched out to the sides as far as possible. I would occasionally lean forward and feel the stretch in my lower back, groin, and hamstrings. The good news turned out to be that although my back definitely got woken up, I didn’t PISS IT OFF. And a couple of weeks of stretching got me back to 100%.
But legal-sized post-it note to self stuck in a prominent place: Stretching good. Long jump bad (when you’re 40+, weigh 200 pounds, and have degenerative disk disease.)
April 1, 2009 at 5:47 am
That’s is so true ,thank you for sharing that experience , I had a smilar expirience and through streching and properly warming up , the aches and pain on my legs and lower back diminished.qood luck in your quest
April 1, 2009 at 8:30 am
Mike, what have you found as the best stretching routine? How many times a week do you strectch? For how long?
Thanks bud - another great post!
April 1, 2009 at 11:36 am
I can definitely attest to the dangers of long jumps for larger guys. I competed in long jump, triple jump, and high jump in high school. I’m 6′6" and was about 210 pounds at the time. The force of impact in the sand at the end of a full-speed 20-foot long jump (yeah, I wasn’t very good) was definitely non-trivial on my knees and lower back until I figured out two things:
1) Stretching is your friend. Pay extra attention to quads, ankles, and lower back.
2) Don’t try to absorb the impact in a linear fashion. If you watch collegiate and Olympic-level long jumpers, you will see that they start leaning one direction near the landing. The impact sequence is usually feet, knee, hip, shoulder, and hand. When done really well, it’s basically a carefully controlled slide. In addition to distributing the impact over more area, this allows for greater distance as you’re far less liable to recoil backwards like a spring.
As for me now, I think my full-speed long jumping days are done. I’d do standing broad jump though. I wonder if I can still jump more than 9 feet…
April 2, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I got a big kick out of this! Not at your expense but because I’ve suffered from the same thing for years & often have to "baby" the situation. Certain things are just "TABOO" like jumping off the roof or letting your Wife jump on your back from the top of the stairs. I FEEL your PAIN. LOL. Dave