I’m stubborn.

 

And I’ve had a love -hate relationship with stretching for the longest because I’m also impatient.

 

It’s hard for me to do things that bore me, which is one of the reasons it took a really long time for me to get into yoga.  It’s ALSO why low intensity cardio, for me, is the worst, unless I can people-watch somehow or watch The Real Housewives. For YEARS I skipped out on properly cooling down and stretching in my workouts, partially because I was lazy and didn’t feel like it. Sure, I was told that I needed to stretch, but I was never told that if I didn’t, one day I would be bed-ridden from the back pain.

 

 

 

 

It’s nothing new that I’m a short girl. I’ve never been flexible, so I probably do have some genetic predispositions that make me extremely inflexible.

 

About three years ago I  ran my first 10k race and literally the same day I could not walk because of a really bad hip flexor strain. Walking, sitting, standing, moving in bed, doing anything that required me to move my hips was extremely painful, to the extent that I was forced to take time off work. Did I learn my lesson or go see a doctor? Nope. I entered a half marathon the next year and the same thing happened. Sounds like running isn’t for me huh?

 

 

 

 

 

In the Spring of 2015 I began getting extremely bad back pain as a result of having to spend lots of time sitting down, due to my re entering college to finish my last few classes. I had to cut down and modify my workouts, avoid certain shoes, was unable to attend many of my classes because the pain was unbearable, and was bed-ridden a lot. It took months of trying to figure out what the problem was and doctors continuously refusing to acknowledge that it had to do with my hip flexor strain.

 

 

After trips to the ER, multiple doctor visits, x-rays  and a pain injection, I finally spent the best 80 dollars I could’ve spent, and saw a Sports Medicine Doctor, who told me that my hip flexor strain and the lack of flexibility in my hamstrings was leading to my back pain. I was prescribed a few months of PT where I had to re learn how to use my glutes (I had weak glutes) and overactive hamstrings.

 

My back pain went away.

 

 

 

So the lesson here is:  

 

Make sure that you cool down and stretch properly after each and every workout, because if you don’t… It will catch up with you, and you just may regret it.

 

[bctt tweet=”Discover the secret way that not stretching,,can lead to your back pain” username=”@flourish_ious”]