Finding Relief from Muscle Strain

I love working in my garden, but lately it's left me feeling like I've been run over. Pruning an eight-foot-tall rose down to two feet to extract a trellis that the rose grew up through and pulled out of the ground, after I'd lifted weights the night before, forced me to take a day of rest.

Aspirin helped, but chronic use of it can lead to ulcers. I wondered if there was still Bacillus coagulans in the yogurt I make, since one of the other strains in the yogurt could have crowded it out. B. coagulans is a bacteria that helps with muscle recovery. I took some packets of it and added a packet to my next yogurt batch, but bacteria don't work like drugs--it can take more time to feel any effects.

What helped a lot were some videos from SpineCare Decompression, a YouTube channel run by Dr. Michael Rowe, a chiropractor who makes 10-15 minute videos showing how to use stretching exercises to relieve pain at home. Repeating the stretches every day has given me a lot more flexibility and less pain. Besides neck and shoulder videos, I looked up lower back stretches on the channel and found one in particular that helped my lower back pain. Dr. Rowe said it was for an injury, but I think my back was just kinked.

Weave your arms and legs, not rose canes. Photo from Pexels.

Using a hand-held back massager has helped, too, but it seems to do the most good in addition to the stretches. Using it by itself doesn't do much for me.

Comments

Lowcarb team member said…

I think many of us feel our backs after a lot of garden work.
Hope yours feels better soon.
Take care.

All the best Jan

April 25, 2024

Lori Miller said…

Yes--the microbes and exercises really work!

April 25, 2024

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Finding Relief from Muscle Strain