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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. 


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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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