I thought this would be a good post for a "back update":
I saw the doctor yesterday about my back. It had been bothering me last week quite a bit and I called for the appointment on Thursday. I was concerned I was doing some serious damage without knowing it and thought an expert would be a good one to check in with... fellow runners, online blogs & google just wasn't cutting it. I was getting too many conflicting answers. I scheduled the appt for 4 days later, Monday. Meanwhile... I continued running and my back actually ended up feeling much better. I stopped stretching it a ton and iced it a lot as well as continued to do my core/strengthening workout. I'm thinking one or both of those helped.
The doctor said my SI joint is out of whack. This can happen when parts of the core area are weak and others are strong, so something is overworked and something else is trying to compensate and it causes major tension or spasms in the muscle and then it can't do it's job. Also, things like running, swimming, biking are very common activities that make it worse because of the constant repititous movement. He thinks my swimming on one side in all the races had something to do with it. It could have been my bike position, it could be something minor, it doesn't take much to cause this. So, he recommends doing core & back strengthening exercises regularly to get the muscles back up and running and in proper alignment. I asked about a chiropractor and he said yes they technically can do a quick movement to get it back into place but he doesn't necessarily recommend to start using a chiropractor at this point. He said to see a PT and do the exercises and in a couple weeks I should be back to normal. Phew! I'm so relieved it's nothing serious or major. It actually could end up being a "blessing in disguise" to get me to do my core exercises religiously. Thank you!
