Lower Back Issues and Skiing

[Tony Crocker]

Way to get out there! I've had a very sore lower back condition for two weeks and have not yet begun my ski season. It's troubling because I did not do anything excessively strenuous to deserve it Old age I guess? But it's slowly improving and I hope to ski a few times locally in the East before heading to Utah in about a month.

I have had a sometimes temperamental lower back, with the occasional knot or spasm as far back as 1990. Fortunately it's all muscle tightness, no spine or nerve issues.

In 1999 I got maybe 3 feet of air into powder while snowcat skiing at Revelstoke, resulting in a back spasm even though I did not fall. This prompted me to visit a chiropractor whenever I had such incidents over the next decade.

After a similar though less severe incident at Chatter Creek in 2009, a fellow skier recommended the Egoscue method. I signed up for their 8 visit package for $1,400. The first visit was a posture evaluation. They then give you a customized list of posture.stretching exercises, revised each visit. Most people do the visits every week but I spaced mine out over the course of a year. I'd call it "preventive chiropractic" and I will occasionally do a few of those exercises when my back starts feeling not quite right. This reduces both frequency and severity of back spasms.

Retirement has also been a positive. When Liz moved in with me in 2013 she had recently tried aerial yoga and she found a then up and coming instructor in Studio City. As some of Kimberely's first customers we got an attractive rate and would go once a week when we were home. Liz had to stop in late 2015 when her knee (the one replaced last year) started to restrict her range of motion. I continued aerial yoga through the end of 2019.

The Studio City facility closed with COVID and Kimberely had two kids in the same general time frame. Up Flying Yoga resumed in 2021 out of her less convenient backyard in Sherman Oaks at triple the price I had been paying in Studio City. So I'm now doing conventional yoga in Altadena twice a week on the free Silver Sneakers 24 Hour Fitness membership I get with Medicare. Long story short, I think yoga is a very good idea for senior skiers.

 

[jasoncapecod]

I also suffer from temperamental back.
Like Tony mentioned yoga does help
I am a believer of dr McGill. Great stretch routines

 

[tseeb]

When I lived in West Tahoe/Truckee area after dropping out of college in Fall 1975 to early Summer 1977 (two of the worst years ever for CA snowfall), the third job I had was track labor for Southern Pacific Railroad. Friend/housemate who was hired at the same time was assigned to Tunnel 6 where the railroad crests Donner Pass and spent winter chipping ice out of tunnel using a pick. I was assigned to a tamper crew in downtown Truckee that leveled joints between pieces of track and worked between Truckee and East Reno during winter to avoid the worst of the frozen ground. Besides jacking up track so machine could level it, we would shovel ballast (the rock that supports the track) to fill under and between ties. When needed we were assigned to do other work including building and re-building track which included using sledgehammers to set spikes in new ties for pneumatic hammers to finish hammering them down.

Before starting they did a back X-ray and said I had the minimum acceptable back to be hired. One day I moved the end of a 15' switch tie by myself to put it into position for installation. It felt good at the time, but that night I could tell I'd hurt my back. Dr. said it was a strain and gave me exercises to stretch it. We did not get sick pay, so I returned to work after a day or two off and was on light duty for a short time before returning to normal work. Hispanic co-worker said I should not have made a big deal out of it and to get back to work. Track labor work motivated me to return to school and eventually get a college degree.

I've been doing back exercises almost every morning for almost 50 years and if I skip a day, I regret it. I'm careful to lift properly and not to lift too much. I used to take a Ski Fitness class with my future wife at the YMCA where most of the people in the class were not skiers. My wife does Hot Yoga and sometimes Hot Pilates nearly every day at a studio a few minutes walk from my Mom's house. I often take her to class and walk dog and visit Mom while my wife is at class, but have only done beach yoga on vacation in Mexico. I don't think I'll ever try hot yoga. Will add more in https://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/threads/sick-injured-during-a-ski-trip.15192/#post-94376