(Photo credit: TeaWithBuzz)

Chronic Pain can feel like a strait jacket, especially if your body is held to ransom with muscle spasms, muscle tightness and a fragility which means a wrong move or knock can have a massive effect. Not only is your body held to ransom but you are mentally held by the same ties. Care free is a long way off. Life is black and white with occasional flashes of colour.

In the past when I have tried to do exercises, even gentle physio led ones I have come to grief. The last time resulted in a herniated disc (is this because I was shearing the disc through twisting due to it being under such pressure bought on by muscle tension/spasm?). However now I feel I have reduced the muscle spasms and tightness through my vertebral column. So simple but so effective. I can bend and move in ways I could only dream of before with confidence that nothing sinister will happen. The ties are loosening…

I wrote previously I would update the blog on how I personally was doing. I am starting to go through Sarah Key’s extensive body of work on joints in the body. The book title is ‘Keep your Joints Young’ in the UK and I think ‘The Body in Action’ on the other side of the world. In previous posts I have written about doing spinal rolling, reverse curl ups, knees rocking and the back block routine. I am now adding in some other exercises such as child pose, legs passing, segmental pelvic bridging, squatting, floor twists (gingerly!) and really getting in with the tennis ball to get those rusty facet joints moving. I’ve also had fun going through the other joint exercises to see which joints are stiff and which are fine. Toes are looking good…! I gained a lot of information in one morning. Less than a year ago I couldn’t have dreamed of doing any of this.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am thankful to have found the things that make a real and lasting difference. Maybe one day I can be free of that jacket and emerge as myself, changed yes but hopefully more butterfly than caterpillar.