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Looking at the Spinal Fusion thread, it seems I have alot of company in my effort to avoid surgery. While I try to avoid activities that I know will aggravate my back, sometimes they just seem unavoidable. I have a couple friends who swear by those back supports and I’m wondering if anybody else out there has tried them. I’ve looked at several different kinds and there seems to be lots to choose from. I’d like to hear what people have tried or are using. I’ve also noticed lots of young guys wearing them on jobs and I kinda wonder if I couldnt have saved myself alot of pain if I’d started wearing one while doing heavy work 25 years ago?
JonC
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alot of major companies have outlawed the back brace because it tend to make the back muscles weaker, so they is more chance to hurt yourself off hours. In other word you got to use your back muscle to keep them in shape.
*Johnnie, Wearing a mini-skirt is more effective than those stupid back braces. If necessary, I will explain upon request. -Peter
*You wore a mini-skirt and it was more effective than a back brace? I'd kind of like to hear the explanation. Did you actually shave your legs and put on make up and stuff? I mean, I felt desperate at times and stuff, but geez. JonC
*Wearing a mini-skirt would make you tend to bend at the knees, and not bend over at the waist, right ?Have you seen pictures of Andy nailing a floor ? Andy should wear a mini skirt when nailing floors. (Disclaimer... I wouldn't want to be within two states distance if he did so....)
*Or perhaps one of these? http://www.utilikilts.com/
*Jon, i've got a couple of these wrap-around things for which i paid top dollar at a yard sale, beauty aids meant to make fat women look like toothpaste tubes squeezed from the middle. In any case, it's a elastic band about a foot wide with a Velcro closure, so i end up looking like a serving girl in a bierstube (hold the dirndl), but they really help. I don't wear one all the time, just when i have to do something really awful like push stuff through the drum sander for hours at a time. I must have the regular and super-slenderizer models--two different "strengths".
*Luka,How you bend depends on what you are trying to pick up, I believe.Ken,I think you should all get utilikilts for your next fest and post a group picture.
*ROFLOLYeah, I suppose that if I were wearing a miniskirt, and bent over just right, I'd end up having to pick up spomething that I never intended to have to.Before I tripped over it.
*Luka got it right in post #4. -Peter
*I wore one for about three years. Finally the pain got so bad that I went to the Mayo clinic.They convinced me to throw it away and got on a program of physical therapy to strengthen my abdominal wall which had been weakened by wearing it. They said that I could for individual lifts but not to wear it all day.My problem is degenerative disc disease. No surgery likely because repiaring one disc wil spread the load to the next one and blow it out. I'm working with three blown discs and several others that don't look too healthy. Doing my exercises keeps me on my feet.
*I use and wear a "weidercare" brand of back brace, w/over the shoulder suspenders. I wear it only during the work day when I have to stoop a lot, carry and lift. The back brace that I have, nor any other brace is meant to be a substitute for proper lifting and carrying of heavy items. All it does (for me) is provide some stability to the back muscles. With proper exercise, proper lifting, and so forth, the brace is only a compliment to the whole effort. Happy holidays.
*piffin, I'd be real interested in knowing what kind of exercises the Mayo recommended. I wasnt thinking of wearing a support all the time, just when doing activities that I know cause my back to flare up.JonC
*There are a lot of tiny muscles from one vertebra to the next besides your bigger abs and long back muscles. These exercises help strenghthen them. Lots of books touch on them and it might take a phyus therapist to help you learn them right. I was doing wrong at frist without guidance. Most are done laying on your back so low impact. Pilattes exercises are similar too.Pelvic liftLay on back with knees bent to about 90 degrees and feet flat on floor or mat about shoulder wwidth apart. Lift your pelvis by curling it towards your chin. Your tailbone will lift from the deck without your spine coming up. lower it slowly. do this multiple times for a few minutes.After you get in touch with those muscles, you can do the same while driving or standing in line at the grocery store but you might get hauled off for making lewd suggestions to the checkout girl. Then again U might get lucky.Leg reacheslaying in the same position, not the one the clerek left you in, but the original one on your back, lift one foot off the floor while leaving the other flat. Now lower that leg 'till nearly touching the floor and hold there while imagining reaching far below your sole for a staging plank that you know is there someplace. after a few seconds pull it back in and do the same with the other leg. ten reps.Leg liftsSame position, straighten one leg near the floor and lift it 'till vertical without lifting butt off the floor. Lower again. ten reps then do other leg. after you are in shape you can do both legs together. sittups and crunches work the upper and outter muscles morre but this works lower and inner ones more. Bicyclesame position but not like we did in HS calesthetics. Leave butt on floor and do the bicycle more horizontally instead of vertically.I suffer from compressing my discs with heavy lifts so I avoid heavy work but these exercises tighten up those little worms that lie close to the spine and help hold everything in alignment and fewer nerves get aggravated. Inflamed nerves can cause muscle spasms. The only times I've ever had my back "go out" are from light work in bad positions like reaching out on a ladder with the paint brush or squirriling myself around behind a fixture to nail, or nailing a deck while on my knees.good luck!
*Pelvic lift??Do the ELVIS!
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Looking at the Spinal Fusion thread, it seems I have alot of company in my effort to avoid surgery. While I try to avoid activities that I know will aggravate my back, sometimes they just seem unavoidable. I have a couple friends who swear by those back supports and I'm wondering if anybody else out there has tried them. I've looked at several different kinds and there seems to be lots to choose from. I'd like to hear what people have tried or are using. I've also noticed lots of young guys wearing them on jobs and I kinda wonder if I couldnt have saved myself alot of pain if I'd started wearing one while doing heavy work 25 years ago?
JonC