A bit of backstory before i begin this log.

Sometime around november of 07 i had a car accident. It was raining and as i was driving onto a freeway on ramp, my car started hydroplaining and i was slowly slipping towards the guard rail so i panicked and slammed on the brakes. Doing so caused the car to spin around and smash front first onto the guard rail and continue spinning out onto the ditch on the side.

Didn't suffer any cut or bruises. just a neck wiplash and lower back pain.

The neck pain went away but the backpain did not. I had to stop doing martial arts for a bit and lost my conditioning and gained weight. i weigh 30 more pounds than i used to and can't last much cardio.

The first doctor told me that i'll just have to live with the pain and work out the muscles in that area.

Then later on i went to see another doctor who told me to go to physical therapy, prior to the MRI i wanted to request, for a while which didn't do anything. my lower back isn't limited to any movements it just hurts all the time. It becomes sore if i do twisting motions like roundhouse house kicks and the like.

Well, my insurance expired a while back so i could no longer go to the physical therapist and now i have to wait till june to have my insurance back again. When i do first thing will be to get an MRI and see why my pain has been reocurring and whether or not i should opt for surgery.

As of now I've resorted to seeing a chiropractor and am trying to follow the advice that the doctor gave me before i stopped seeing him. "Stretch everyday and work out your lower back until you slowly recover."

I've been doing that while seeing the chiropractor once a week and am slowly recovering from the pain. It now comes and goes depending if i slept wrong or if i exercised too much the day before.

This log here is to mark my recovery process as i slowly get back to my old routine of doing martial arts nad working out about 3 hours a day like i used to.

So far i've been doing Judo Tuesdays and fridays 7-9pm and Wing Chun tuesdays and thursdays 9-10:30pm

I workout my core and some light cardio at the gym i work at on mondays, wednesdays, saturdays and sundays for about 30 minutes on those days. Hopefully this log will help keep me motivated to continue my slow progress towards recovery.

Just got back from class.

I went to Judo and for the first time my mom went to see me. Awesome thing too was that i was on my A game today feeling full of energy because i managed to pull off ippon seonage on two of my fellow classmates. I'm starting to feel the rhythm of the movements that one of the sensei's told me i should work on. That bit of advice has helped me pull off seonage successfully.

My back was feeling a little sore today from not working it out last week(i was swamped at work and finished late), so i could feel the strain on my back a bit but i toughed it out and everything seemed fine.

Then i headed out to my wing chun class. Got there a little late but managed to be there for an hour at least. We worked on our footwork when doing hyung bo and chasing down an opponent while keeping our center of gravity in the center. My back was still a bit achy but no strains here, i managed to strecth it out a bit in between sets and everything seems good.

Got home took a shower and put some bengay on my knees and righ wrist(bruises from Judo) and tiger balm pathces on my lower back to soothe the pain. For dinner i had half a garlic toast a few cherries and my protein drink mixed with water since it's a little late.

I plan on going to the gym tomorrow morning and working out then because i have a feeling i'll be busy again towards the end of my work shift to squeeze in some core work.

Strider,

Fair play to you mate for getting back on the horse, so to speak.
The one thing that concerns me is the Judo.
I train in Judo myself and know how full on it is. Do you think it is the best thing to be training in with an un-diagnosed problem with your lower back?
I know how frustrating it can be not training due to injury, I'm out myself at the moment with a shoulder injury and it is driving me mad, but if you aggravate the injury you will be out even longer.
Best of luck anyway.

Thanks for the concern.

When i spoke to the doctor about getting an MRI he said that getting an MRI would be a waste of time because i was young and he didn't see any "serious injury present". He said that i just have an injury caused by something other than the car accident. He reccomended to just work out my back and stay away from aggravating workouts until it heals. The only acutal agrravating workout at the time was TKD so i haven't done that in a long while. i bugged him enough for him to send me to the physical therapist and then if i was still in pain we'd get the MRI.

The physical therapist said that it seemed to be a muscle knot issue and not an actual spine issue. He also recommended i work out my back and stay away from aggravating workouts.

I'll be getting insurance again soon from my work so i'll see what's up with my back then.

I'll try to take it easy in Judo. So far everything seems ok but if my back starts getting worse i'll have to stop.

End of the week update!
Wednesday lower back wrkout was shot... i was too busy to do any of t and woke up too late to workout in the morning.

Thursday Wing Chun we worked on more footwork and how to move faster without sacrificing stability when closing the gap on an opponent.

Friday i had my mom come in again to take some pictures of me flipping people but alas i was paired up with all the blackbelts today and i barely managed anything. Worked on some newaza today and learned a cheap trick to get a good position on an opponent: dig knuckle into soft spot behind ear to get an opening. I screamed out in pain and laughter when the blackbelt applied that to me.

After class it was announced that there will be a tournament in Barstow on june 8th. I've decided to attend and will train for it.

Saturday and Sunday i managed to workout my core. My back needed it. My back right now is without pain from working out and i also managed to run a mile before finishing my workout.

Must remember to keep working out my lower back as it is my only saving grace from pain.

I also missed my appointment with my chiropractor which sucked but i plan on going tomorrow morning... if i can wake up

This week has been sort of meh. I feel a bit angry because i've been lagging it on working on my cardio outside of the dojo.

I've still managed to work on my lower back which has made my back pain gone down to a dull roar.

Tuesday was hell for me. Judo was intense: We worked on newaza as a way to warm up for tachiwaza. One of the sensei decided to try and test me by really putting a lot of pressure during newaza. When we finished class i was winded from a good workout. He had mentioned somethign about possibly promoting me based on my progress so i guess that's why he was going hard on me. anyway.... off to Kung fu class

Before i got there i started feeling a bit queasy.... i had to stop by a store to buy some water i might have been a bit dehydrated.

When i got to class i was feeling way better. Lucky for me today was going to be a carido based class. We were working on speed drills most of the time. Trying to pull off combinations while keeping my centerline protected and my footwork in balance. Class ended i went home to sleep

Friday Judo again. We worked on uchikomi a lot more in order to build the techniques we knew as instinct. We alternated that with Randori in between sets. A bit tiring but i learned a couple of neat tricks to pull off the only move i can do with success in randori ippon seonage.

When doing ippon seonage in order to help the technique flow smoothly i should drop all the way down while keeping my weight forward, like usual. Then when the uke is on my back, if he gets stuck because the uke is resisting then roll off my right shoulder in order to finish the throw before uke breaks free. I tried it a couple of times and this technique seems to be a keeper. The plus side is i can practice it along with my ukemi rolls so it would like this:

Start with kuzushi into ippon seonage then when i'm about face go into an ukemi. I can do this in a small area and i know at my gym there are a few mats so i may try it on saturday.

Still haven't gone to see the chiropractor. Next week i keep telling myself. That's it for now will update every couple of days.

p.s.: I plan on including my progress in terms of the weight i'm losing and the food/supplements i've been eating too. Hopefully i can write it down in a coherent way.

Back is feeling real good this morning. I have a bit of a bruised knee but i have some wraps a sensei from my Judo dojo let me borrow. My tournament in Barstow is today hopefully i can get my family to get good film footage of it so i can put it up on youtube or something. Wish me luck!

Well? How'd you do? Hope nothing else got injured!

I'm 21 5'6" weighing in a 174lbs. at white belt status

i had my right knee wrapped just in case i took a bad fall from a tai otoshi. That thankfully didn't happen.

When i finally signed up at the front it took a whole 2 hours for the people in my category to go up. i was nervous as heck so i would go warm up every so often so i wouldn't be so stiff. When we were finally called up i was staring at a 6foot 2inch dude who suprisingly only weighed 6 more pounds than me. i wasn't scared though but he had enough strength to off balance me with a push. i was doing good until i latched on and started thinking about what to do next... that's when i got caught with a harai goshi http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/haraigoshi.htm

2nd match was with someone an inch or two smaller than the last guy but twice as fast. i lost a point for stalling then he lost a point for trying to do an incorrect rear naked choke. He had the arm that was supposed to be around my neck accross my face instead. My neck is still a bit sore from that and my lips bled a bit, it seemed like he was trying to rip my head off. Then he got a point for doing a foot sweep which i landed on my side but apparently still counted as an ippon.. i think.

All in all it was fun. No injuries thankfully and i got some experience in competition.

i went with my dad and we took a disposable camera so i haven't seen what kind of pictures he took. He apparently was impressed that i wasn't scared of facing people that were taller than me. He jokinlgy calls me a street fighter from time to time which is nice of him.

p.s.: HADOUKEN!!!

great job Strider!!