The day my brain forgot where my back was

Taking a bigger picture:<p>Muscle atrophy is one of the biggest causes of reduced quality of life in the elderly (and also the not so elderly). Women in particular are susceptible to this due to their smaller amount of muscle mass to begin with and the general cultural aversion to women undertaking resistance exercise. My own experience (as a man and admitted gym rat) is that resistance training sorts out my back problem (and generally improves my life in other ways).<p>So, who's for deadlifts? :)

responding to csarva(<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1271567)(I" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1271567)(I</a> can't seem to reply to individual messages anymore):<p>&#62;[re-]building core strength<p>That's [re-]building strength in core muscles (the ones that hold your skeleton together)... as opposed to motor muscles(those who move your limbs)... that is the crux of the whole article, and I think it makes a lot of difference. The way you put it leads to think to core moral strength.<p>Edit: The excruciating pain is also not core to the article. In her case, damaged nerves lead to muscle fatigue being manifested in lack of power and quite pointedly lack of pain in certain circumstances when pain was to be expected (though she also describes experiencing said excruciating pain).<p>Edit2: Actually, although the article is interspersed with passages of personal drama (it /is/ a blog post, on /her/ blog) it is also filled with too much information to be easily tl;dr'ed... Also, the post itself is a postmortem style post in which what happened over a long period of time is condensed. Further compression runs high risks of being lossy I think.

Does anyone have a link to further information on the muscle repair stuff she cited? The part about how after 25, your brain might just give muscles up for lost?

Well I was going to make some comments on specific parts of this blog post but there is just too much crap. Don't do anything the woman did in this article. Not even what she settled for at the end. She kept looking to quacks for quick-fixes where she didn't have to do any work when in reality all she needed was some physical therapy (which is hard work and a longer process and actually fixes your dysfunction).<p>If you don't want to get into this situation in the first place there are even preventative physical therapy programs like egoscue and specific types of yoga. Avoid joint/bone "manipulators" and all that other new-age BS, though.

when i was in high school, i had problems with my back and neck.<p>we were referred to a doctor about this. he sized me up in 5 minutes. then he revealed to us his chiropractor nature and said he'd do his thing. i wasn't asked if that's what i want. it didn't occur to me either, because he's an authority figure, right? so he did his thing. and it got worse. my neck felt bent out of shape and weak.<p>we had to see another doctor who prescribed muscle strength work. because that was the problem. fucked up muscles.<p>why the heck do people still believe in chiropractors? they're all frauds, every single one of them.

my tl;dr summary - After seeing several doctors and chiropractors for her excruciating back pain, Lucy found that exercise and [re-]building core strength was the answer. The problem was her muscles, not her bones.

and what is it with "waiting months to see a doctor"?<p>i live in germany (socialized health care) and if there's something wrong with you, you either see your GP or walk into the next (teaching) hospital. whatever further referral you need is just days away, if not just an elevator ride and a knock on a door.<p>waiting months, docs who dismiss your opinion, trusting chiropractors... what is wrong with you?

For those in the bay area, did you have similar success with muscle training treatments? If so, can you please refer me to a few sources where I can get help starting my regiment?<p>After reading this article I am determined to get my neck and back stronger, just don't know where to start.

The treatment she got from the government doctors was horrible.<p>This bit gives me chills: "We were told that we would wait at least four months for an NHS appointmen"<p>Uggh.<p>I'm glad that we still have free market doctors here in the US.<p>Well, at least for the next four years.