: Problem: Exaggerated torso twisting and too many hours paddling wore away the
: bone interfaces that hold my lumbar vertebrae in line. I stopped all
: exercise 3 months ago due to high levels of constant pain and numbness.
: Now , after therapy and rest I’m nearly recovered and painfree. I would
: love to continue kayaking but can’t afford to ablate anymore skeletal
: matter.

Jay,

I don't know the nature of your specific injury, and you should take all web medical advice with caution. That said, this year I herniated a lumbar disk (L5) and for the last six months I have been working through recovery. You have to be careful to find the root cause of the injury. It is not always obvious. For example, in my case, rather than blaming kayaking, it was diagnosed that my injury was from slumping forward in a chair over a computer screen for too many years (this and age can eventually cause the potential for herniations). Some disk injuries such as a herniation are mechanical injuries and therefore you need good, sound posture to help them heal. Since I have a posterior herniation, I have to take care not to slump forward or round my back when sitting -- in other words I have to maintin the lordosis (curve) in my lower back. Bending forward without slumping requires flexible hamstrings (needed for say, tucking forward in your kayak) -- which must be maintained by stretching. How good is your posture as you are reading this?

I agree with the other posts that said you will have to learn your injury. Expect to get plenty of conflicting advice. For example one doctor told me that torso rotation should be avoided, another told me that it is helpful to heal the back after the intial injury subsided. Some excercises that I was prescribed did not help -- and in fact caused me to regress. Part of the challenge is discovering what works and what you need to throw out.

You may find that reducing activity helps initially but in my experience this can cause more problems and pain down the road. I found that swimming really helped me, as did an inversion bench to stretch the spine. I have been pain free for over a month and my back is growing stronger by the week. I am looking forward to a full recovery.

I was talking with Leone Somme whose love of kayaking has "survived" a herniated a disk. He has learned how to strengthen his back and manage his injury, although he says he has flare-ups from time to time. Last year he circumnavigated Iceland. In other words if you are injured don't just assume that you have to "reinvent yourself". Get some second opinions, especially from good physical therapists. My doctor said "maybe at 44 you are getting too old for kayaking -- after all how many forty year olds do you see playing pro football". My physical therapist had a completely different point of view. He said "how many herniations do you have? Only one? No problem. Don't expect it to be easy but we will get you back out there!"

Greg Stamer