Oh the Irony!

I just got done posting about my lower back pain last week, and literally right after I hit the publish button I went to a cardio class and re-injured my lower back. Can we say ironic?

We were doing burpees, followed by a large leap forward. This completely fucked my back, and not in a good way. I spent the next few days keeping it low key at the gym. Which is not easy for my new-ish fitness loving self. I get sooooo frustrated that my body cannot do what I want it to. Two years ago I would have used injury as an excuse to skip the gym for months ever. So there's that.

Anyway, since I seem to keep injuring that damn lower back of mine, I thought it would be nice to share some of the exercises I've been doing while in extreme pain.

I avoid doing squats, since that is pretty much what put me in the situation to begin with. But I love working my legs, so now I have been doing mass amounts of lunges, variations of lunges, wall sits, and sumo squats. But doing some of these have consequently given me a slight bit of knee pain. I am a disaster, I tell ya.

I also stopped trying to be a runner. I have always hated running, but I always wanted to like it. I don't try anymore. Not even a little bit. Running can be really hard on the body and joints, and it hurts my back and my knees. Soooo I dropped it like a hot potato.

In order to replace the cardio of running, I started cycling again. Which is easy on my lower back and knees. I also use the elliptical, and really concentrate on spiking my heart rate using intervals.

Overall I just try to listen to my body. If it hurts, I don't do it. And I really focus on stretching out my hip flexor, outer hips, and hamstrings. On a side note, I truly believe that the hip flexor is one of the most neglected muscles to be stretched. We are constantly using the hips flexors, which means they are super tight, and they effect a lot of other muscles.

And if you are looking for some great exercises to stretch out the hip flexor, this is a post.