That’s it in a nutshell. Lean and mean and as healthy as you can manage. And if/when something breaks, never give up! Go full on after rehab and stay in the game. It is indeed a use it or lose it deal.
Severe pain should always be looked at.
Preventative maintenance - Like a car we all need servicing. I cycle to work 4-10 times a month for my bad knees, . Everything else I spend 20mins a day doing Yoga.
Amen. Lose weight. Exercise regularly. Control/limit saturated fat and salt intake.
Tai Chi and Chi Kung – like yoga and stretching in motion (and more).
Bottom line, aging is slow death…
Mako,
You’re probably right. CiPro is a nuclear bomb anti bacterial. It makes sense to have some damage after in that your own bacteria are wiped out after.
Work on restoring gut health? Try kefir for bacteria and add something like algae to give them a nice home. Stay in the water to maintain the skin environment too. If can’t surf then swim or just dunk in seawater. If can’t get to the sea then seasalt bath!
Although I don’t have joint pain that’s my strategy in progress
I asked the same question years ago on Swaylocks. One of the bretheren (a doctor) suggested strong Ibuprophen and strong coffee before going in. Worked well for me! Not a long term treatment!
CiPro and the other antibiotics in the same class, aside from gut bug damage, specifically damages/destroys tendons and ligaments and those effects can linger long after you stop taking the drug. Personally, I would go for Chinese medicine and homeopathy as two, likely support therapies.
Ibuprofen is documented to accelerate arthritic joint degeneration if taken frequently. It should only be used for acute pain, like an injury or immediately post surgery.
Yes. Pain tells you there is some degree of injury/damage present. It is your cue to ease off.
Ibuprofen, aspirin, etc are only dulling the pain. This attenuates your body’s warning that damage is being done and allows you to keep doing more damage.
Relevant NY Times article (my wife just emailed it to me coinicidentally). Interesting that over my many years of exercise and training, in my old age, I arrived at my own forms of interval training…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/well/move/the-best-exercise-for-aging-muscles.html
Just shows, one cannot always trust a doctor! I find Yoga and Tai Chi great as well!
for stomach, guava leaf tea. an indo godsend
Apparently, even beyond masking the symptoms allowing abusive overuse, NSAIDs also interfere with what cartilage self-repair is possible
I had my neck bones C4-5-6 fused in 2000. The last year or so I notice more issues after surfing and most recently I have similar problems that I had prior to the neck needing fusion. I also have a bad back and occasionally one of the lumbar discs will slip and cause quite a bit of pain. Lifting heavy items will normally cause it to flare up.
I just surf as long as I’m not so messed up I can’t move. I wear a neck brace at night and put the little stick on heating pads where it hurts.
My brother has bad knees, did a full replacement a few years ago, and still has one bad one. He used to wear knee braces made for surfing. He’s had a rotator cuff problem for over a year and has kept him from surfing regularly. He’s just getting back in, but he’s in pain after he surfs.
I’ve missed some of the best swells we’ve had over the last 20 years due to health issues. Just have to be patient and be smart. If your body says no, listen. When you are tired and weaker, go in. I almost always get hurt at the end of session because I’m exhausted.
I would suggest searching out a FRC/FR guy via https://www.functionalanatomyseminars.com/find-a-provider/ and do your homework. It will consist of a morning routine that will take about 10-15 minutes that you should do every damn day, plus a number of more specific exercises according to your induvidual situation.
This is hands down the best mobility training with restorative effect I have seen to date. And I have been told that I would never surf again after a joint-depression type fracture of my right calcaneus.
Contact me for more info, good luck!
Arne
I mostly missed the best run of warm water fall swells we’ve had here since the mid 90s. The few times I did paddle out I wasn’t able to enjoy it. Finally starting to feel better…just in time for winter in the NorthEast. Last weekend had my first relatively pain free surf in a long time. I’ve been spending most of my time behind the camera.
I’ve definitely been guilty of trying to power through, which is the wrong way to go! Listen to your body and rest when you have to. I find yoga & hot yoga hugely beneficial, take chondroitin, glucosamine, vit D & calcium for my joints & cbd oil for inflammation as opposed to prescription pain meds. I’m 40 and work in a manual outdoors job in Scotland, also former military and have osteoarthritis in both hips, cam resection on right one and 2 major surgeries on left shoulder, so have odd days where I cannot surf, but still get in and swim or take the camera and get some snaps of my pals. Paddled down the lower part of the river spey on a surfboard twice a week as part of my rehab after last shoulder op. Definitely don’t power on but don’t get too out of shape either, it’s a slow grind back! Slanj.
I’ve had problems with both rotator cuffs and several disc problems, as well as knee problems. Information is the starting point - identifying what makes things worse and what helps. Pain is a warning system and aggravating whatever is the problem can then stimulate a chronic pain loop (soon as you work the injured limb the body generates pain to limit the activity - a crude explanation). I never used pain killers, but now judiciously use them if their is a flare up (sometimes it is about muscle spasm other times just pain). Get good medical advice on this . I stretch daily yoga/physiotherapist exercises, eat well. Surfing wise I now ride prone and have never had so much fun. The other thing which is super basic, but really helpful is get your posture right. Sitting/typing on computers , standing all day or some other habit - if the body isn’t aligned correctly, excess load is being placed on your body. Activities like yoga/tai chi amongst other things, are about body alignment. Pain is also a message- my rule of thumb is, if you experience it when doing nothing you’ve got a problem that needs attention, if it only occurs during an activity, rest, careful attention and not over-doing is usually ok (there are exceptions of course). Being aware of what is happening with your body is also essential. Usually it takes a few years to come up with what works for you - it’s a marathon not a sprint. Oh yeah, there is general advice and advice specific to your circumstances.
Diverticulitus stinks. Mine flares occasionally. However, I have never needed antibiotics. Drinking tons of water for a couple of days seems to fix it for me.
Rooster nailed it. Weight has a lot to do with things. Diet is so critical as we age.
For a decade I only kneeboarded (with fins) because of a bad shoulder. I played baseball from when I was 8 years old and into HS and finally found out that I never learned how to throw a baseball correctly while coaching little league and I played 3rd base. Well I had a laundry list of problems with my shoulder including multiple impingements and a partially torn rotator cuff. The doctor did an MRI and told me I had two choices: (1) surgery + PT or (2) just strenuous PT. I went the non-surgical route and the PT almost made me puke in the first two weeks. Today I’m surfing and the kneeboards are collecting dust; but I really like kneeboarding. I’ll have to get those bad boys out this winter in NJ. YMMV but kneeboarding might just keep you in the game while you’re getting repaired.
Just had first Egoscue lesson. Jury still out on effects and expensive but VERY promising. The book PAIN FREE he wrote gives good idea of what it is about but the minimal lessons in there likely won’t do much, need. Direct, personal analysis because the exercises they give you are not obviously connected to your “issue” but the body is all one piece. Change one part and you change them all. A bit like global ecology i.e. dust storm in China and we suck it down in the U.S. via jet stream…