My achin' back!

I have learned a valuable lesson the past few weeks. Lots of studying + not enough exercise = physical consequences!

About two and a half weeks ago, I started noticing that my back would get a little bit sore after studying. Thinking nothing of it, I continued to hunch over my desk for long periods of time until one day, I woke up and my back was quite sore. I made it through the day, but the next few days turned out to be quite interesting, to say the least. My back was so sore it hurt to stand up straight. Because my lower back muscles and abs were useless, my other muscles were overcompensating, and thus ending up quite sore as well. Sitting on a couch or chair was torture. It got so bad that I couldn't sleep, as every single time I tried to move or roll over, I was in a lot of pain. About the point where I literally had to roll out of bed to get up in the morning, since I couldn't bend or twist my back, I realized just how pathetic I was. I'm 24 years old and my trunk strength has been reduced to this? Geesh.

I'm happy to report that it's finally feeling better and most of the pain has subsided, but you better bet I got to the gym this morning to start exercising again. I finally have a car again so I can't make any more excuses. I'm glad I learned this lesson now, as opposed to in a year or so when I'm in the middle of real studying. No matter how busy I get or the inconvenience, I have to exercise!! Plus I don't want to be a hypocrite and tell my patients to make time to exercise when I don't.

And honestly, what helped me through this whole ordeal was sitting on an exercise ball, as it wasn't hard on my spine AND strengthened at the same time. I think I'm not even going to invest in a chair while I study and just sit on one of these.