Night 4

My back was hurting all day so I went to bed not so excited about sleeping on it. Surprisingly, I woke up this morning and it felt better. That is a huge improvement. Some of you are probably wondering why in the world I don't just get Spinal Touch at our office (Ideal Bodyworks) and get it over with. Good question. What it comes down to is that Spinal Touch helps my back a TON-I stand up straighter, my spine looks better, the arch in my back is right, and it doesn't hurt any more.

There are only two problems:

1. I don't take the time to get Spinal Touch consistently so my back eventually assumes my “natural” position of the rounded shoulders and everything else I've described.
2. I was considering keeping my experiment untainted, to see what JUST changing my sleep position would do.

I've given up on #2. I figure my goal is to do something permanently good for my body. If Spinal Touch gets my back out of pain, and then the sleeping on my back helps it STAY out of pain, why should I avoid it for a month?

My other pro-Spinal Touch reasoning was the run I went on this morning. It was (as the slang term goes) an Epic Fail. My friend and I ran maybe ½ a mile before my knee started telling me it was a bad idea. I feel like I should be able to run forever, so sometimes my mind takes over and says "Keep going!" even though my body isn't right. I injure myself almost every time I go running for this reason. It's good to push yourself, not good to injure. So I took it easy and walked home eventually, hoping to get in a session of Spinal Touch today so I can run again later this week.

Back to my sleep-like I said, it went really well. My back was hurting when I went to bed, but it was doing much better when I woke up. I have to admit that I woke up at 5:30 and decided to sleep another ½ hour before getting up at 6:00 to go running. I figured I'd just cheat a little and sleep on my side so I could get to sleep quickly, but it didn't work. I lasted less than 30 seconds on my side before I realized it was uncomfortable and I would have a hard time sleeping that way. I moved back to my back, relaxed, and was out. It's good to know at least the side sleeping habit is wearing off.