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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on March 18, 2010 at 5:37pm

I know this will sound odd. After a car wreck that messed up my back I decided that babies had to crawl to get strong enough to walk, so I got down on my hands and knees and hand weeded my horse's grazing paddock. My back had been hurting so bad that riding was horrible, but after months of hand weeding on my hands and knees I got strong enough to ride, though at a low intensity (mostly at a walk at first.)
Do protect your knees, and gloves might be a good idea.

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Permalink Reply by Nora Robinson on March 18, 2010 at 5:55pm

ha ha Jackie! I love it!

Actually one of the most non-invasive exercises I saw on a fitness show, was about the same thing. You get down on your hands and knees and just pull you're tummy up and then let it loose in repititions!

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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on March 19, 2010 at 1:54pm

I found that when crawling around weeding that my body would do the abdomen thing when it needed to. My back was not in good shape, and I was really leery about adding anything to what babies do, but once you feel strong enough it may help, just start with the tummy work slowly (one the first day.) I am the type of person who just wants to forge ahead, I had to learn that with many things physical it is best to start SLOW and build up later.
Crawling around can also stretch your back gently, and it can relax the back muscles if you let it work. It took a while because I was very weak, but eventually a lot of the muscle problems in my back improved, and have stayed improved.

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