The Adventure Continues

So far, my training with M. the Reasonable has been smooth sailing. He makes me work, yes, but really, after the exertion comes this wonderful feeling of accomplishment and endorphin high, so I hardly mind. And, as mentioned before, he's so reasonable. It's really been a good match for me, trainer-wise, and I'm already feeling my muscles respond again. I know I've lost weight (though we haven't weighed since my first appointment) and I feel really good.

Then, today, my body let me down.

I arrived at the gym early, as usual, to warm up on the StairMaster and do some stretching. Everything was going well, and I was feeling great...until my back started to twinge. Recognizing the same twinge that cause me some grief in October, I stopped stretching, stood up and started walking back to the locker room. My back hurt a little, but I wasn't overly concerned. I was to meet with M. in a few minutes and figured he'd be fine with helping me stretch and limber up before we attempted anything more difficult.

I made a stop in the ladies room (tea with breakfast and all that), and once I sat down, the real trouble began. Pain started shooting down my right hip and leg. I was breathing heavily. Standing up again once I'd finished was excruciating, and it took at least a minute for me to be able to pull my pants back up. I was leaning on the partition, taking deep breaths. My stomach started to feel queasy and I was sweating profusely. My right foot couldn't touch the floor without shooting more pain up and down my leg.

The last time I had sciatica was in 2007, when I was at my heaviest--it's one of the things that prompted me to resume my gym membership, and, two years later, get a trainer. I've always been glad not to have it again, and I assumed--wrongly, it turns out--that being lighter and more in shape would mean I wouldn't get sciatica anymore.

I managed, somehow, to limp into the main part of the locker room and wash up, then grab my things and limp out to the front area where I was to meet with M. Sweat was dripping down my face. Another trainer saw me and said, "Hard workout?" I said, "No. Pain...sciatica." She was very nice to me and actually stood and talked to me until M. was finished with the client before me (I think she might have been afraid I would collapse or something, the way I was gripping the partition by the trainers' desks). When he came over, it was all I could do to tell him, between clenched teeth, "I'm in a lot of pain...sciatica." Immediately concerned, he said, "We're stretching," and led me over to the stretching mats.

We started with me on my back, with M. gently helping me move my legs and stretch. The more we worked, the less I could feel the pain shooting down my leg. The stretching started to work and my muscles, instead of seizing, relaxed and took the pressure off the sciatic nerve. Still, my back was sore and I was moving slowly. M. assured me this was normal and okay.

After working on the floor, he had me sit on a bench and put my right ankle up on my left knee. Then I was to lean forward and put pressure on my right knee to press down and stretch the hip and glutes. I was having trouble holding this, so he had me grab his hands so he could pull me forward. To help push down on my knee, he put his leg across mine. I was sitting there thinking about how absurd we must look, and also, oh, man, this stretch actually feels really good, when M. laughed and said, "People are probably thinking, 'What is he doing to her?'"

"I don't care how we look or what they're thinking...this is helping me!" But we both laughed and acknowledged that yes, we must look ridiculous.

The rest of my hour with him was spent doing easy weight-bearing exercises that required no sitting. I did some squats holding onto handles so I could easily pull back up, which is not something I normally need. M. was just glad to be able to help me, and also that I didn't try to push through it. He has clients, I guess, who think it is a sign of weakness to admit they're in pain, and they therefore injure themselves even worse. I told him I'm not ever going to do that--I'm so paranoid about injuring my knees and back that I will always stop and double check before proceeding.

Today I found myself in a very vulnerable position--flat on the floor, in pain, feeling frustrated and let down by my body. It's not an easy place for me to be, especially in front of someone else. It's not the first time I've been vulnerable in a training session--throwing up while running with G., or that time I fell in front of him--but it's the first time I've felt so exposed in front of M. He was fantastic. ("Oh, G. used to tell me, 'Hey, you'll have something to blog about tonight...' all the time." This got a big laugh and, "Hey, you'll have something to blog about tonight, too!") I tend to use humor as a way to make myself feel more comfortable, and he played right along with me today, all while actually physically helping me, too.

So now I'm sore--I've been given orders to not run today and attempt my run tomorrow after sending him a text message in the morning letting him know how I feel. If the shooting pain returns, he might even try to get me back to the gym tomorrow for more stretching. My hope is that this won't be necessary. For now, my back is sore, but my sciatic nerve is not under pressure (knock on wood). I will continue the gentle stretching today and I might even go for a slow walk later because I'm noticing that walking eases the soreness while sitting makes it worse.


"Today, you can call me M. the Helpful!" was my trainer's suggestion at one point in our workout. I just laughed and replied, "More like M. the Life-Saver!" If I have to have sciatica...isn't it lucky he was around to help me?