Tag: wellbeing

Managing Back Pain with Yoga

Managing back pain with STRETCH

Those of you who have been regular visitors to OCG will know that I came to cycling because I was no longer able to run or do high impact exercise activity because of spinal issues. Cycling was a way of being active whilst managing back pain. I have degenerative disc disease resulting in three lots of surgery to date and the insertion of spinal rods and plates in my lumbar spine.

More back pain

In 2016, I had yet another disc prolapse. When I visited my surgeon, he advised that surgery was not a feasible option due to scar tissue from previous surgeries. Instead, as a means of managing back pain without going down the road of surgery, he offered me spinal blocks and facet joint injections, and advised me to look at doing yoga to strengthen the deep paraspinal muscles. At this point, I was 32 with two children. The quality of my life was not great. I was in a lot of pain daily. I couldn’t bend, I had nerve pain in my left leg and I wasn’t sleeping. The thought of more surgery, which may or may not be successful, was absolutely the last thing I wanted. So, I happily took the offer of the injections and made a pact with him to do yoga. (more…)

Which Style of Yoga for Beginners?

Yoga for beginnersA few weeks back, I wrote a post about how yoga is great for cyclists. Thanks to those of you who contacted me to say that you too find yoga really beneficial, not only for cycling but for your general fitness and wellbeing. Some of you contacted me saying; ‘Yeah, great idea, but I’m so inflexible, I daren’t go to a class because I’m sure I won’t be able to do it!’. So, this post is for those of you who think yoga isn’t for you. It aims to put those concerns at rest and give you some words of reassurance on which yoga for beginners you should opt for! (more…)

Powered up for Autumn cycling

Autumn cycling
Image via Flickr

Brrrr, it’s been a cold week in Nottingham this week. Give me summer over winter any day of the week. Warm sunshine, blue skies and green trees…just lovely. But this is the UK and Autumn has arrived, so, if I want to carrying on cycling all year round I either need to toughen up or wrap up. (more…)

Aviva stress less challenge

Aviva stress less challenge
Image: Bernard Goldbach via Flickr

So, I recently discussed my experiences with anxiety and stress and disclosed one or two things that in all honesty, I don’t normally talk about publicly. It was all for Mental Health Awareness Week 2014 and if it helps just one person with their experiences, well, that’s great! Thanks to all who left such kind words – it was very much appreciated. We all suffer with a bit of stress right? OK, so perhaps some of us have more than others, or perhaps some of us are better at dealing with it than others. But, when it comes to coping mechanisms for difficult times we all have our own individual ways of trying to stress less. (more…)