I need your help. I have problems with my back (2 protrusions) and also I'm not very flexible. I wanna strengthen my core and get flexible. What do you recommend: pilates or yoga?
Whatever is cheaper and has a better class schedule and doesn't require you to sign up for 12 months. In other words, a cheap drop in class. Yoga is the ultimate for stretching, but pilates is better for building up core strength faster. You need both in jits.
2 protusions on your back? You need medical or chiropractic clearance before you roll, unless you've got it already. You don't need an injured disc....
[edit: sorry, didn't see this was addressed to Stephan]
Tudor - Just to start things out right I should emphasize that I'm not a doctor, not a physical therapist, not a chiropractor etc. Also if anyone else wants to jump in and help out I'd be perfectly fine with that, so SPEAK UP!!
When you say "protrusion" do you mean "osteophyte" - this would be a bone spur from osteoarthritis - or do you mean to say that you have bulging disks, or is it something different.
Where are these protrusions: cervical, thoracic or lumbar spine?
Have these protrusions actually had any effects on your spine or nerves (pain, numbness, loss of function etc?)
Were the protrusions the result of an acute injury, a chronic injury or congenital?
For the record, I wouldn't (and haven't personally) taken spinal problems lightly. An injured elbow is one thing, a f$*%$d back or neck can be crippling for life. That is why I dropped out of the ADCC trials earlier this year - getting healthy was way more important to me than competing.
Personally I'm pretty flexible in my back, and strengthening seemed to help my problems way more than stretching. This could be the other way around for someone who isn't very flexible.
Finally if you haven't already read some of the things I wrote about my back injuries please read
www.grapplearts.com/2006/02/dont-take-injuries-lying-down.htm
and
www.grapplearts.com/2006/03/fixing-bad-backs.htm
My neck injury was a (severely) pinched nerve root. I can't tell you whether to take cortisone or not, but in my case it's not inflammation that's creating the residual problems - it's the damage to the nerve root done by the inflammation 4 months ago.
I tried a number of treatment modalities, but the only thing that really helped was anti-inflammatories EARLY in the healing process, when there was still a lot of pain in the neck and shoulder. I tried to talk my neurologist into prescribing me some more, but he said that they only help in the initial stage of the injury (when there is pain pain and inflammation) and not later (when there is weakness, pins and needles, etc.). At this point it's not really inflammation that's the problem - the damage has been done and now it's just the nerve healing itself, which normally takes 3 to 6 months. I'm getting close to 90% strength and the pins and needles are gradually diminishing, so I guess I'm on track for a 6 month recovery.
Also with nerve injuries it can appear that no recovery is happening, and then all of a sudden there is dramatic recovery: what has happened is that the damaged section of nerve has finally regrown. Nerves heal very slowly (1 or 2 mm a month, if I'm not mistaken), so this can take quite a while.
Stephan, I have 2 protrusions as in bulging discs. I've got RMN (doesn't know if it's teh same in english in can be MRI) and told to chill the JJ. It happened 3 years ago. I still do JJ intensively, but with some precaution (not using too much upa etc.). The disc are L4-L5, L5-S1.
I have from time to time acute pain, but no numbness.
You guys need to take up knitting or shuffle board, instead of grappling.