Semi-Daily Journal

Irony apart, lactose can build up slowly, and as long as you are exercising (especially at walking / hiking pace) you're eliminating it, plus you're producing endorphins that kill the pain. I never had trouble walking on the day I finished a run (even a marathon), yet the next day was another story... Anyway, that was probably not the point of this post %-)

Lactose? I thought it was lactic acid. Last news, however, were that in fact it was fiber fracture that was responsible for the pain after prolonged unusual efforts, leading to a greater production of muscular fibers.

DSW

Ha! That's nothing. I ruptured a disc in my spine while taking a nap! Go figure.
T.S.

The strain on your left hamstring is most likely a result of your hiking around, not in spite of it. This assumes you don’t usually walk a lot. Check to see if your hamstrings are tight. There is an exercise to strengthen your hamstrings (the “curl”), but this will make them tight. So, you have to do another exercise to stretch your hamstrings. You pretty much have to do these exercises very day. Back problems and tight hamstrings are correlated, but which causes which is not certain. After you hit fifty your body is less forgiving of neglect and tells you so. Evidently the human body is designed to be in motion, and to use the muscles all the time-- not sitting behind a computer screen.

In a similar irony, as an undergraduate I once broke my foot. I had to make my way out of closed premises by climbing over a bike shed and a wall, then down a lamp post (I had just helped a drunk back from a party that I had carefully stayed sober at - it was in my set of rooms - only to find his own place closed before I could get out after dumping him).

The irony is that I did all that safely, only to break a bone in my foot stepping off a pavement a little further down the road (my foot rolled on something in the gutter and slammed back into the edge of the pavement). No good deed goes unpunished.

In your case, I would say that in all your hiking you neglected your sitting muscles. Was it not Homer Simpson who said that the male of the species has powerfully developed sitting muscles, which he must cultivate? (If not, it should have been.) It is our lonely glory; he also serves who only sits and stares.

"Lactose? I thought it was lactic acid."

You thought right! :-7

If you are in need a stretching, I recommend a gymball.

http://gymball.com/

I use mine most everyday when I get home from work. I can feel my spine stretch and my veterbrae open up.

In addition to your hamstrings, you may need to get more flexible in your hips/pelvis/lowerback.

I learned how to use one by getting one-on-one training in Pilates/Gyrotonics. I sure Berkeley has some of those places. Both are based on strengthing the core muscles of the body abs, back, inner thighs and stretching the spine.

If you are in need a stretching, I recommend a gymball.

http://gymball.com/

I use mine most everyday when I get home from work. I can feel my spine stretch and my veterbrae open up.

In addition to your hamstrings, you may need to get more flexible in your hips/pelvis/lowerback.

I learned how to use one by getting one-on-one training in Pilates/Gyrotonics. I sure Berkeley has some of those places. Both are based on strengthing the core muscles of the body abs, back, inner thighs and stretching the spine.

wow, it's really easy to double post here.

www.gymball.com is a link to what I was talking about.

Pathetic, but not that unusual. The straw breaking the camel's back is a real phenomenon in medicine. I once tore a medial meniscus just walking out of the house. Getting old(me, not you)is no picnic.