Loose the Tms and exercise

I love weight lifting. It reveals to me how important exercise is. I would never tell you to give up on your passion, that's what uninformed back doctors do. They really dont know how much they kill our warrior spirit when they tell us to stop all exercise and we will probably never be able to do those exercises again.

When I was told this I thought man what do you want me to do, go off and die, cause thats the way i felt when i was told it was over. (drs only tell you what theve been taught-(and there not always wrong)-there not really meaning to harm you ok) its not over and your still strong and very powerful I might add.
Now to get to the meat and potatoes, you know tms even tho generated from our surpressed and repressed emotions -it still hurts, after a workout it can be very hard just getting out of bed.

I went thru this very thing and Im here to tell you theres a way out of this loop, its called re-conditioning. See we do an exercise and were thinking I hope this doesnt hurt in the morning and we wait and see, its the antiscipation in the wait that causes what we dont want to come upon us.

Now from now on when you work out -never think am i going to feel the tms pain in the morning or two days from now cause if you think this way you will hurt (conditioning)
we don't want it, we dont need it but it rears its ugly head over time if we keep thinking this exercise is going to hurt.

Also the thoughts - I wonder how im going to feel tomorrow, if when you work out - you just think calmly that was just conditioning and now im not going to feed it anymore thru my thoughts then I say in a very short period of time you should be fine.

It took me about a night to break the conditioning, the problem in my own experience was all those yrs of being told how weak my back was and not to bend that way or lift straight legged and so forth.

I believe in good posture but if were not in good posture were not going to fall over and die in pain the next day-that happens because we beleive weve messed up and then we expect it to hurt so it does

Mind, Body, Spirit, the body will give you the good thoughts about exercise or the bad thoughts about exercise-just never think its going to hurt again because this is what youve heard.

Were not to force ourselves after the pain has started if we werent thinking in the above stated manner or conditioned thinking because then the mental strain that causes the pain-will just cause more pain. No nothing is strucurally wrong, just give the symptom time to subside -(like when your feeling a lot better) and then start back light and move back up to your weight you normally use gradually. Never think again that lifting these weights could harm you-it wasnt the weights-it was the thoughts-see.

Now remember if this incident has bothered you, then become at peace that everything is fine now. You can resume your workouts when the pain subsides.

It took me days to get back to exercising before i knew the conditioning was doing it. We can think all we want that its not physical, but if were entertaining thoughts of doubt or just waiting to see if the pain is going to happen then again this is how we give the conditioniong power and add that with all the lies weve been told by the docs and wah-la.

Try to remember what was bothering you the day you worked out too-if it was the conditioning then just by practicing the above formula you should be fine.
If it was a bad argument or a let doun or a rejection and so forth, then the next time you have a bad day, change those bad thoughts from that day into a new perception of good thoughts
before you work out and you should be just fine.
Combine this with loosing the conditioned thoughts and bam you got your exercise life back.

 

Two years ago, Eric, when I did weight-lifting, the next day my back hurt a lot and my sciatica came back. But I kept it up anyway. A year later, I still hurt after weight lifting but the pain didn't last as long. This year after weight lifting, only the muscles are sore and I have little or no lasting TMS symptoms. In fact, I lift almost everyday using different muscle groups each time. Obviously, you just have to challenge the structural diagnosis and keep at it persistently even if it does hurt afterwards. Similarly, three years ago if I walked a mile, my back would hurt and the sciatica wouldn't go away for two days. Now, if I go for a hike, I'll hurt a little when I get back to the car, but it'll be gone in an hour. Obviously, you shouldn't believe it when the docs say you shouldn't lift weights, shouldn't run, shouldn't hike, whatever physical activity it happens to be. If you listen to them, you'll only perpetuate the conditioning that's causing your TMS pain.

 

MorComm your right on the money-it takes persistence
im glad your a testimony that has healed over your time here
ya know i think we all do-your a great administrator that can speak
the healing words -merry christmas to you-and all of ppd/tms
this is truly a site of hope and healing
p.s.-you said only the muscles were sore-thats a good sore as we call
it the good pain in the (weightlifting,crosstraing,running,etc. world)
aint it awesome to be back to it-having that good pain knowing that your body is benefiting
its an awesome ecperience to work our bodies-but this is the same for someone learning to bend again
its like we heal in reverse
oh and in the title i know you know
i meant to say loosing-not losing
because i do think tms is a real pain -like its wrapped around ya like an anaconda
but in time we slowly unwrap the serpent and it crumbles-our prize if getting
better to the point of exercise-our iceing is being able to exercise(or whatever your passion) if we wish and getting on with our lives

 

I know, I know. I've heard about those Dr Sarno book cures where someone reads Healing Back Pain and their TMS disappears in a couple of weeks or overnight. But my experience has not been like that. More like, slowly but surely if I stick at, challenge the symptoms, and keep going back to an activity that used to cause pain. I guess it has to do with how much and deeply your TMS is programmed into your body-mind. Problem with me, I think, is that since 2001 and my so-called herniated disk, I kept at the physical therapy like a perfectionist workaholic and that only reinforced my TMS conditioning. However, since I quit PT completely last spring and turned to just walking, weight lifting and road bike riding, I've been getting more and more pain-free by leaps and bounds. That's what Dr Sarno said to do and I guess I still wanted to keep bets placed on the red and black to cover me. Can't do that. Got to go all the way if you want to get rid of this stuff.

Thanks again!

 

Morcomm it thrills me to know you have been helped,i thank you for your kind words-yes
the way sarno said to workout is the beef in the potatoes
-remember its good to re-condition and we do it from both ends of the spectrum
see if were over-sensitized then we have to deal with that and sometimes as weird as it may sound
-(im talking about extreme bad soreness)go about it like a slight muscle pull-a few days rest-or a week at most-thats it-dont think pulled tendon or ligament-
or bone spurs , broken back or bulging disc.(id say dr sarno has it figured and it still baffles me why the other main stream doctors refuse to listen to the truth-is all this ignorance they do really about money and pride) i mean how would you change a 13 yr college degree(oops we lied-we got a lot of things right but this well we were wrong so we will tell the press and pay for everyone to re-enter college and also for your lost time of studies-i dont think so-maybe
the docs have conditioned us so well we might have a pulled (bonatella) if were not careful-
this exercise is serious to our overall joy so stay the course-go hard when you have too and rest when you have too-
conditioning and the defense mecanism are different-exstinction burst as its called-
this defense mechanism or extinction burst happens in the first stages of getting back to our lives and exerciseing
its an extreme form of defense the brain throws up to ward you away from exercise or bending but after this defense mechanism is tolerated and defeated then we have the conditioning- you know the difference-your past the exstinction burst which happens in the first couple weeks to month or longer( as we all do heal on different time tables) -it all leaves the same-keep courage ,god bless

 

This is my experience too-- no overnight miracles, but a slow and steady improvement. Every week I keep getting a little more active, and the pain isn't quite as bad, and doesn't last quite as long. And I have realized that the worst part of the pain for me was not the pain itself, but the suffering I created thinking, "I can't do this, I can't do that, it will never get better, my life is so restricted ..."

I feel like I have so much more outcome independence now. It almost doesn't matter if it hurts, I am getting my life back.

 

yes tarala-all these times we looked at those bags of groceries or that bend to pick something up out of the floor
or that weight bench -we kept hearing in our heads thats gonna hurt-dont bend like that or i wonder if those are over 5 lbs
were times we cast doubt and agreed with our pain which in return gave us exactly what we asked of it-
now that weve made the stand and aint backing doun were seeing the fruits of our labor-
im glad your exercising and showing us all your a winner

 

I think you just have to confront, challenge and break down your old psychological conditioning and programmed pain patterns. Whatever way it takes to do that: now, later; quickly or slowly. Different for different individuals, but you just got to keep at it and not retreat back into inactivity or "playing it safe".

 

Confront,challenge,keep at it-whatever it takes -powerful tools

 

Hi Erik, just touching base with you. Started back to the gym 3 days a week,
1 hr each time. My muscles are so sore from no regular exercise that's it's
killing me. I will keep it up tho, eventually they will become reconditioned!
Even tho it hurts to walk the treadmill I manage atleast 30 min each time.
I then do arm and leg exercises on the machines and try not to think about
how I'll feel the next 2 days. Hope all is well with you, just looking for some
encouragement. God Bless, Nancy

 

This thread is so much about what I am going through at the moment. I, like BruceMC, kept at the physical therapy treatment approach for years and I was so conscientious that I never missed a day. It's so galling to think that I was just reinforcing the TMS and conditioning myself to feel pain with so many activities. I listened to all the therapists/doctors and believed and did the craziest things.The harder I tried and exercised the worse pain got and I never saw the truth. I think my low point came when I was lying on a couch with an Aamatsu practicioner rotating my big toe (because this would make me feel better) and asking me how I felt. Luckily for him, I didn't tell him how I felt but I never went back! All that type of stuff for years and years to the point that I couldn't raise my arms to wash my hair or sit down (anywhere!) without pain and I considered myself seriously damaged but didn't know why I was getting worse and worse.
I felt a bit depressed by the sudden Sarno recovery stories initially but now I'm ok and accept that my progress is as it is. I am slowly pushing back the boundaries doing exactly as Eric describes and can now do so many things which gave me pain before. I'm getting my life back. I'm not there yet but I feel much more confidence that I will be able to defeat my remaining problems. Good luck and perseverance to us all!

 

Hi, everyone. So glad you're exercising again, Nancy,
and Solange for accepting TMS. No more doctors or therapists pulling your toe (he was pulling your leg, too!)

It's all about repressed emotions. Kick them out into the open and your unconscious mind will relieve your pain.

 

Solange: That idea that you're conditioning yourself to keep having pain symptoms by religiously following a regime of physical modalities sure took me a long time to accept. But it's absolutely essential, as Dr. Sarno said long ago, to stop any physical treatments for what is essentially a pain condition driven by repressed emotionality. Since the personality of a TMS sufferer is so obsessive compulsive work-a-holic to begin with, you can see how doing some daily regime of physical therapy only reinforces those traits and makes your pain condition worse.

Some learn right away. The more stubborn and obsessive take the longer harder route.

 

Still a newbie here but had seen some very quick results and started playing basketball again. Week ago noticed unexplained back pain and stopped playing but did some weight work. Back been hurting ever since and vertigo jumped in for good measure. Saw the vertigo for what it was, anxiety, and it's gone but back still hurts. Have gotten massage twice. All this begs the real question: Surely some pain is actually physical. Physics is real. Getting old is real. I know my back will be better, but how do we distinguish between an actual physical problem and TMS. Is the answer that it depends on if the problem becomes chronic?

 

Nancy)- Started back to the gym 3 days a week,
1 hr each time. My muscles are so sore from no regular exercise that's it's
killing me.

Eric)- Here Nancy you could exercise 2 times a week and give you muscles more time
to get stronger ok, then as you get better and better you can add a day in here and there
eventually getting to about 5-6 days a week with like 20 minutes a day doing something
you like. For instance bike riding or a stroll in the park could count for two of those days
a week, call it gratitude.

Nancy)-I will keep it up though, eventually they will become reconditioned!
Even tho it hurts to walk the treadmill I manage at least 30 min each time.
I then do arm and leg exercises on the machines and try not to think about
how I'll feel the next 2 days.

Eric)- I like your thinking on re-conditioning, this is very true. Just make sure to have your
rest days ok. I like to call mine active rest. That's when I walk in nature and do yard work.
Its your style and your body though so only you know its silent language better than anyone
so be at peace with your exercises and just flow.

Nancy)-Hope all is well with you, just looking for some
encouragement. God Bless, Nancy

Eric)- God bless you Nancy, and yes all is well.
Thanks for asking and giving me encouragement.