Hi folks,
i am sure there are by now countless new members that start with: i just read that Sarno book, and i it fits me perfectly...
I did stumble across that book after 7 months of back pain. I was shocked. I read it, i thought about my medical history. I realized it must be this thing called TMS. I can give you countless examples.
The best one beeing:
I had kneecap pain in both knees for over a year. I ran around 3.000km that year with that, did 8 Ultras and a bunch of Marathon. I had MRIs done on both knees with the radiologist being upset afterwards: my knees looked better than any he had seen (no kidding). I still spend a huge amount of time researching what they called "plica syndrome" - guys, i tell you, with 5 years of ultrarunning and obsessive research into countless (mostly TMS) injuries, i never ever stumbled upon the brain body connection...I am sure many can relate. The pain went away eventually, which i attributed to getting tougher...The next year i started training for my first 100 Miler in Vermont. I then went into taper mode, little running 3 weeks prior. I started to get kneecap pain two weeks beforehand. I was very anxious aand the pain completely consumed me. I still flew to the event and started it. The pain was horrendous after 50 Miles. I decided to switch shoes to give me a mental boost. I then started running much quicker, felt more free cause deep inside i told myself, this event is basically done, i will quit. I will just run a bit more for fun. The pain went away after at mile 80. It didn’t hurt after the race, nor the days after that, nor the weeks later….
When I look back, I can see a huge amount of TMS issues. Stomach ache at a child, chronic cough, asthma later when I started to enjoy going to the gym I had tennis elbow followed by my running career injuries.
Some might even be overuse. I had real bad Achilles pain after a 100 miler in both tendons and my feet and the tendon area were swollen to a degree you could not tell where the foot started…I assume that’s not TMS ;-)
So, without knowing about TMS for years I realized that somehow I could run through almost any injury, except Achilles pain where I had to take 5 weeks off (being pretty obvious and even creaking).
I did take a pain killer before each run when I was in such a condition. It usually took the edge off and the pain wasn’t really worse afterwards. It allowed me to run.
All the rest I did was wrong. I was obsessed about my injuries, I googeld, read everything, went to MRIs, physiotherapists (twice weekly for year) and so forth (I am living in Germany, here it is all for free if you were wondering -> also means it is much easier to get help and go there all the time).
So this week end, after reading the book I tried to chronologically write down my childhood in one big template with lines etc and what I could have possibly suppressed. My back pain was gone Sunday (no kidding).
I did also develop Plantaar Faciitis 6 months ago at a 100k race that I ran 3 days after the first back pain episode (I dismissed both injuries and ran all season, 2x 100ks in the mountains, a 50 miler, the week after a 50k and countless marathons).
I then got an MRI: bulging of the disc, pinched / inflamed nerve. I stopped running, I felt aweful. My foot got better 4 weeks later, which I attributed to the prolonged rest.
I started running again. I ran 3x 20k a week for 3 weeks. I felt reasonably good, back still hurt afterwards and the day after…
I planned my first longer run, a regular 40k run I do Saturdays (almost all Saturdays when I don’t race). I felt anxious about it, would my back hold? I started the run, I was stiff to say the least. After 7km my Achilles flared up. I thought: wrong shoes, I loosened them up a but. I turned around after 10k. I was in real pain once home. I stopped running again cause I knew: Achilles, that’s bad!
I went to the physio, he diagnosed mild swelling. I had no pain during the day, walking after 4 days was pretty ok.
I started running again a week ago (4 weeks after the occurrence of the Achilles). It flares up after 4km, awful. Once I get home it gets better quickly. I do hurt walking down the stairs but barefoot at home is fine, up the stairs is fine.
I know the back and many other things were TMS. But it’s hard for me to acknowledge the Achilles. I had 2 months off running because of the back before I ran the 60k a week, three weeks in a row.
Could that mother%$%&% of a pain there also be TMS? Could the brain be really that cruel to pick that one injury I really fear….Speechless.
Regardless I went for runs after the book, 5k, then 7k (physically I don’t feel that at all). Achilles noticeable after around 20 Minutes.
I might go back to my strategy to take an Aleeve and ignore the pain, just push through it and at the same time continue to read the books (ordered a lot more) and work on the methods as it clearly is what fixed my back!
Just wanted to share that with you guys, and if you have tips of how to know the difference for real, how to overcome that anxiousness, that’s helpful (although I found a lot here already).
Couldn’t find a TMS therapist in Germany…Anyone knows any?
Wish you all a painful day (life)! In a way, I am glad I had back pain, cause I read that book.
i am sure there are by now countless new members that start with: i just read that Sarno book, and i it fits me perfectly...
I did stumble across that book after 7 months of back pain. I was shocked. I read it, i thought about my medical history. I realized it must be this thing called TMS. I can give you countless examples.
The best one beeing:
I had kneecap pain in both knees for over a year. I ran around 3.000km that year with that, did 8 Ultras and a bunch of Marathon. I had MRIs done on both knees with the radiologist being upset afterwards: my knees looked better than any he had seen (no kidding). I still spend a huge amount of time researching what they called "plica syndrome" - guys, i tell you, with 5 years of ultrarunning and obsessive research into countless (mostly TMS) injuries, i never ever stumbled upon the brain body connection...I am sure many can relate. The pain went away eventually, which i attributed to getting tougher...The next year i started training for my first 100 Miler in Vermont. I then went into taper mode, little running 3 weeks prior. I started to get kneecap pain two weeks beforehand. I was very anxious aand the pain completely consumed me. I still flew to the event and started it. The pain was horrendous after 50 Miles. I decided to switch shoes to give me a mental boost. I then started running much quicker, felt more free cause deep inside i told myself, this event is basically done, i will quit. I will just run a bit more for fun. The pain went away after at mile 80. It didn’t hurt after the race, nor the days after that, nor the weeks later….
When I look back, I can see a huge amount of TMS issues. Stomach ache at a child, chronic cough, asthma later when I started to enjoy going to the gym I had tennis elbow followed by my running career injuries.
Some might even be overuse. I had real bad Achilles pain after a 100 miler in both tendons and my feet and the tendon area were swollen to a degree you could not tell where the foot started…I assume that’s not TMS ;-)
So, without knowing about TMS for years I realized that somehow I could run through almost any injury, except Achilles pain where I had to take 5 weeks off (being pretty obvious and even creaking).
I did take a pain killer before each run when I was in such a condition. It usually took the edge off and the pain wasn’t really worse afterwards. It allowed me to run.
All the rest I did was wrong. I was obsessed about my injuries, I googeld, read everything, went to MRIs, physiotherapists (twice weekly for year) and so forth (I am living in Germany, here it is all for free if you were wondering -> also means it is much easier to get help and go there all the time).
So this week end, after reading the book I tried to chronologically write down my childhood in one big template with lines etc and what I could have possibly suppressed. My back pain was gone Sunday (no kidding).
I did also develop Plantaar Faciitis 6 months ago at a 100k race that I ran 3 days after the first back pain episode (I dismissed both injuries and ran all season, 2x 100ks in the mountains, a 50 miler, the week after a 50k and countless marathons).
I then got an MRI: bulging of the disc, pinched / inflamed nerve. I stopped running, I felt aweful. My foot got better 4 weeks later, which I attributed to the prolonged rest.
I started running again. I ran 3x 20k a week for 3 weeks. I felt reasonably good, back still hurt afterwards and the day after…
I planned my first longer run, a regular 40k run I do Saturdays (almost all Saturdays when I don’t race). I felt anxious about it, would my back hold? I started the run, I was stiff to say the least. After 7km my Achilles flared up. I thought: wrong shoes, I loosened them up a but. I turned around after 10k. I was in real pain once home. I stopped running again cause I knew: Achilles, that’s bad!
I went to the physio, he diagnosed mild swelling. I had no pain during the day, walking after 4 days was pretty ok.
I started running again a week ago (4 weeks after the occurrence of the Achilles). It flares up after 4km, awful. Once I get home it gets better quickly. I do hurt walking down the stairs but barefoot at home is fine, up the stairs is fine.
I know the back and many other things were TMS. But it’s hard for me to acknowledge the Achilles. I had 2 months off running because of the back before I ran the 60k a week, three weeks in a row.
Could that mother%$%&% of a pain there also be TMS? Could the brain be really that cruel to pick that one injury I really fear….Speechless.
Regardless I went for runs after the book, 5k, then 7k (physically I don’t feel that at all). Achilles noticeable after around 20 Minutes.
I might go back to my strategy to take an Aleeve and ignore the pain, just push through it and at the same time continue to read the books (ordered a lot more) and work on the methods as it clearly is what fixed my back!
Just wanted to share that with you guys, and if you have tips of how to know the difference for real, how to overcome that anxiousness, that’s helpful (although I found a lot here already).
Couldn’t find a TMS therapist in Germany…Anyone knows any?
Wish you all a painful day (life)! In a way, I am glad I had back pain, cause I read that book.
