[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

hi all

had to end work early today , 10am my back is really sore went to dr i have inflamed all the muscles on tthe left side of my back and my neck and arm ... got to rest for 2 weeks ...

what a pain ... i feel alot less fit and more aches since using the pole !

anyone else?

shawn

[carl stanton]

i started poileing some windows in a kinda practice for when i get wfp, you start useing a different set of muscles, i started to get neck ache! 
i think you need to a bit of weight training to strengthen the muscles up, this if done properlly is good for prevention of back problems, althpogh check with your doc!!     all the best though! 

[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

have been using wfp for almost 1 year now ..  so not sure

[brett walker]

Hi Shawn

i know exactly what you mean ive been wfp full time for a few weeks now and ive had every pain you can think of back pain, arm pain, you name it ive had it, the wife says im just ine big pain.  Im just putting it down to being unfit, hoping ill get used to it

I am interested to know whether wfp can cause any long term injuries

Brett

[dai]

We are mostly ambidextrous when we clean traditional. When we go over to the pole we tend to use it the same way all the time, with either our left or right hand up the pole. I think we could maintain better muscle balance if we changed which hand is highest on the pole. I know I find it a bit awkward with my  right hand higher, but I am trying to use it until I am equally comfortable with both.
The other thing to look out for is wearing your belt too tight. You can do a lot of damage when you get up quick after bending.Your belt can trap a vertebrae and you pull on it as you get up. I did the same thing this week. I have got a bit wider round the waist since going WFP, and wearing a trouser belt, money bag belt and bucket on the belt, I have a job to stop the lot from sliding to my ankles. I think that those of us that are slightly big in the tum could do with a couple of shoulder straps to hold the ruddy belts up.
As a long time back sufferer, rest is not the best thing. You are better pottering around. My daughter, a senior physio warned me about that.
Hope you get well soon. Dai

[Jeff Brimble]

The answer to ANY sort of back pain is..............Excercise
Its the Magic Bullet 
The Answer to back pain is the correct excercises
etc etc etc
.......as a sufferer for 20 years. 
You will have to wait 3-4 days for the spasm to relax,  if there is dammage, then be very careful.
Go and pay to see a chiropractor.

[Morph]

I am a fully paid up member of the back sufferers club.
If you pay to see someone the pain will ease in about 2-3 weeks, costing easily £60 or more.  If you rest for 2-3 days, then start gently getting back into things, walking especially, nothing too vigourous for a week or two you will be ok.
The difference will mainly be in your wallet.
An official medical report was released last month.  I am interested as I have had back problems for 30 years.
The report concluded that there is no evidence to suggest that chiropractors or osteopaths can produce any tangible benefits at all.
Rest then gradual exercise is best and is FREE!
Don't lie around for more than 2 days, gently get up and get moving.

[Paul Coleman]

hi all

had to end work early today , 10am my back is really sore went to dr i have inflamed all the muscles on tthe left side of my back and my neck and arm ... got to rest for 2 weeks ...

what a pain ... i feel alot less fit and more aches since using the pole !

anyone else?

shawn

Yes.  Since going over to WFP in October/Novembere last year I have had more back issues than before.  Not just aches but sometimes I have actuilly felt it go and needed to slow down for a couple of days.  Also, I have now got tennis elbow on the left side (I am left handed).
I tend to change arms at times now with WFP although I don't change which side I work.  Sometimes my left hand is just a slight support for the pole base with the main grip being from the right hand.  Other times thgew right hand is just a guide with the left hand holding more.
I do try to do it from the legs with the rocking motion I was shown but it seems so difficult to keep just doing it that way.

[Morph]

I hurt.........

Therefore............

I must be...........

ALIVE!

[Sir Squeaky]

I suffer with my back too.

I broke it when I was 17, it's a long story for another day(and another forum section).
A hard day will give me plenty of pain later.

It's another thing that puts me off wfp, as my neck suffers too.
I think it could be quite difficult.

[Morph]

Well, that explains a lot Rog.
I have plenty of health problems (don't tell my customers)

I like you
Don't dye your hair again though

[Londoner]

I have recently started WFP and boy do I ache. A good soak in a HOT bath when you get in definitly helps but in the long run PROPER exercises help the most.
Don't just go down the gym and give it some stick, you will only make things worse.

[Ian_Giles]

Yet another back sufferer here too
Domestic stuff I'm generally fine on, but this week I had a couple of days with a lot of really high stuff, and that does get to me in the small of my back.

Being overweight doesn't help, I really could do with shedding about 2 and a half stone (I'm 15 & a half stone)
But we are working with our backs slightly bent and our stomach relaxed, ergo our backs are having to support our belly's too.

But I have suffered with back problems for years and years now, when it goes into full spasm you can't move.
One occasion I was sat in a chair in the room, then I was sat on the floor, then I was lying on the floor, each positiion seemed the right one to get into at the time!
Then I was in agony on the floor and had to get up.

It took over 30 minutes to be able to get up off the floor!

On another occasion when the back had gone into spasm I tried to sit down in a chair and got stuck halfway
Couldn't stand up and couldn't sit down....

Most of my back problems are all sport related.
But even though my back has really been aching at times, I have had only one episode of back spasm in the last 2 and a half years, and that was about 18 months ago.

I put my own problems down to age and being overweight now, being fat and old is not a good combination with a physical job!

Ian

[ronaldo]

Try getting up the gym and getting yourselves fit and you wont get any problems then.
its simply down to lack of exercise and your muscles arent used to it.

[Ian_Giles]

Physically I am in good nick, stronger than most guys my own age, and still play a lot of sport...stella....thats the one I should get rid off

The fitter and stronger you are, should your back go into spasm the more agonising it is.
The more powerful your muscles, the more powerfully they can go into spasm and try to imobilize you too
But I agree with Ronaldo, the fitter you are the fewer problems you'll have.

I've got some gardening to do...now this is really going to kill my bloody back

But if I don't do the wife'll kill me anyway


Ian

[ronaldo]

I would think though Ian, to those that do genuinely suffer with a back complaint that working wfp allday would definnatley aggrevate it would you agree?

Leaning away from the window at a better angle may help, and making sure that the first sections of the pole are out when doing the tops instead of the bottom sections, as a freind of mine was doing and struggling !!!

[Jeff Brimble]

We all have health probs whether with a wfp or trad, wfp does give you life extension when your knees have gone our your arches collapsed Squeaky.
They have had the same prob over on Gary Mauers USA site but he wont let them discuss it for fear of litigation. I would like to see the establishment of a back club rather than little tentative bits added in the forums to get forgotton about over the years. Just a little section somewhere, anywhere. I made a start some time ago by starting a thread called "RSI" over on the other side on pros in the archives section of wfp.
This issue is going to be inmportant to anyone as they get older, whether trad or wfp.
One of the more risky wfp moves is when trying to work nearer the horizontal at a distance greater than your muscles can handle so the arms  and back struggle. its not helped by having a 2lb brush on the end of a pole. This increases the leverage by about 14lb at 30ft.

[dai]

Physically I am in good nick, stronger than most guys my own age, and still play a lot of sport...stella....thats the one I should get rid off Grin
Your bang on with that one Ian. I have had backpain since I was a young lad pushing up 56lb weights one in each hand, and doing daft things like lifting the back of the car to get into tight parking spaces. I'm not joking, I used to do these crazy things and I still haven't learned my lesson. I took on a 25 stone monster at arm wrestling last saturday night, I'm 63 should know better. The result was a very sore back for me and a very swolen wrist for him, but I beat the ba----d.  Dai

[gaza]

IT SOUNDS that  your lots back go out more times than you do

[mark dew]

Stretching is the key to relaxed muscles.
Get a yoga book and learn how to breathe properly for relaxing.
Lie flat on your back and just breathe deeply.
Then spend a few breathes on standing up and bending forward as though you are going to touch your toes.
Don't try and touch your toes-just hand forward as far as is comfortable and count 10 breathes in ad out.
5 minutes of doing these every evening will do wonders.

mark

it does work. Honestly...