Forums >Health and Nutrition>Back spasm
wake me up!
Dear Friends
i have not been a regular in this forum for many years however I am desperate and i need advice of experienced runners like yourselves.
I have been training really good may i add, for a 50 km run. Unfortunatelly 3 weeks ago i suffered from back spasms. Doc prescribed muscle relaxantes and ibu.
Recovered really well however YESTERDAY spasms came back with a sneeze. My long run (50km) is tomorrow.
i really would appreciate your opinions
1) should i start the run and see how i feel - stop if hurts too much?
2) should i take the muscle relaxant (im hesitant to run with it inside me)
thoughts that might help me would be appreciate it!
thanks!
Taking a muscle relaxant before a ultra distance run is almost guaranteed to cause stomach issues because intestinal motility is impaired.
OK - Thanks - no muscle relaxants then
much appreciate it
G
Gonna have to disagree on this if it's applied as a blanket statement. From my experience it would depend on the medication and possibly the person. I get bad back spasms. I use Valium for them. Several years ago my spasms were hitting me fairly regular and I was using the Valium quite a bit. It never gave me any more stomach problems than normal and I've used it before some quite long training runs and a few of my longer races. In fact I tend to have a lot of stomach issues over 15-20 miles and it certainly wasn't any worse with the Valium. As always though, it can depend on the person and which medication it is because there are so many and some act differently .
By saying that your long run is tomorrow I'm assuming you mean your goal race/event. Unfortunately this leaves you no time to experiment. I guess you could try to take the medication and see how it goes. If it's a trail race you may want to use some trekking poles. That may take some pressure off your back and prevent the spasms.
If you had a certain goal time just dial that back and make it your goal just to finish.
The one problem that I did have that I related to taking the Valium was a ankle sprain. I took it before a really technical race and had a lot more problems with my ankle stability and ended up with a bad sprain. That being said, it may have happened anyway because I can almost roll an ankle walking on the sidewalk.
Good point, not all relaxers have constipation as a side effect. But those that do, watch out...
Gonna have to disagree on this if it's applied as a blanket statement. From my experience it would depend on the medication and possibly the person. I get bad back spasms. I use Valium for them.