My Back needed some Muscle Mend-ing!

To follow on from the end of my last post, I was in agony with my back.  It turned out I'd pulled some muscles down either side of my spine, around the lumbar region and for a pulled muscle, boy has it given me some grief!  It was playing havoc with all parts of my life, at work, at home, sleeping... I couldn't even put a pair of socks on!  Worst of all it was preventing me going fishing, so something had to be done

After trying various forms of pain relief, such as Voltarol, nothing was doing the trick and after all, killing the pain isn't really getting to the source of the problem.  A friend suggested I visit a sports massage therapist for treatment and recommended Nigel Mallender's Muscle Mend service.

After the first 45 minute session last week, I felt a gradual improvement in the level of pain I felt and the range of movement in my back. Nigel showed me a routine of stretching and strengthening exercises to do each morning, which also seemed to help.  Today I had my second session and now feel no pain from my injury.  Having said that, I can feel it's still there and I'm very wary of aggravating it again, so I'm still going to be taking things easy with my back for the next few weeks.

I'm keeping up with the exercises and if things continue to improve, I'll risk going fishing again soon when hopefully I can end this blank spell!

I can wholeheartedly recommend Nigel for anyone living in the Chesterfield/Dronfield/Sheffield area and if anyone is reading this from farther afield, who has a similar condition, get yourself off to your local sports massage therapist!  As a bit of a bonus, the massage covered my whole back, shoulders and neck and Nigel was able to find & treat some pretty serious knots which had built up in my shoulders through a combination of my terrible natural posture, being hunched over a computer for way too long and my dislocated clavicle injury I picked up when snowboarding 3 years ago, as mentioned here:  http://www.andrewkennedy.info/2010/02/its-been-another-lean-few-weeks-angling.html

For those interested, Nigel's website can be found here: 
www.muscle-mend.co.uk



Fingers crossed my next post will be (soon!) about blowing off the cobwebs and catching some fish!

Charity Predator Match @ Celtic Lakes

One session which I was hoping to have, but with work and other commitments it seems unlikely I'll be able to attend is a Charity Predator Match at Celtic Lakes, Frisby, which has been organised by Peter Hill, in aid of Leicester Royal Infirmary's Children's Ward.  The match is on Saturday 28th Jan and I believe there's still time to book a place if you're interested, you can contact Peter on 01162 313201 or 07598 339841.

Pike, Perch and Zander all count in the match, which is £20 to enter.  There are various prizes up for grabs including a week fishing on the Ebro and all proceeds will benefit the above, very worthy cause.