Movement is Medicine

I know the phrase "Movement is medicine" isn't something I came up with. I'm sure I heard it somewhere along the line, but it came out of my mouth today pretty organically when talking to Jess about my back. A month ago I went to the Dr for my back. I was having very bad sciatica pain. It was compressing the nerve and was leaving my foot numb. I have lost a lot of strength and can't even stand on the ball of that foot. Interestingly when I was asked if there was anything that led to my symptoms like an injury or accident, I told her "no." Actually, I was quite literally doing nothing. Due to my life situation, I was not exercising at all either cardio or weight training-wise. The doctor took x-rays and did some tests to start. She informed me I had a lot of arthritis in my back and pretty surely had some herniated discs. She called in a prednisone pack and told me to schedule with physical therapy. I asked her about lifting and she answered that with a resounding "No!" Well PT couldn't see me for almost three weeks. The prednisone had made a little difference initially, but after it stopped I felt no greater relief. I wasn't really training because I wanted to give the Doctor's advice at least a shot. So at that point, I figured if I am going to be debilitated at least I should keep doing the thing I love, lifting. I started training and immediately started feeling better. The real proof it was, in fact, training that was making the difference was that I felt even better the mornings after I trained than those I didn't. And mornings are for sure when my symptoms are their worst. This doesn't mean I'm running back to powerlifting training. I'm not out of the woods yet. However, I am feeling better as a result of smartly ramping up my intensity. I have been keeping good data and have been continually crafting my program. This all just reinforces how I feel about cookie-cutter doctors. The one size fits all approach sucks. Man, I miss my old sports dr who retired. It can be a real sh!t show out there. What I learned from all this is I need to keep moving and not stop no matter what life throws at me.