If You Do This, You'll Cripple Yourself

we're going to be talking about what to do when your physical passions the sports and the activities that you really love are wrecking your body but I need to explain something to you so you understand the thoughts that are constantly going through my head there's this tune there's this music that's just constantly rattling in my brain whenever this topic comes up to understand today's video you need some background when I was in college I went through a Radiohead phase an intense Radiohead phase now who the heck is Radiohead you might be asking well if you are in your 20s or 30s you little rugrat Radiohead is a band that Rose to incredible popularity in the 90s and early 2000s with songs that just resonated with a pre-verbal Melancholy in the hearts and souls of multiple Generations trying to adapt to a rapidly digitizing and globalizing world but since you grew up fully immersed in the digital age you probably were a bit too late to have it resonate and you you don't even realize The Melancholy and anxiety you feel is actually not normal until you get your first dose of prescription drugs or other psychoactive substances and if you're in your 50s and above and never heard of Radiohead it's probably because anytime you heard radiohead's music their overall sound of wailing and bizarre electric whatever's made you want to smash your own ears with a Rusty Hammer the point of all this is twofold number one I loved Radiohead in college and many of their lyrics have woven themselves into my heart and soul and two there is one line from one of their earlier releases that always comes to mind when I hear stories like the one you're going to hear today yourself [Music] so today I'm going to share the story of one person who likes to bike a lot and explain how it relates to these Radiohead lyrics that I'll probably be humming when I'm on my deathbed so here goes the story hey not I've been following you for over five years now which means that I'm in pain for that amount of time right now I'm on a cycling holiday and I have cycled all the way from Holland garnish part incursion in Germany and now I kind of have a problem that I can't walk normally anymore the reason for my problem is hip dysplasia in my left hip and I only have pain in the left hip the right one is fine so let's just pause here I get emails about hip dysplasia at least once a month and I will one day make an in-depth video on it but to be brief there have been large scale studies showing that there is no link to hip dysplasia bone shapes and pain or arthritis or anything in the long run which is again why I say holistic muscles and it's important also to notice the assumptions baked into some of this story from the spicyclist I'll I'll just call this person M okay and so you've got pain in one hip only the bones are shaped wrong therefore it must be the bones that are the problem this absolves the sufferer of any responsibility and makes them the passive victim on the journey into more and more pain but we need to realize that the abnormal walking has shown up after doing a long long bike ride and based on this email from M it wasn't happening before the bike ride so if it were just the bone shapes shouldn't the problem really have been there before the bike ride also well let's keep going with the story I know that we're cycling about 100km monitors every day I'm putting myself really to a test but cycling goes okay and almost without pain so I'd like to be able to continue so this person is able to cycle 100 kilometers a day which is awesome it doesn't hurt while cycling therefore we can tell ourselves that cycling itself isn't the problem it's maybe a little bit of a challenge to the body but since the problem is really the bones and I don't hurt while cycling cycling is okay as long as I'm okay with the fact that I'm not able to walk after cycling how do you do it to yourself in preparation for the cycle trip I did the healthy hips program for about seven months and I lost a lot of weight about 15 kilos and I've paid several visits to an osteopath to loosen up the hill that is awesome thank you for using the healthy hips program thanks for just doing whatever you could to try to fix your body beforehand doing some work on the hip before this trip great idea losing a significant amount of weight and trying to improve overall hip mobility all fantastic ideas although I will say I don't think the idea that you can just pay somebody like an osteopath they'll just loosen things up is quite right but it's at least in the right direction now it unfortunately does fall into the whole trap of the buy your way out fallacy which I have talked about in the previous video and podcasts I will link to that in the description box but in short with musculoskeletal issues movement issues assuming you can pay somebody to fix you serves two purposes number 1 it absolves you of responsibility and agency which makes you feel a little better because none of this is your fault it's just not your fault and two you can feel good about taking action or the appearance of the appearance of action by having an expert try to fix things for you and then when they fail because it's impossible for someone to fix your weak muscles for you you get to blame their incompetence for your ongoing suffering which makes you feel better about yourself because now you've got this scapegoat this High holy expert wasn't able to fix you so your problems must be really bad and none of this is your fault okay now let's get back to the story I know I can continue I did it last year with another cycling trip to Norway on that one I could not walk normally for the rest of the trip and it would be nice if this year was better do you have any tips exercises or recommendations for me which might help you do it to yourself so first of all let's focus on the positives this person M clearly has grit and diligence and determination they know what they love biking and they want to pursue it with single-minded Focus that's awesome M also understands that they can do some things to make their body better also awesome fantastic but they are not yet fully committed to solving the underlying issues and they're doing it for reasons that I recognize because I've gone through this same struggle myself and I've seen many people go through this as well you do it to yourself you do I used to love playing hockey even when it hurt to play I'd still keep trying to play hoping that somehow playing more would magically fix the problems that kept cropping up I kept thinking maybe if I just got my body used to doing these things really quickly I just feel better but unfortunately all that hope just didn't pan out at some point I had to say to myself so this is making things worse we need to take a break from this hockey thing even though we love it it's taking away from comfortable normal physical function and then I spent years rebuilding my body to be able to play hockey and live comfortably away from the rink I've heard multiple versions of this story from tons of people clients viewers whatever over the years you really don't want to give up the activity you love for any period of time I get it believe me I get it I've been there but here's the thing if your passion is literally taking away your ability to do normal everyday things basic fundamental things like walking then you need to ask yourself what the you're doing because guess what you do it to yourself you do you're doing it to yourself you are literally crippling yourself and yes we can always tell ourselves stories that it's someone else's fault or act in ways that put the onus to solve this problem on others I could have Landon also kind of did blame chiropractors massage therapists acupuncturists physical therapists doctors the manufacturers of painkillers etc etc etc for failing to take away my aches and pains for me without any sacrifice on my part but ultimately what good does that do what good did it do me I would still be in pain and I'd be annoyed at the perceived failure of others if I kept thinking in this way this person m is pedaling towards disaster because cycling meets other deeper needs than just physical Comfort whatever they may be maybe it's an Escape From the stresses of life or a respite from difficult emotions whatever it is it's powerful and it is important I felt that way about hockey I feel that way now about surfing but here is advice for everyone who is going through this mental and physical struggle if the thing you're passionate about cripples you you need to be honest about it and figure it out so number one question you gotta ask is can you do something differently to negate or mitigate the negative effects okay that's number one number two is how much crippling are you willing to accept if you can't effectively negate or mitigate the effects so let me talk about this in a personal way currently I love surfing when I surf for long periods and don't do maintenance exercises to counteract the repetitive motions and positions my back and my shoulders get crazy tight they get real stiff I get stiffness through my ribs all the way to my low back and it starts to hurt like my low back will hurt my shoulders will just be like oh God and I'll get pinching and all kinds of places if I do enough exercises to mitigate the negative effects it's not a big deal right if I stretch enough I do enough strength work but if I don't for whatever reason my low back can kill me ongoing for weeks so am I willing to suffer with back pain some days yeah some days I am even though it's not logical the answer is yeah I just don't want to stretch so whatever some days I just don't want to do the exercises that fix or prevent my back pain that's just how it is you do it to yourself you do but am I willing to suffer like that for months or for the rest of my life no because I absolutely hate feeling crippled and feeble I've already been there in my life and I do not like living like that any more than I need to the point here is that you need to honestly assess the relationship between the activities you are constantly engaged in and the condition your body is in then you need to decide whether you are willing to put in the effort to learn how to mitigate or fully negate the impact so you can continue to do the normal things that you need to do as well as the stuff that you really truly love doing and while you won't always get it perfect every single day or every single week taking this approach will help you be more mobile healthy and strong in a more well-rounded way because while it's impressive to be able to ride a bike several hundred kilometers without pain it's much more impressive when you are also able to mount and Dismount your bike smoothly and walk in and out of your home without hobbling and limping now I've seen guys play hockey even when they can barely walk properly because the game of hockey does something for them and for their Spirit that's just amazing even while it's grinding away at their body I've seen I've seen old Surfers with multiple spine and joint surgeries who walk like they've been on a horse all day because they ride a longboard and they do the same thing they don't care the common denominator is an unwillingness to look a little deeper than just a pleasure and joy derived from the passion the unfortunate consequence is that the passion ultimately cannot be sustained because the body fails from lack of proper maintenance so you have to ask yourself if you really love what you get from whatever the sport is or whatever your act activity is that you just you're just so obsessed about you gotta ask yourself are you willing to learn how to maintain your body so that you can keep physically pursuing that passion it takes work it takes time because if you really do love this thing it might be worth putting in that work to keep your body ready and able to pursue that that physical passion and still be able to do normal human stuff like walking around without a massive massive limp now I'm curious to know what your physical passion is and how you keep your body ready for or if you don't how does that affect your body what have you noticed when you pursue your physical passion whatever that sport is share it all in the comments down below if you're looking for a program to help you rebuild your body from head to toe go to uprighthealth.com DIY I suggest you check out the back pain fix or any of the other programs find one that will work for you I I also want to say a huge thanks to the following new patreon patrons who pledged five dollars a month to support this channel me and the skeleton here thank you Vicky Jen Andy Mary James and Anne thank you so much for joining and supporting me on patreon if you want to support me too use the patreon or donate links in the description box or use the join and thanks buttons you'll find on YouTube and also please if you haven't already sign up for my newsletter on my website so we always stay connected at uprighthealth.com newsletter and be sure to check out these videos like share and subscribe with the Bell notification on and as always I hope you remember that pain sucks life shouldn't you do it to yourself you do foreign [Music]

Channel: Upright Health

Views: 14,905

Keywords: upright health, stop doing this, stop doing thi, motivational video, chronic pain management, chronic pain syndrome, cycling, cycling hurts hips, cycling hip pain, how to fix joint pain, how to fix a limp, fix hip pain, fix pain from cycling, life pro tip, life pro tips

Id: 4YSoK25dv2c

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023