[pct-l] to prevent injury

Melanie Clarke melaniekclarke at gmail.com
Thu Sep 20 09:10:40 CDT 2012


I guess I will add my 2 cents on waist belts:  People with degenerative
(spine) disc issues (especially us old geezers) may require a waist belt
for therapeutic reasons.

I was diagnosed with 2 herniated discs; C-L5-L4 and 2 bulging discs;
L4-L3-L2.  I thought my life was over but my physical therapist said that
as long as I position most of the weight of the pack on my pelvis I could
continue to backpack.  My pelvis then delivers the weight to my legs so I
limit the compression on my spine and intervertebral discs.  This means, I
need to wear a waist belt.  My shoulder straps sit a little high, which
forces most of the weight of the pack on to my waist belt.  This seems to
work for me.  Waist belts are heavy and I would like to lighten my load in
any way I can but this is the only way I can enjoy the trail.

So I have to say, "Getting old is better than the alternative!!!"  (Note to
Yoshi:  In case this phrase doesn't translate well into Japanese, this is a
joke as we start to fall apart as we age and this is not fun but the
"alternative" to getting old is death.  So this is one way of trying to
maintain a positive outlook rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of
our declining condition.

Another one of Tim and Yoshi's Facebook/Trail friends.

Toga

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 5:30 PM, Yoshihiro Murakami <
completewalker at gmail.com> wrote:

> Tim is a my facebook friend. It may be a thin superficial
> relationship.  But I was stimulated. I will write the injury related
> factors very briefly, because I think many misconceptions prevails.
>
> These factors are not related to injury. there are several scientific
> papers.
>
>      insole   --- Withnall, R., et al(2006 ) prospective comparative
> study of 1205 recruits of England air force.
>
>      boots / shoes,    pack weight,    age,     fitness,    length of
> outdoor experience,    gender , hiking style
>          ---Anderson, L.S. Jr, et al. (2009) study of AT and PCT hiker ,
>          ---Lobb, B. (2004) study of trampers,
>          ---Hamonko, M.T. et al (2011) prospective study of Rocky
> outdoor school.
>
>    stretch  ---Herbert, R.D et al(2011) Large meta-analysis of field
> studies
>    warm up, body weight, height ---Pope, R. et al(2000) a randomized
> comparative study
>
> This factor was proved to relate to lower-limb injury by Pope, R. et
> al(2000)
>     performance of  20meter shuttle run
>
> No evidence of waist belt causing injury
>
> I have read many injury related papers.  I found only one factor: It
> may be an athletic capability ( represented as 20 meter shuttle run ).
> So I think the training containing speed run may prevent injury.
>
> I am also an old man ( 62 years old ). I regularly jog 5 to 10 km
> several times in a week, and sometimes I do a wind sprint. I think
> that training to raise an athletic capability is necessary.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely
> --------------- --------------------------------------
> Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami  村上宣寛 )
> facebook  http://www.facebook.com/completewalker
> Blogs  http://completewalker.blogspot.jp/
> Photo  https://picasaweb.google.com/104620544810418955412/
> Backpacking since about 1980 in Japan
> JMT, 2009, 2010, 2011(half), 2012
> Handbook of Hiking will be published in 2013
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