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The other day I was in pain, due to a sore back, at a picnic, and someone said (jokingly?) "... unless you're just being dramatic." (implying that I was acting more hurt than I was, looking for sympathy from the girls.) I won't say I wasn't hoping for sympathy from the girls, but I wasn't being dramatic. But I'll let you read my story and tell me what you think...

Of course I'm renowned for being dramatic. It's nearly just par for the course, as they say. But, that being said, I would like to think I can take a lot of punishment, so it's only fair. I think I'm also known for being a touch on the masochistic side (or a lot on the masochistic side)... so perhaps I have a tendency to push myself just a little too hard.

So the day is Wednesday, last week. I meet up with Annilou, Steph and Rob, and we head out to Kits beach for a run. Rob and Annilou are basically personal trainers, so they say "let's do a workout after our run!" and me and Steph hesitantly agree. So whatev, we had a good run, I felt great, we started working out and I felt like total ass. I figured I was tired from Krav'ing the night before.

At the end of our workout, someone asks me "Can you do superman pushups?" and I say "Yeah." So I lay down, stretch out, strain my ass off, and do one. Ta-da! For good measure, I do the human-flag off of a sign-post, too. Voila! My best two party tricks.

Here is a video of some superman pushups, with kindof mediocre extension, but still insanely hard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVhgMzc22kI

Here is another video that I think shows a weaker guy doing a better pushup, but just goofing around (and gets tired fast): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTvkVbTvOHM

Here is Dominic Lacasse doing some tricks that are pretty much my inspiration:
1. Dominic Lacasse - Human flag
2. Dominic Lacasse - Human Flag Push-up

Here's a dude doing Dragon flags, which are easier, but still hell of hard. Brock, the most ripped dude I know, taught me this one.

Anyway, so why are you telling me this, you ask? Well, it turns out that this is an opportunity to use my favorite quote, by Louis Pasteur: "Let me tell you the secret that has lead me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity." Like the good Dr., I am not actually strong, it would seem, but merely lack the basic instinct of self-preservation that keeps most people's bodies intact.

Thursday (after training), my back started to hurt, around noon. By the time I got back from lunch with Ed (Nando's chicken! Love it!) I couldn't move. I went home, and pretty much was paralyzed in bed for the next 3 days. Not awesome.

The pain was so bad, I could barely breathe. I took lots of Tylenol (I still had T3's from my Shingles Days! Aaaahaha!) and when I did leave the house, I drank as much as I could, to numb the pain. Bad times. The muscles in my back were so fucked up that they were actually pulling my spine out of alignment. It was goddamn horrible. Of course, like all the horrible things that happen to me, I made sure to take pictures. Because I care about you, dear reader.

So, there you have it. I don't know what I did to my back, but it's nearly sorted. I do know that whatever mechanism caused my spine to take that shape was downright insidious. Here's to not taking our posture for granted...

Mitch out.

Tina B, 2008-06-20, 12:30:40 That's so f'd up dude!

Dude? - Jardine, 2008-06-20, 14:44:40 Did you trim your chest hair between the before and after pics?

Hmmm - n/a, 2008-06-20, 15:56:15 http://www.discountpetmedicines.com/furminator/remove-excess-hair.jpg

You needed... - Stu, 2008-06-21, 02:22:09 ...my drugstore. I had surgery on my shoulder 3 weeks ago and i got shitloads of primo stuff left including Endone - I've never had a painkiller with 'Controlled drug' stamped on the box. Hurting sucks. Hope you're all fixed now.

holy shit batman! - beeb, 2008-06-25, 16:11:56 did you go to a chiropractor or something?? how did they fix you? was it the beer?

The coolest thing - Fran, 2008-06-30, 04:39:35 Check this shit out. www.crossfit.com More specifically http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBgKB4Gnsw There is a club in vancouver. More details to follow via gmail chat. xo