Background
I started having problems with my back a year ago when I started playing pickleball. I pulled a muscle in my back after playing for just an hour. I tried to keep on playing through the pain. Little did I know that I was just damaging it further. Over the next three months I pulled that same muscle two more times. Each time I was severely limited in what I could do for the 7-9 days after (turning over in bed was near excruciating).
What I Tried
At this point I was willing to try any modality that might work. I went to all the classics.
Massage gun – Felt good when I was using it but my recovery didn’t speed up at all and 15 minutes after using it felt like I got no benefits from using it. Additionally, was painful to use until the pulled muscle was already fully recovered.
Regular Stretching Before Workout – Something I will continue to do. However, for those who have injured their backs know, it’s near impossible to properly stretch most spots of the back.
NSAIDs – Ibuprofen helped a little bit with the swelling and the pain, but with the current research that’s coming out with NSAIDs I needed to find a better long-term solution
Lots of Ice -The only thing that I tried that I actually got a benefit from and would continue doing
What ended up working
Ice- I would still consider Ice crucial especially after an injury
Stretching – I keep on doing some basic stretches for legs and shoulders, but couldn’t do anything that helped the back.
The Pulse Device (Warm-up and Recovery) – I was using the now performance settings for about a year. Since the recovery settings came out I’ve been using it regularly I have not pulled that muscle in almost 6 months. Here’s the settings I’ve been using if you’d like to try them out.
Warm-up type 1 before pickleball for about 10-15 minutes. Using this I went from always feeling like I was about to pull a muscle to feeling confident and able to move freely.
Recovery type 1 vibrations after pickleball for about 5 minutes. I did this most days after pickleball that I remembered and I just felt like I was able to play more regularly using this
Recovery type 3 vibrations. I used these when my muscle was still recovering from an injury. You can also throw this one in once or twice a week to help prevent an injury in the future.
