Sorry guys. I've just never had days' long back pain and it hurts and is a little scary.

Once you get into your thirties it's common to start having back issues. The elasticity of the disks between your vertabrae is less and things start grinding and nerves get hurty.

You can't push yourself as you did before, and woe if you forget proper lifting form.

When you're younger pushing yourself harder makes you stronger. Then you pass this mysterious threshold where pushing harder just breaks you down.

I read something the other day that we humans evolved to be relatively healthy while growing up and during the first few years of childbearing age, but that's it; after that, evolution apparently just doesn't give a fuck.

In terms of bone density, pushing harder at any age is the only thing that will improve it. But load-bearing exercise only builds up bone in your legs, leaving your hipbones to get increasingly fragile.

(Reading a book about astronauts right now. Techniques for preventing bone loss have barely changed since the 60's.)

Yeah, Mother Nature doesn't care if we feel good; all that matters is that we're healthy enough to reproduce a few times before we're 25. After that, if we live long enough, we can help raise our kids' kids and pass along the wisdom of our years, and if we don't, eh. The tribe only really needs one wise grandmother and one wise grandfather.

But load-bearing exercise only builds up bone in your legs, leaving your hipbones to get increasingly fragile.

Doesn't walking keep the hipbones and spine strong too?

ita, what Ginger said. It's Monday - a work day - and no one but the one assistant can do this??

tommyrot - I think that's become a popular thing to say but I don't believe it's strictly true. We humans evolved for a life on the savannah hunting & gathering food. Lots of walking, squatting, standing, running, climbing trees... not sitting at least 8 hours a day in front of a computer and hunched forward. I think to a large degree our problem is that civilized modern man has developed ways of being that are fundamentally unhealthy. And we have so much invested in it economically that it's not likely to change (a lot is invested in the assembly line model even when it's not on an actual assembly line. Specialization is king. Don't take breaks or you're a slacker. We can't design everything to be ergonomic because that would cost too much.) Humans have not had the time to evolve whatever form would be better suited to hunching over computers and/or doing repetitive motions all day. And improvements in medical technology have done a lot to slow down strict Darwinian evolution.

Doesn't walking keep the hipbones and spine strong too?

Surprisngly, not so much. (Which is why even really active senior citizens can fall and break a hip. It's usually the other way around - the hipbone breaks, causing a fall.)

[eta: Specifically, the outside of the hips, which don't bear much weight under normal walking or exercise conditions.]

Surprisngly, not so much. (Which is why even really active senior citizens can fall and break a hip. It's usually the other way around - the hipbone breaks, causing a fall.)

Planned obsolescence! Nature invented it first.

ION, my mom gave me a shoulder-specific icepack because it was too big for her AIFG! My left shoulder and arm today feel like someone tried to hack them off with an axe.

I am excited to report that I still have some cooking mojo. I've been kind of out of the habit and/or making things I didn't love. I had some unknown winter squash that I roasted last week, so I just made it into a cream soup with a shallot, some ginger, and some cumin. Delish! And super fast and easy, since the squash was already roasted. Note to self.