I have suffered from a bad back on and off for the last 10 years and yet am only in my early 40's. What I found better than any physio or chiropractor has been weekly pilates lesson using a reformer machine. It has now been over a year of this and I am an absolute convert. My back has been so much better and my life easier. I know that I cant permanently fix what is wrong with my back so therefore I have to work with what I've got and it really is all about strengthening those core muscles especially for women as we have children and get older.

Weekend was great. Saturday morning spent watching a gymnastics competition, Sunday morning ran 17km. First time I've ever run that distance, and first time I've run up every single hill (done two half marathons, but they included significant periods of walking). So feeling great :)

Be very careful going to a Chiro! Make sure the one you go to isn't crazy/dangerous. I'd recommend going to an Osteopath over a chiro because at least they don't ignore your muscles that may be pulling and sublexating and won't just do an 'adjustment'.

But congrats on jogging!

I had a great weekend - caught up with lots of people, did lots of training. The last time I had the whole goofy grin thing going was a couple of weeks ago - I'd just built up my new fully suspended mountain bike and took it for a blast around the Wainui trails ...I can't ever remember having that much fun on a mountain bike since first starting to ride about 5 years ago...pure bliss

Having had a six month break from running following last year's pesky surgery, I can relate to the joy of being back out there again! I have found of late that the secret to me staying injury free is adequate rest and strength training. As much as I want to go as hard as I can week in and week out my body just doesn't like it!

I had a great weekend - a quick bike ride around the Bays on Saturday morning, getting back just before the heavens opened. That turned out to be good timing - a lot of my friends got caught on the Makara loop in that rain.

I slept in on Sunday then went out on Sunday afternoon after the rain stopped and ran 12k around my neighbourhood, once again getting back just before the rain started. Somehow I don't think I'm going to be so lucky tonight!

I had a joyful morning climbing on Saturday - nothing too difficult, but I did complete a couple of new, longish climbs, which is saying something for me. I usually take a couple of goes to familiarise myself with the routes.

However this was balanced with a swim yesterday where I just couldn't win - my breathing was off, my shoulder started protesting, my cap wouldn't stay on my head & worst of all, my mother lapped me!

+1 for pilates.

I had major surgery on my back to remove a bone tumor 15 years ago, when I was 20... Part of one vertebrae was removed and as you'd expect I've had plenty of problems since then. A few years ago someone reccomended an osteopath there in welly to me and he set me up with various stretches and exercises which turned things around. Later I found out he basically had me doing pilates! The osteopath was very good, the gist of what he said was the joints in your spine aren't really strong enough to bear your full weight. you need to use various muscle groups to support and strengthen your spine. The exercises he gave me strengthened the core muscles around my spine, and I was trained to use them properly. Now I automatically work these muscles whenever I move, and my back has never been better. Aitken, have you ever seen an osteopath? The guy I saw is Lawrence Cartmell, he's on the terrace and is was very good. A physio or chiropractor will massage and manipulate your body/joints in an attempt to fix the problem, but with an osteopath YOU do the hard work - they help you treat yourself, and help you fix the root cause of the problem - In my case my core muscles were too weak and I wasn't using them properly, and I wasn't walking properly after years of living with back pain.

Great news on the jog! Well done.

Ha your slow post-injury speed is about my regular half marathon pace!;p

I had a slow blah run on Sat morning 'cos I wasn't feeling that well and then went to dance class and had a major break through! It's all swings and roundabouts eh:)

"(Though I think I’ll see a chiropractor before I reach this gloomy conclusion.)"

Before you start puting your back in the hands of a chiropractor I suggest you read Simon Singh's article in the Guardian.

My most recent moment of unadulterated joy was seeing a cyclist who nearly bowled me on the pavement having to take violent evasive action and ending up wrapped round a lamp post.