Misunderstanding the Pain

One of my good friends in Intel approached me to get some Yoga tips for his back pain. He was undergoing severe back pain on the left side of his body and as always I asked him to practice Yoga without focusing just on his back. He was looking for just a point solution for his back and Yoga which I asked him to practice for his entire body did not sound like a solution for him. I have seen that most people don’t understand the anatomy and bio mechanics of our body well and end up in looking for point solutions without much success. So why should we practice Yoga for whole body to get relief from back pain? Let me explain in laymen terms.

To understand this let’s go to some basic physics. Imagine the scene of a train accident (Photo graph of which you normally see in newspaper). When two trains collide head on you might have noticed that sometimes the bogies in the front will be intact whereas bogies at the back will be ripped off from the chain.  The force produced will move among all the bogies of the train and the weakest link will be ripped off. This same law of nature will hold good even in our body. So everything in our body is connected and always the weakest link is affected most. This whole science of applying mechanical physics concepts to our body movements is called Bio-Mechanics.

Does it mean that our back is the weakest? Can we just make this weakest link strong? How did it become weak? What are the forces we are talking about here? Gravity is the main force. Our whole body is supported and works within the field of gravity. At any point of time there is a force and counterforce acting on any body part. Even when you stand straight there are different parts in your body which will work against the gravity to make to stay in the position. Think of it as a mechanical device made of shafts, levers, nuts, bolts etc. and is working in a field of gravity. Any mechanical device to work smoothly should be in a good condition. Any device which is not used or not well used for a long time will cease to work after sometime. Similarly our body has to be used and used well to work properly. Any form of exercise is built around the basic concept of using our body well.

Am I not simplifying too much by comparing such a complex living being to a mechanical device? In fact, I am. Our body is intelligent enough to remodel itself constantly depending on the usage. Body will even spend time and energy to strengthen any part which is not used well. Why spend energy on something useless? This is an automatic process and is called body intelligence. For example if you are slouching on your desk at an angle to read this blog, only one side of your body is bearing all the weight and is getting worked. That means only some muscles (main building block which causes movement by controlling the joints. They will be on the bone connecting two joints) are getting compressed and stressed to balance your weight in the field of gravity. When any muscle is constantly compressed your body is intelligent enough to make it short as there is no need to keep it long. Compressed muscle means restricted range of motion and less flexibility. So our habit will influence our body parts which will change constantly and can potentially restrict the range of motion.

Remember our body is a chain and is always in motion. When a compressed muscle during motion receives the load which it cannot handle it will transfer the load to the next muscle in next locomotive chain. For example/- when muscles in your hips become stiff to accommodate the range of motion it will transfer the weight to muscle controlling knee joint which will take some load and rest is transferred to the muscle in next joint. So our body is taking a different form to accommodate the range of motion required for an activity.

How so? Let us understand this with the help of lego blocks. In the pictures below, let us assume Red blocks is your trunk, Blue blocks is your thigh bone and yellow blocks is your lower leg bone, Red joins blue at hip joint, blue joins yellow at knee joint. Muscles are not shown here but imagine them to be present at every joint connected to bones on either side. If all the muscles are in full range of motion when you stand straight, then each muscle will move to take a position which will not stress any joints. That means your joins will exactly overlap on each other as show in first diagram. Let us assume muscle on your hip joint is compressed or tight and cannot move to its full range. So it will pull thigh bone to an angle. This in turn will make your lower leg bone to move in opposite direction to balance you on the center of gravity (as shown in second diagram). This mechanism as I mentioned will be controlled by your body intelligence. This will put undue stress on your joints which are not designed to take extra load constantly. Although body intelligence will make you feel comfortable through some correction but the undue stress will degenerate your body quickly and they give up one day. First indication of this is through pain.

That means when you have pain in your back, you have disturbed somewhere in the chain. Similarly any pain in any part of the body doesn’t mean that only that part of the body is disturbed. You are just getting indication from the weakest link. This is where Yoga comes in to picture. Yoga, through various asana will give you the range of motion required for your body and gradually you will be aware of postural disturbances that you can correct.

Posture detection and correction is one of the main benefits of Yoga. With this explanation I was able to convince my friend. I hope I was able to convince you as wellJ.

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Survival in thin air

Mountains called me again and this time I was going for Advance mountaineering course. Last course before I can go on my own for expeditions. I waited for nearly 1 ½ year for my vacation and I must say it was worth a wait!! Being flexible and strong is equally important on mountains. I had stated my yoga practice in Intel much before my basic course and I could see the benefits of it during basic course. I started trekking in 2006 and for 3 years I had hurt my back so much that I used to rest due to back pain every now and then. Yoga at Intel had helped a lot to complete my basic course and I continued it after the course as a preparation for my advance course. When the dates came nearer I started going to gym after going back home to loose some extra weight (2kg), as every extra kilo will make it difficult to carry myself. Yoga and Gym on weekdays and around 5 km run on weekends did slowly put me in shape for the course.

Finally D-day came and I completed all my activities at office early and left Bangalore, very eager to go back to Himalayas after 1 ½ years. I had not taken any big vacation in last 1 ½ years and I remembered the saying “Agar Pahaad bulayega, Tum mana nahin kar paoge ”. This time I knew what to expect from the course and I was mentally prepared for physical and mental pain for next 28 days. I was going back to the same institute where I did my basic course, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering(NIM) in Uttarkashi. I choose this institute as it was one of the best for mountaineering in India managed by Indian Army and very much recognized for their technical skills. We were 33 trainees in Advance course and around 42 in Basic course which was running in parallel. Out of 33 around 50% were from Indian defense forces, and NCC. There were just around 8 pure civilians like me who were venturing this for shear pleasure. For others there was some kind of monetary benefit.

Day1-2: First day started with physical conditioning which included jog, physical exercises and Yoga. I was immediately identified as someone who knows a little about yoga and I was asked to take the class. Later we were split in to ropes (groups) and for the entire course we were supposed to work together within our groups. We had revision classes on rope knots and map reading, after we received all out training equipments/clothing. On 2^nd day we went for hill walking with loaded backpacks (20-25kgs), continuous up hill walk for 1 ½ hour followed by physical exercises. This was essential to set our body in the right tone. On both these days we had lectures on expedition planning and we were supposed to submit an expedition planning report by the end of the course.

  

Day3-6: Rock climbing at Thelka: We reached our first training area “Thelka”(9kms by walk) for our first mountaineering lessons on rock. We revised basic of rock climbing, bouldering (climbing without any equipment), Anchoring and belaying (climbing techniques), and rappelling (descending) techniques. Later we moved to practice advance climbing techniques such as Artificial aid climbing (for >70 deg rock slop without proper holds) and Jummaring (Ascending technique after lead climber has reached). Map reading was giving very high importance and this time in Advance course we were allowed to take aid of GPS device. We had theory and practical session on all this. After 4 days we returned back to the institute.  

Day 7: Artificial wall climbing: This is something which anyone who has seen climbing wall in Kanterava stadium should be familiar with. We practiced on the wall till afternoon and later prepared for going to the mountains. By Day-7 3 people had dropped out, 1 from Advance and 2 from basic course, for silly reasons [One twisted his ankle while wearing his back pack]. It came as a warning for us not to make such silly mistakes

Day 8: Move to Tel camp (8200 feet): We finished morning prayers at NIM temple and left the institute in bus to Bukhi road head (5600 feet), place from where our trek to base camp starts. We reach Tel in just around 3 hrs with 2 breaks in between for 10 min each. I remember taking over 5 hours in my basic course. It was getting colder and I had to force myself to stay awake to get acclimatized well.

  

Day 9: Move to Gujjar Hut (11500feet): Very long walk (around 13-14kms) for 6 hours with 5 breaks. After pitching our tents, we were taken on an acclimatization walk to near by lake called “Keda Tal”. This was to ensure that we don’t rest in our tents till night. Getting acclimatized is very important on mountains. There are many incidents where tough climbers are asked to go back just because their body is not responding well at higher altitudes. Having good night sleep will aid in acclimatization.

 

Day 10: Move to base camp (12300feet): This was the shortest walk and we climbed to base camp doing continuous map reading. Watching the contours, peaks, rivers, and matching them on the map. It was a good exercise and we got a hang of using map and GPS for navigating on mountains.

Day 11-13: Revision of basics of Ice and snow climbing: Every day we walked to our training area which is around 1000 feet high and practiced our ice/snow climbing techniques. Our training area was covered with around 2 feet fresh snow when we reached and we spend almost 2 hours cleaning it. We practiced the same climbing techniques we learnt on rock, but the terrain was different. On rock holds were difficult to find but on Ice we make our own holds using ice axe and crampons. Rock is not slippery as long it is dry where as ice is very slippery. We practiced basic climbing and descending techniques, making different anchors on ice/snow, fixing ropes (traditional climbing technique), crevasse crossing using ladders, and crevasse rescue skills. Now and then I was asked to teach yoga to the batch during PT time. We had lectures on mountains sicknesses, Avalanches, Glaciers terminologies and we were thought how to use HAPO bags (High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema) to rescue a person suffering form HAPO. We were though first aid for various mountain sicknesses.

 Day 14: Load ferry to Advance Base Camp (ABC): We were given ration and tent age equipments to carry to ABC. We had an option to carry our personal equipments but no one dared to carry it. We prepared our camp site and returned back to Base camp

 Day 15: Unexpected happened on this day. We were supposed to move to ABC but couldn’t due to terrible weather in the morning. Snow and hail covered the whole BC and it was a white out. When sky cleared by around 10:30am, it was very late to move to ABC. It was an unexpected rest day and everyone enjoyed it. We had one class on Avalanches and spend rest of the day working on our expedition planning report.

  Day 16: Move to ABC (14200 feet): We moved with all our personal equipments/clothing and established our ABC. We reached early but the weather went bad immediately. We quickly pitched our tents, but were not allowed to rest. In hail storm we set up the camp site, and dug our *** holes. This was again just to make sure that we don’t sleep. At ABC we had to take turns to cook dinner for the entire batch. It was very warm inside kitchen tent and we felt like spending time there everydayJ

 Day 17-19: We climbed further up each day for our Advance ice/snow climbing lessons, after which we used to come back for ABC. We learnt tip-toe climbing (climbing a vertical wall with 2 ice axe and crampons, something which you see in all mountaineering action moviesJ), two piton climbing (piton is something which we drill in to the ice to for support), and Artificial aid climbing on ice. I struggled and some how managed to get a hang of it. I must say all these techniques were difficult on ice and the altitude made it much tougher. Even a simple physical activity such as walking fast was tiring. Back in ABC we were thought how to make snow cave or Igloo in case of emergencies, how to use high altitude

 cooking equipments, and we had lectures on

Weather, and history of Himalayas. Getting water is difficult at higher altitude. We used to get two bottles of hot water to drink: one in morning and one in the evening. To ensure that water stays in same state till next day we used to keep bottles inside our sleeping bags. As this water is not enough to meet our daily requirement, we used to drink lot of tea to make sure that we are not de-hydrated. As we don’t sweat a lot at higher altitudes we don’t feel that we are dehydrated until we collapse on the ground un-conscience. We forced our self to drink what ever we get. By the end of Day 19 all our training was complete and now it’s the summit attempt. Mount Draupadi Ka Danda-2 [18740 feet] was not conquered for past 3 years during this time.

Day 20: Load ferry to Camp 1 (15800 feet): We shifted our ration from ABC to Camp-1. The route to camp-1 had many hidden crevasses which we had to negotiate. Just previous day their was an ice Avalanche on the route and we were asked to keep an eye on falling ice. It was a scary situation, but summit was the only thing in our minds. When we reached Camp-1 we saw that everything was frozen and no trace of water around. As meting show take more fuel and gives less water, we had to look for ice. We roped up in turns to walk on the hidden crevasse and dig the crevasse wall for ice. Finally after finding hard ice, we returned back to ABC.

Day 21: We moved to Camp-1 and established the camp site. As were burning lot of fuel to melt ice, we decided to search for hidden pond close by. After digging around 15 feet of snow we heard cracking sound of last layer of ice covering water. Loud cheer spread across the camp. Finally our water problem was solved. Next day we were attempting for the summit. Summit day schedule was announced: 2am Morning tea, 3 am breakfast and 3:30 am move for the summit. Weather report said that if we don’t reach summit by 8:30 am, turn back from where ever we are.    

 Day 22: Summit Day: It was less than -10 deg C outside our tents. We had high calorie breakfast and with loud cheers “Ganga ma ki…JAI” we left for the summit. This is the first time the entire batch including a 51 years old man was attempting for the summit. We walked beaming head lights or torches without seeing anything around except our next step. We walked like for next 2 hours like a machine, whose only intent is to fix ropes, see the next step and climb up. After 2 hours when we could see dim morning light we were at the final ascent. Many teams earlier had reached this point late and had to return back without summit and this time we were lucky to have reached there early. Summit was clearly visible and looked very close. Our instructor said that if we don’t make any mistake we should be there on the top on time. Final ascent was very difficult, with steep climb up to the summit and we had to slowly move up fixing ropes up to the summit. Suddenly we heard the uproar of first 2 people who made it to the summit. There was a rush of energy in everyone to climb fast and experience the summit. Our instructors warned others not to shout after reaching summit as it may cause avalanches on the slopes. Finally we all reached summit by 7:50am setting record for the fastest time ever from summit camp. We were on top of DKD-2 at the altitude of 18740 feet above see level. Many became very emotional, hugging each other, congratulating everyone, and taking photographs with India flag. We hoisted India flag, did some religious work ship to the peak and at 8:30 am we turned back. As 80% of the accidents happen while getting down, we were asked to be extra careful. Although we were there on the summit for a very short time, the view and experience will remain in our memories for ever. Finally we were back to Camp-1 after summiting DKD-2 in style.

  

Day 23: We climbed down to base Camp and spend rest of the day preparing for our written rest and navigation exercise the next day.

Day 24: Getting 40% in written test is must to qualify in advance course although it is not the only criteria. It was a nice experience writing exam at that altitude. After written test we were given 2 coordinates and we were supposed to navigate to those place. It was our last chance to learn reading topographic maps and using GPS. We spend rest of the day packing for our decent.

Day 25-26: It took two days for us to climb down from Base camp to Bukhi road head, from where we came back to the institute. I had broken lips, face tanned beyond recognition, first degree trench foot on my toe finger, and had lost 2 kg when I reached institute. Finally I had bath after 25 days and I must say it was a very refreshing feelingJ. It was announced later that by next day morning we should submit our expedition planning report. I had done some work on report at Base camp but after reaching higher altitude it was really difficult to write anything. Still lot of work remained and I was mentally getting prepared for sleepless night.

Day 27: I worked on my report will 3am in the morning and got up @ 6am for fall in. As I was from a technology background I had done planning for technology research expedition with the main focus on bring technology innovation in the field of mountaineering. I had provided some idea for new devices that could be used in mountaineering, and I got good appreciation from Principal in my 1:1 interview later that afternoon. We returned all out equipments and spent rest of the day rehearsing for our graduation ceremony.

Day 28: Graduation day: It was the most relaxing day without any physical activity. I think name “Intel” gets you work anywhere, and I was not spared there as well. People started approaching me with hardware/software problems in their systems, to open email/facebook accounts, and asking for help in finalizing system configuration. I tried to market Intel as much as possibleJ. Later in the evening we had our graduation ceremony where we got a small silver ice axe as a memento. With that I had successfully completed 28 days advance mountaineering course.

As always I learn a lot from mountains. I learnt what it takes to achieve a goal, feeling of success and failures, pleasure of taking risks, and going through the pain. Now I am certified to conduct high altitude expeditions, but still waiting for the call from mountains for my next expedition. I don’t know when mountains will call me again but all that I know is that I should keep preparing, waiting for the call. I don’t know when I will be on top of the world, but I have taken necessary steps to get there and the journey so far has thought me many things. I am still looking for sponsors, with the dream that I will be on top of the world with India flag, resisting myself against strong wind and looking at the world stretched in front of me.