Ask HN: Best Relief for Body Aches? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best Relief for Body Aches?

12 pointssiamese_puff24 comments

Male and late twenties. I’m starting to experience constant back, neck and shoulder aches. Additionally, I’m getting some joint pain in my fingers.

I’m a runner and recently starting lifting more weights. I also started getting massages and taking magnesium supplements. What else can I do here? I’m feeling like an old man and my health insurance in the US sucks.

Just looking for things people have done to get back to normal. I think I tense up pretty hard throughout the day without realizing it.

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Assuming you spend lots of your day at a desk, in just a few related postures, you'd do well to think far more about mobility than you currently seem to be.

Running and lifting are both great, but running is pretty repetitive and uniform and gets moreso the better you get at it. And lifting that most people explore is usually focused on increasing power (and/or bulk) in a just few major muscle groups.

And all that is really great, but if you're feeling achy and stiff, those aren't aimed very well at the problem.

Think about stuff that's more dynamic and varied: dance, pilates, yoga, gymnastics, martial arts, rock climbing, etc. If you take any of those seriously, they all have deep progressions with high skill ceilings that can hold your interest and create the same kind of feedback loop of pride and accomplishment that you probably find in running and lifting already.

If you're near a big city, you might also be able to go a little further into the massage and movement world with practices like rolfing, alexander technique, or feldonkrais. These are more passive and induce less progressive/permanent change, but can provide a radical change to the way you feel.

Meditation can help, too.

>rolfing, alexander technique, or feldonkrais

Wikipedia says these are considered alternative medicine and there is no proof they affect health (and probably no proof they don't either). Trying more dynamic types of motion seems like good advice as it would affect a wider range of muscles. Perhaps isotonic exercises that pit muscles against each other to get muscle tensions/development in balance.

This recent NY Times article on the idea of "good posture" affecting back pain and health suggests there is no scientific basis for that, another great example of people in the past just making stuff up and it has become fake "knowledge":

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/science/linker-posture-sc...

Possibly forcing your body into an unnatural posture could cause back pain.

Take a look at your posture when working (record yourself with a video camera). It is very common for people working with computers to hunch forward for hours, peering at the screen. You can counter this with a timer to remind you to stretch or by enlarging fonts on the screen so you can more easily read the screen from a distance. Hand pain can be caused by computer mice/trackpads/keyboards.

Muscle tension seems like a cause worth exploring from your description. This can be related to anxiety or stress, so working on the sources of those could help in relaxing and reducing that muscle tension and any side effects from it. If your work keeps you in one posture for long periods of time possibly that could result in one set of muscles becoming larger than the muscles that counterbalance them, which makes it easier to damage the smaller muscles (you think you are strong, but you are only strong in one direction). The most basic thing to do is pay attention to what your muscles are telling you, when do they start to hurt and what were you doing prior to that? Can you feel the pain increasing and are you doing anything that might be causing that? Which specific muscles are hurting, and what motions cause those muscles to be used? Vibrators can help relax muscle tension. So can sex.

Expert advice can be valuable, some causes of pain have physiological sources; comments from people on the internet may represent valid experience, but may not necessarily apply to you.

FWIW, it would be unusual to have a practitioner refer to any of those things as a form of medicine, alternative or otherwise. I'm sure you could find examples of them doing so by scouring around enough, but it's not the norm.

I'm not familiar with the wikipedia articles, but they may be being maintained by people with a chip on their shoulder and a lack of real-world exposure. That happens often. Some people get really weird about unfamiliar things and the feel duty-bound to write critically about them from a shallow and biased perspective.

In any case, rolfing is essentially just a specific form of (very) deep tissue massage and the other two are roughly equivalent practices in body awareness and paying attention to how one moves. They're common in performance studies (acting, dance, etc) but have lost the attention of the broader public over the last few decades and so you won't find them as easily as you do (say) yoga studios now.

All three are, ultimately, soothing experiences and generally provide immediate relief of acute tension and pain, but that's no more a claim of "medicine" than it would be to suggest someone might help to breathe deeply, lay in a dark room for while, or take any other kind of massage (as the OP already suggested they do).

Get checked out for

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseas...

trouble with the jaw can manifest as back, neck and shoulder pain. I suffered for years but didn't get better until my dentist pointed out I was grinding my teeth and told me to get a bite guard. Almost immediately the symptoms focalized in my jaw. For about six months I mostly ate soups that I made by throwing any random whatever into a blender (it was a running gag that I'd throw everything from handfuls of seaweed to lima beans and nuts in) and gradually got better. My jaw bugs me now maybe one day a month.

Thanks. Forgot to mention i have this bad, but it’s been improving with a mouth guard and massaging my face with a gua sha device

In addition to the suggestion to be evaluated for TMJ, be more mindful of posture. If you're sitting with your head craned forward, that's called tech neck and people do it with phones too. Pull your chin back. Your head is about 16 lbs, that weight shouldn't be supported at an angle constantly. You may need better glasses, or increase the logical DPI of your display so you can see the text better.

Already pointed here: avoid letting your nose pointing down (adjust your screen position, raise your smartphone while using it...). And avoid bad stress (=> relax).

Do not sit down for more than approx 1 hour (=> periodically walk for at least 3 minutes).

Get a 'tui na' massage by a serious (probably Chinese) practitioner.

Twice a week either hit the gym or swim (moderately train, whatever not dangerous discipline you like).

I've been through this, and am nearly back to normal. Roughly in order of importance: Fix your work ergonomics, lifting & massage, and reduce stress.

The neck and joint pain stuff sounds a lot like ergonomics issues. Until it stops, work only at a desk, only with an external monitor or raised laptop screen, and only with your elbows at 90 degrees. Get an ergo keyboard that is split, such as a kinesis. Do not compromise on this until you are pain-free. Take breaks frequently.

Lifting and massage are great too. For lifting, the big compound lifts help a lot, but be sure to handle muscle imbalances so you can make progress without injury. For example, I have to do a ton of side-steps. Postural exercises are really useful too. Anything that strengthens your neck and shoulders so you can pull your head into the right position.

The tensing up is hard to avoid but very important. Therapy is a tool for dealing with this. It's helpful to realize that people tense up because, in the moment, they believe it will improve their work output, but really it doesn't.

Check your ergonomic position first and then change the chair if you need to. I sawed off 1.5 inches off my 30" table to be ergonomically correct and it worked.

https://www.ergotron.com/en-us/tools/workspace-planner

You’re already lifting, so that is a good start.

As you hit 30 and beyond, you absolutely need a stretching/mobility routine. Whether it is yoga, or short 10-15 min rolling/stretching programs (eg “limber 11”) that you can do when you wake up. Things like BJJ and also great for body awareness and getting you moving properly.

In terms of lifting, in my early 30s I transitioned entirely to minimalist kettlebell programs and feel much better than when I was doing heavy barbell work. Plenty of info on the net but a good starting point is to get a 16kg and 24kg kettlebell and start with “simple and sinister” (just swings and getups), and progress through a whole other bunch of minimal programs (2-3 movements eg ROP, DFW), and see what works for you.

I am 51 and have run 10km a day for 28 years. I stretch 1-2 hours per day (yoga/pilates/general stretching) and remain completely pain free.

As already mentioned, weight lifting concentrates on a few muscles/muscle groups. You should switch to Calisthenics, or rock climbing. Maybe accompanied by flexibility training.

The joint pain in the fingers, when not coming from the intensified weight lifting, hints to an increased inflammatory 'ground state' of your body. Check the causes, maybe you need a diet.

The metabolism of humans change around the age of 30-35. So get accustomed to your new normal.

Oh, and avoid carrying your cellphone close to the body. Especially not in the pockets of your jeans.

A hot tub was literally a game changer for me. I have lingering sports injuries plus growing aches. There were many days that I was on the edge of tears from the pain.

Then I got a hot tub. 15 minutes in it cuts out 80% of my pain. Doesn’t even have to be jets. Just the warm water seems to alleviate a lot of my pain.

I'm much older and have been through similar symptoms, and 3 surgeries ( shoulder, knee). I know you said your health insurance is not great- but if possible find a doctor specializing in Sports Medicine if your primary care physician cannot find a reason other than poor posture/overuse.

You need to determine cause. The cause of pain could be muscular, nerve, arthritis, or something else. I recommend visiting a doctor as most of these factors are immediately simple to diagnose.

Once you determine cause you can then determine the proper course of treatment and pain management.

Ergonomic keyboard may alleviate pain in your fingers.

Personally I found a heating pad to really help for body aches.

Low impact exercise, swimming worked wonders for my back pain.

Read “Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide”

Have you learned to lift properly from a trainer?

I hear very different things from different trainers. My experience is that a trainer is likely to cause injuries by pushing you harder than you want to go.

No, but I’m tempted to find a good trainer for this. What duration/amount do you think is necessary to get what I need?

California personal trainers are like $850 a month

I started with 3 half-hour sessions every other day, T Th S. Then added Monday, then bumped to 45 minutes, then an hour, still 4x a week. In hindsight, I think it was a bit much and I would have done better sticking with 3 30min sessions a week. I did okay with 4 hours a week, but I do think my trainer pushed me a bit much considering I had never exercised in my life (and I'm old!). For an older person, I'd recommend you take a year or even 2 to get your joints, tendons, and ligaments strengthened and don't push yourself to use heavy weights (power lifting) because while you may develop more muscle, your body's support structures may not be able to handle it. Once injured, it really cramps your workouts. Happened to me - right shoulder. I ended up having to stop all upper body stuff for about 6 months and do shoulder physical therapy (bands) to get my shoulder to calm down.

I do think a trainer is a great investment, even if you only use them for a year or two. You will learn a lot with a good trainer, and having that appointment increases your commitment.

I can’t really advise, but I’m just thinking lifting with poor form or too much too quickly could cause your pain. Lifting with good form should reduce body pain over time.

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