I've had a lot of pain for over 10 years time now.

I've been working in health care for 20 years+ and back in the days when we did not have lifts I as a bodybuilder was asked to lift up patients from the floor and so on, so I have worn out discs in my neck and middle back, nerve compressions, lower back pain and knee pain. Luckily my knowledge in nutrition and training has helped me a lot.

Anyone else experience pain and what is your ways to manage the pain?

/Y

I had my entire lower spin reconstructed after a pretty catastrophic injury that nearly left me paralyzed from the waist down. I had to have an anterior and posterior instrumented spinal fusion with bone grafts and was told that I would likely be dealing with chronic pain for the rest of my life. There's days when I can hardly get out of bed.
Pain management is a complete joke. They are constantly trying to get me to allow them to wire my back up with stimulators/blockers in order to get me off the pain meds (opiates) despite my objections to this. I've never abused the medicines, and have no intentions of doing so but they don't seem to give much of crap. I had to give up marijuana over it, something that I had always considered a sacrament of sorts and had used daily for nearly forty years, it was heartbreaking.
It was about this time that I discovered Kratom, in particular, Red Bentuangie Kratom and I can honestly say without reservation that this plant is an absolute miracle. It hits the opiate receptors without suppressing respiratory function or tolerance issues, lacks the terrible constipation of traditional opiates, and I don't have some nurse counting my dosage to make sure I'm taking it or not taking it. Three teaspsoons, twice a day and I got at least some of my life back. I still can't run, hike, bend over alot, etc. but now my days aren't spent in bed regretting life. I know that sounds bad, but it's the truth. It still gets rough from time to time, and if they ban Kratom I don't know what I'm going to do. I grow it myself, but I live in zone 7 so I couldn't possibly grow enough to self-medicate but I'm hoping that it will granny clause in if my state bans it.

If I can give you any advice, watch for numbness below the waist. If that happens, get your butt to the doctor and don't put it off. I almost killed myself not wanting to go to the hospital.

Ice to numb the pain and reduce inflammation.

Cannabis to distract the mind.

These two things have helped me to manage pain more than anything else. I blew out my knee 2 years ago (ruptured patellar tendon). It required surgery and a long recovery. Ice and cannabis got me through that. And when my knee acts up today, ice and cannabis are still what I turn to for relief.

Thank you for your input guys!

I have a 20-40 min sauna session after every workout (4-5 times/week) and it really helps with recovery and pain management (there are scientific research which backs this up).

I also supplement with magnesium which relaxes the CNS, I start with 300mg after 4pm and then 1000-2000mg before bedtime.

Glycine and Taurine is also good to relax the CNS and it makes me sleep better.

I foam roll and use myofascial ball, and a tool called peanut ball which is great for the erector spinae.

I use cannabis sometimes in the evening to relax and for better sleep.

Yesterday I had my first Caapi tea and it was amazing for the pain and stiffness, I still have no pain and I’m very relaxed and muscles are soft and flexible. I’m definitely going to experiment with Caapi for pain management.

I document everything I do for pain management and physical exercise, sauna and magnesium works best for me.

/Y

Hi! I bodybuild naturally and love it My DOMS after training is brutal (cause I do barbell squats before long distance jogging) but as you must know that sensation of being an invalid in bed is pleasing for the reason that at least then u cant get some decent rest and pamper ur obliterated legs and sore muscles...watch tv, dream...The way to turn this body pain into anesthesia and a blissful body high for me is to smoke weed and eat high dose cannabis edibles. The cannabis edibles can be so strong that u might remember past dmt trips. But the body high...dear lord, your legs will just float, your whole body buzzes with pleassure. DMT of course is amazing for DOMS days as for besides the anaesthetic qualities of dmt's body high I think dmt might release many hormones like melatonin or Human growth hormone through the pineal gland and im sure these make muscle recovery, and therefore growth, faster.

High dose Lemon Balm Tea (Im talking likr 30g or more of leaf reduced to a cup!!) throughout the day (like four cups) might be good. It works on GABA receptors. Ive noticed an increase in better mood and a potentiation of canabis' body high. Also combine with Caapi tea, as caapi tea helps send pleassure through the body too. Vitamin C may help, I feel Ive had less DOMS since taking vitamin c.

Ketamine could work, as its a psychedelic anaesthetic, but its such a dark molecule with many horror stories of abuse, disease, and death, that its quite a commitment to dose for the first time.

I’ll try higher dose of lemon balm tea, thank you for the information.

Be carful with vitamin c and other antioxidants around training as they can prevent hypertrophy as they decreases the
inflammation you create during the workout, you want this inflammation during and after the workout to stimulate muscle growth.

I don’t use antioxidants 2-3 hours before and after my workouts.

/Y

Had a vehicle collision and ruptured several discs in my lower, mid and upper spine. Can't do much with the thoracic part, but for lower and cervical, I went with total disc replacement. I waited 12 years until the technology was safe and proven enough for me to go through with the surgeries. The products I had implanted are from Spinalkinetics. Was the best decision I ever made. 99.8% pain free.

Don't do the surgery in the USA if you live there.
It's in the 1/4 million dollar range. Get it in Europe for 20K.

People are mentioning cannabis here but i assume they mean THC. CBD rich strains like charlottes web are the pain relieving sort and dont get you high, although I don't know how much relief they can offer (clearly some if so many people say it does).

I am also very intrigued by the idea that people can change the interpretation of the input of their pain signal to mean something other than pain, ie buddhist monks after serious meditation) which seems to me pain is something that could be interpreted differently with the right understanding and strength of mind: