Ugg...that's the worst. I used to struggle with that all of the time. Step the mast (granted, it was a 6.0 with a mast made of lead), throw out the back, spend the weekend laid up in the club house and beg someone to take my boat back apart for me. I've even had to be driven home from regattas twice. Or, get to the finish of the first leg of a Tybee 500 and barely be able to walk because of a back problem. After that, it evolved into sailing weekends going fine but I would seemingly have random fits where I would be reduced to living in a recliner for a couple of days about two or three times a year.

I had done all sorts of therapy - high powered ultrasound therapy, tinge units, muscle relaxers, pain meds, motion therapy, chirokooks, etc. None of it made much difference. Then, at the urging of my wife, I went to a particular sports massage therapist. I hated the thought of that - and even more so it being a dude (call me what you want) but this was really starting to affect how I lived.

I went to this guy only three times and he got me to take notes of activities and bouts with back trouble and he had me go through the motions and activities that we do when sailing. Turns out, I could calibrate my calendar by the fact that I would have a major back problem almost exactly two weeks after sailing an extended event and I had previously never put this together (Steeplechase, week long nationals, other distance race, etc.). It had been suggested to me by other folks that I had disc issues and all sorts of stuff previously, one leg was shorter than the other (I was in serious pain and a bit drawn up on one side, you know..it made sense that my hips were not being held square by my muscles), all the fun chiropractor crap. This guy's analysis was that it was a muscle issue and the pain areas were the result of other areas that were having spasms and/or a lot of tension from being overworked and the pain resulted from muscles were the last ones left resisting the tension in the other areas. Sounded hoaky but he would fix it every time by focusing on areas where the pain didn't exist (and with no Mf'n joint cracking!). He gave me things to do in the meantime to help reduce the chances of it happening again and I haven't needed to see him in a few years.

I don't do much of the periodic maintenance that he advises but I do a lot of different working activities along the same lines now that keep my back muscles working a lot. I also really try to avoid periods of inactivity leading up to big events. I haven't had a significant problem in a couple of years, thankfully, and I'm amazed that I lived with it for so long while it was such an easy fix. You just have to find the right people with the right knowledge.