Jon Topless

I know this is what you’ve been visiting the site for! Here’s what I look like without clothes (or skin) on…

(Click the pictures for a bigger version)
Although the problem likely started when I was much younger, the biggest issue is the damaged disc in my lower back. I blogged about it years ago — while in New York, I bent over to pick up a computer monitor and ended up flat on my face on the ground. The problem recurs because its never really been corrected. The best doctors available in New York could only recommend some stretches and prescribe narcotic pain killers. Canada’s doctors were no better (but with longer waits to see them.) I’m currently seeing a specialist who goes to our church.
Since I’m at it, I figured I should work on my feet too. Part of my over-all problem is insanely tight muscles. My reflexes startle doctors who test them, but its only because I’m wound so tight. My feet are no exception. My arches are abnormally high, and although years ago I had corrective orthotics made, I’ve never really given them a chance because they’re kinda painful.
For the next month I’ll work on wearing them, and pursue back treatment, and we’ll see how it goes…
On the plus side, my back did hold out long enough to get some good work done on the gardens around our house this weekend. We’ll post pictures and details on our summer projects later.

6 thoughts on “Jon Topless

  1. Ya, I decided the title was too much, so I changed it! The new one’s not much better, but if I can’t laugh about my back issues, then I’m not sure what I’ll do!

  2. you totally need to do some yoga. mild, restorative yoga. seriously, its NOT about being flexible…. it is about stretching and lengthening and loosening and lubricating your joints and Strengthening all of the lil muscles around your spine to help keep you from getting hurt.
    i know what i am talking about – fo SHIZZLE. lol.
    please please please just for me, look into some local yoga studios.. not a gym…. and ask about a restorative class….. or tell them about your bad back and bad feet and ask who would be the most knowelgedable ( wooaaaa spelling) instructor…. and try them 3 times. not once, not twice, but THREE.
    come on, just do it!!!!!!!
    people have been doing it for thousands and thousands of years ( lol)…. just do it!!!!!

  3. I beg to differ, but yoga and guys don’t mix. Different bone structure, nowhere near the same flexibility. Tai Chi is much better for guys. Same range of motion exercises with nowhere near the same amount of strain.
    But Tai Chi is the second stage, not the first. I don’t get out of bed without thirty minutes of stretches and crunches, and only if everything feels right after that do I venture into Tai Chi, and that only gently. Nothing rough, nothing fast, nothing over-extended.
    Mom and I swim every night, about twenty gentle laps and we watch our posture when we sit. The result of all of that is that whereas 10 years ago I had chronic back problems, now my back is better than it was when I was twenty-five.
    That said, exercise doesn’t solve everything, and can in fact make it worse if there is something structural that needs to be corrected by surgery. My apologies for the lousy genetic gift. On the plus side, you’re pretty bright and not bad lookin’. And look at those adorable kids!

  4. mmmmmm, i beg to differ some more….. ๐Ÿ™‚
    have you ever tried yoga? gentle yoga? people in hospital beds can do a full yoga routine. i bet that a very good amount of the stretches you do on your back are yoga postures and you dont even know it.
    we spent 2.5 hours laying flat on our backs doing yoga one of the days of my last training session…
    and the pool and your constant notice of sitting posture is very very good……… and def helps with your back too…
    but…. still…… yoga and guys go just as well as yoga and women. women didnt even start doing yoga for a long time after men did and the yoga teachers first refused to train the women, b.c they thought it was just for men. silly teachers.
    ok… i am rambling… gooooooood night…

  5. There are similarities between yoga – which I gave up on many years ago when I found out that it was putting incredible strain on the discs in my lower back – and Tai Chi. Hatha Yoga, for example, stresses breathing properly. Tai Chi encourages practitioners to channel the ‘chi’ or energy by breathing and movement.
    To be honest I don’t pay too much attention to that aspect, I’m looking more from the freedom of movement I get by a gentle massage of joints and muscles in a modified Tai Chi routine.
    When I was in university at Guelph a guy would come down from Toronto to teach on Saturday afternoons. I learned the whole 88 movements, and did them well, as he was an excellent teacher. These days I do about 8 of them, and not every day. I find it helps.
    I am happy that yoga works for you, but it doesn’t work for everyone, and there are some aspects of it – getting in touch with the ‘life force’ that is in everything, for example – which are antithical to my faith. As with everything in life, a little caution and a little moderation go a long way.

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