In a post of two days ago entitled Feeder Maintenance – Part II, the issue of back strain while loading the feeders with heavy sacks of corn was raised.  In the comments that followed that post, Tjilpi (a practicing physician who knows all about such things) pointed out that hoisting the full drum of corn up to the top of the feeder was possibly causing pressure on my spinal disks.  My joking reaction to Tjilpi was “I figure that whatever compression damage I’m doing by hefting the bags onto my shoulder is being offset by the extension damage I’m doing by pulling on the hoist.”  Tjilpi suggested that the act of pulling down on the rope was actually causing compression of the disks, rather then the extension damage that I had assumed would be occurring.

Notwithstanding the fact that he resides in the Southern Hemisphere, where even gravity sometimes behaves in an unpredictable manner, I respect Tjilpi’s learned opinion on the matter, and figured that I had better self-treat my compression damage from loading the corn feeders.  And so it is that you see me in the basement in the following photograph, defying Newton’s laws of gravity as I hang fearlessly upside-down in Retta’s inversion chair.

After spending sufficient time in the inversion chair to stretch out my spine, I figured I had better end the session before bursting a vein somewhere in my cranium, which would have really ruined my day :)

In a post of two days ago entitled Feeder Maintenance – Part II, the issue of back strain while loading the feeders with heavy sacks of corn was raised.  In the comments that followed that post, Tjilpi (a practicing physician who knows all about such things) pointed out that hoisting the full drum of corn up to the top of the feeder was possibly causing pressure on my spinal disks.  My joking reaction to Tjilpi was “I figure that whatever compression damage I’m doing by hefting the bags onto my shoulder is being offset by the extension damage I’m doing by pulling on the hoist.”  Tjilpi suggested that the act of pulling down on the rope was actually causing compression of the disks, rather then the extension damage that I had assumed would be occurring.

Notwithstanding the fact that he resides in the Southern Hemisphere, where even gravity sometimes behaves in an unpredictable manner, I respect Tjilpi’s learned opinion on the matter, and figured that I had better self-treat my compression damage from loading the corn feeders.  And so it is that you see me in the basement in the following photograph, defying Newton’s laws of gravity as I hang fearlessly upside-down in Retta’s inversion chair.

After spending sufficient time in the inversion chair to stretch out my spine, I figured I had better end the session before bursting a vein somewhere in my cranium, which would have really ruined my day :)