A little over a month ago I jacked my lower back up pretty good; I've been on light duty with my training ever since. Prior to the injury I had been doing some pretty hard sessions.

Anyways, I got to Thailand this week and have had some serious training planned for this trip for quite some time. Was intending to do 6 days a week, 4 hours or so a day for the next couple months. The plan was to run in the morning, stretches, light workout, solo KF drills and forms; then training at a Muay Thai camp in the evening.

About 2 weeks ago I could barely stand up straight; my back has improved since; but I'm nowhere near finished healing. I saw the doctor yesterday; he says it's muscles, not my spine and I guess I got the ok to train. He just said no sit ups for a month; but I stopped them a month ago when I got hurt.

I seem to be alright with most punches, front kicks, roundhouses, side kicks...but if I do the snap kick, slap foot thing that we always do in Shaolin forms, it kills me. Crescent kicks, spinning kicks, jumps hurt pretty bad too. I'm afraid I may have to forgo the form training so i don't get into bad habits from compensating for my back.

I have no idea how I'm going to respond to bag/pad/clinch work; I haven't done any since I got hurt. I know the smart thing to do is keep resting until I'm better; but I've been so stoked for this trip for a while; I know I'm going to train until I can't.

Anyways, I'm sure some of you guys have dealt with this problem. Any suggestions for working around the injury; or minimizing damage? My current plan is to just strap on a back brace, pop some pain killers and hope I'm not crying when they where off.

Thanks.