Long Rant: Rehabbing Many Issues

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

Hi guys, i’ll describe my current situation below.

What i am looking for, is advice and or tips… i know a lot of my problems are pretty common and i am sure lots of you have succesfully rehabilitated these problems, so any anecdotal advice or tips are appreciated. One exercise or tip that i still dont know about might change a lot for me, so i give it a shot with this topic.

I have been lifting 2-3 a week for around 1,5 years without actually getting stronger.(before that period i obv got stronger) I am basically fighting a losing battle every time i lift my injuries get worse. Therefore i decided to put all lifting on hold untill my issues are worked out.

I injured my lowerback deadlifting like a year ago and have re injured it 2 times ever since. Every time i started back again with the bar and really slowely tried to buld up from the bottom, but every time there came a point where i reinjured myself.

I have crazy tension in my muscles that is really hard to get rid off, often after a nighs rest some muscles are even more cramped up than before and i feel this also opposes my recovery in general. I guess i have bad motor control in my movements and a lot of tight muscles that mess with my movement and i seem to have problems activating certain muscles.

My problems are:

  • Lower back is always stiff and tensed (pain), sometimes gets worse during the night.
  • Irritated hip flexors
  • Weak abs
  • Irritated obliques
  • Always tight calves and shins.
  • Knee pain
  • Problems activating glutes
  • Scapular Dyskinesis ( Weak lower trap, weak serratus)
  • Shoulder pain
  • Almost no control over my toes.
  • Lower arms always tensed on the edge of tennis elbow all the time.(pain)
  • Short, tight hamstrings.

Since i decided to stop lifting, my 2 main goals are to get a strong core and to get my shoulders healthy (get rid of the scapular dyskinesis).
So i planned on doing certain exercises twice a day.

This is already proven to be impossible, since i cant seem to recover from these girly exercises enough to do them even once a day, doing 20-30 reps for 5 sets of glutebridges for like 3 days in a row have my glutes all overworked, tight and burning and ready to cramp. So now i am doing my exercises every other day and sometimes even with 2 days in between.

I weigh 160 pounds and i eat 130 grams of protein everyday. I eat around maintenance, maybe a little under.(could this be a factor even with these no weight exercises? I am at a lowely beginner level with these things.)

The exercises i am trying to do as much as possible, preferably daily :

  • Glute bridges
  • Planks
  • Push up plus ( only started yesterday)
  • Face pulls
  • Side bends ( low weight)
  • Jefferson curls (no weight yet)
  • L sits
  • lying scapular retractions.
  • Shoulder dislocations
  • Just added scaption today (edit)
    I also do a lot of foam rolling, la crosse ball rolling and stretching.
2

[quote]Respeezy wrote:

  • Almost no control over my toes.

[/quote]

Like you can’t bend them at will?

Have you seen a doctor about this?

<---------- Not an MD

3

How is your water and electrolyte intake? Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium. If you’re not getting in plenty of fruits and vegetables, or supplementing otherwise, you may be low in one or more of those (likely potassium). Without enough of them, your body can respond with lots of cramping and stiffness.

4

[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:

[quote]Respeezy wrote:

  • Almost no control over my toes.

[/quote]

Like you can’t bend them at will?

Have you seen a doctor about this?

I can bend them for a very short rom and very very weak, like if you hold a finger against them and i push into the finger with a toe there is almost no force against the finger.

No, this is like the lowest priority of all my issues so i am not waisting time with a physical therapist or doctor on it untill some of my other things are sorted out.
<---------- Not an MD
[/quote]

5

[quote]LoRez wrote:
How is your water and electrolyte intake? Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium. If you’re not getting in plenty of fruits and vegetables, or supplementing otherwise, you may be low in one or more of those (likely potassium). Without enough of them, your body can respond with lots of cramping and stiffness.[/quote]

I feel i am very very far above anyone else i know in my fruit and vegetables intake.
But it is still possible i have a deficit in something, i dont drink much water but drink like 2 liters or more of green tea everyday. (hope that counts as water lol)

It definitely cant hurt to look into this again, i have done so in the past but my diet has changed a little so i will try to get a good picture of my daily intake of vitamins and minerals and see if there are any holes there, thanks for the suggestion.

6

Rather than looking at your issues as a series of unconnected bullet points, I see generalized high tone and neuro-muscular weakness.

You may want to consult with an MD or PT to help you connect the dots.

7

Go to a Dr.
Get a Personal Trainer
Get a nutritionist

Go to the best of the above that you can find. If you don’t you will be in the same place next year

8

Dr. Pangloss can expand on your last post about high tone and neuro muscular weakness?

9

[quote]sam_I_am wrote:
Dr. Pangloss can expand on your last post about high tone and neuro muscular weakness? [/quote]

I could, but not nearly as well or as completely as this wikipedia entry on muscle weakness: Muscle weakness - Wikipedia

From my layman’s standpoint, it seemed that there was a common neuro component to the OPs issues. I was hoping that by pointing it out he would be better able to see the big picture rather than simply a laundry list of complaints.

Here’s a good entry on clinical hypertonia: Hypertonia - Wikipedia which shouldn’t be confused with simply tight muscles.

10

Yeah, the reason I suggested the electrolyte side of things was that it seems like a more general issue; tightness and cramping everywhere, versus issues in just one area. Could be neural also, which can also be affected by electrolyte balance.

As for water, I’d honestly work on getting 3-4 quarts of water a day for a few days and see how that feels. I can’t stomach plain water very well myself, so I found that using MiO water “flavor enhancers” and/or a straw both make it go down much easier.

Certainly there’s all sorts of soft tissue work and rehab stuff, but there’s enough going on that it might be more than just weaknesses and imbalances. It’s the “I have crazy tension in my muscles” that makes me think that.

Either way, you’d probably be well served seeing a GP, and then a sports medicine doctor if the GP doesn’t find anything obvious. That said, if you do decide to supplement with any minerals, make sure to mention that along with doses.

11

Hey guys, sorry it took so long for me to reply. My laptop crashed and i was generally pretty busy.
Really appriciate the replys and i am looking into the given information and reading up about it.

Again thanks a lot to all of you for helping out.