Low Back Pain? Read This First

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
41

I screwed up my left SI really bad a couple or so years ago deadlifting with poor form.

It was about 5 months before squat was where it was pre-injury and 9-10 before my pull was back.

What helped was:

-piriformis stretching

-tons of lax ball and foam roller work for my hips and legs

-hip and low back tractioning with bands

-tons of hip, groin, and hamstring stretching

-very strict, very light, very controlled 1 leg stiff legged db deadlifts with one dumbbell

-cross frictioning- I’d use the round of a broom handle, put the other end into the corner of a wall, and lean my hips into it where there was tightness and where it felt ropy and knotty

-good girl/bad girl machine adduction- very very slow tempo, squeeze and pause at the contraction part, hold at the stretch part

-goblet squats with high reps and good form (good for apt too)

-hanging leg raises helped too

42

Also, what really really helped was using minimal shoes for daily activities. I had to relearn how to walk with my mid foot and use a light heel strike and improved hip and ankle position by not having any heel lift.

43

what helps me with that tight ache felling in lower back is getting the hip flexors(cant remeber the names of em) on the front of the hip manually realeased from time to time… if there tight there pulling the pelvis forward and putting stess on the lower back ,quick test is stand up and find the bony point on the front of the hip move in about an inch and have a good poke around with your finger and see if you have any trigger point or tenderness if ya do sure sigh ur flexors are outta wak,find a good pt and get the realeased oh and a bit of glute work to get them firing…
back pain suck assssssssssssssss

44

[quote]Lolkema wrote:

[quote]corstijeir wrote:

Yeah if I was a hot chick I’d never leave the bathroom.[/quote]

What chick does ever leave the bathroom?

What are they doing in there? We can only imagine.
[/quote]
Probably just talking or putting on makeup or doing their hair.

45

[quote]alternate wrote:
Last night, I noticed my left ankle was feeling kind of tight, so I slowly twisted my foot to the side to stretch it - and since that moment I’ve had a mild, permanent tingling sensation on the base of my left foot.

To my knowledge, tingling in the foot can only be caused by a herniated intervertebral disc, which meant that last night I managed to herniate a disc standing bolt upright in the shower, with no weight on my back, and not even bending or flexing my spine at all. And this was after being thoroughly warmed up after doing all my prehab/rehab stuff. Great.[/quote]

I rarely advice people, specially since some seem to ask but waiting to hear what they already thinks it’s true; so, there’s no point on doing that. Anyway; it is literally and anatomically impossible to herniate a lumbar disc by twisting your ankle. Yes, that tingling sensation may be highly due to a nerve damage. But that is not the only cause of that, and even in the case of being a nerve thing I would NEVER think you blow a disc by twisting your ankle!!! I would thing on a peripheral nerve damage or alteration rather that a herniated disc.

No wonder you didn’t get better with that routine; bird dogs are for lumbopelvic stabilization not for glutes activation, plus if you did it like in the vid, I am sorry to inform you that are done in a wrong manner; pelvis should NOT move upside down like that…It seems more like one of those 80’s exercise of kicks with an ankle strap attached to a low pulley! Hiperextensions for a bad back (I am not talking about good o regular backs with no problems like yours)? Man, do you know how much shear force are placing on your lumbar spine? Twisting your waist? There will always be people that can get away with minor or no problems at all even while doing things wrong; but for the spine challenged guy, I would not recommend it; specially if I do not know if you are having a facetary syndrome.

Do yourself a favor and do not save money, save your back! Seek for a good spine doctor who REALLY understands biomechanics of the spine and the needs of athletes. Do your homework and do a little research so you can choose wisely. If you live in US get in touch with Dr. McGill or Dr. Marras, and ask them to recommend you a good spine dr. near your area.

Also, re-educate your brain motor areas with some Feldenkrais.

46

[quote]jav88 wrote:

[quote]alternate wrote:
Last night, I noticed my left ankle was feeling kind of tight, so I slowly twisted my foot to the side to stretch it - and since that moment I’ve had a mild, permanent tingling sensation on the base of my left foot.

To my knowledge, tingling in the foot can only be caused by a herniated intervertebral disc, which meant that last night I managed to herniate a disc standing bolt upright in the shower, with no weight on my back, and not even bending or flexing my spine at all. And this was after being thoroughly warmed up after doing all my prehab/rehab stuff. Great.[/quote]

I rarely advice people, specially since some seem to ask but waiting to hear what they already thinks it’s true; so, there’s no point on doing that. Anyway; it is literally and anatomically impossible to herniate a lumbar disc by twisting your ankle. Yes, that tingling sensation may be highly due to a nerve damage. But that is not the only cause of that, and even in the case of being a nerve thing I would NEVER think you blow a disc by twisting your ankle!!! I would thing on a peripheral nerve damage or alteration rather that a herniated disc.

No wonder you didn’t get better with that routine; bird dogs are for lumbopelvic stabilization not for glutes activation, plus if you did it like in the vid, I am sorry to inform you that are done in a wrong manner; pelvis should NOT move upside down like that…It seems more like one of those 80’s exercise of kicks with an ankle strap attached to a low pulley! Hiperextensions for a bad back (I am not talking about good o regular backs with no problems like yours)? Man, do you know how much shear force are placing on your lumbar spine? Twisting your waist? There will always be people that can get away with minor or no problems at all even while doing things wrong; but for the spine challenged guy, I would not recommend it; specially if I do not know if you are having a facetary syndrome.

Do yourself a favor and do not save money, save your back! Seek for a good spine doctor who REALLY understands biomechanics of the spine and the needs of athletes. Do your homework and do a little research so you can choose wisely. If you live in US get in touch with Dr. McGill or Dr. Marras, and ask them to recommend you a good spine dr. near your area.

Also, re-educate your brain motor areas with some Feldenkrais.

[/quote]

The tingling foot thing seems to have died down now - don’t know what it was.

This back tightness ranges from low-mid back all the way to the thoracic spine. I think chronically tight lats may have something to do with it, as I only do upper body pulling exercises (to save my shoulder) - and the lats run almost the entire length of the back.

47

Injured my back deadlifting 127KG’s almost a month ago…still get some uncomfortable tingling sensations in my lower back…would this be ideal for recovery?

48

Ive recently got some conflicting information.

Im trying to recover for injury and “bullet proof” my lower back. I have been told high rep back hyperextensions would help, and then others tell me to avoid that exercise at all cost. Which one is true?

Im not sure of the cause of my lower back problems, its either facet irritation or maybe SI joint problems or maybe both. No chiros or Dr’s have been able to give me a definite diagnosis.

tweet

49

[quote]theBird wrote:
Ive recently got some conflicting information.

Im trying to recover for injury and “bullet proof” my lower back. I have been told high rep back hyperextensions would help, and then others tell me to avoid that exercise at all cost. Which one is true?

Im not sure of the cause of my lower back problems, its either facet irritation or maybe SI joint problems or maybe both. No chiros or Dr’s have been able to give me a definite diagnosis.

tweet[/quote]

I’m not sure, but the confusion may stem from some people thinking the hyperextension is actually a ‘back extension’ exercise - where the spine rounds at the lower back, then straightens again (thus the target is the spinal erectors). And other people thinking it is actually a ‘hip extension’ exercise - where the spine stays in neutral throughout the whole movement and the body pivots through the femur rotating on the acetabulum (thus the glutes and hamstrings are the target).

Probably the former should be avoided and the latter should be done, so you should keep the pad as low down as possible - resting on the front of your thighs, not the front of your waist.

50

How were you able to do hyperextensions with intense pain? With my back issues that’s the last exercise I would ever want to do!

51

I’ve logged in just to comment on this because I think there’s some important ideas missing (or perhaps even off base) in this thread.

There’s alot of info and research out there now and there’s a few key things:

  1. There is little to no evidence of “bad” posture causing pain.
  2. Pain is not always a sign of damage.
  3. “disc degeneration” is a normal part of aging and does not lead to pain or lack of function

The take home message is hurting your back is physiologically similar to hurting your knee or any other part of you. Gentle rehab and then gradual intelligent increases in load/challenge will normally go a long way.

WHAT IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE is thinking your back is “mangled” or “wrecked” and stigmatizing certain postures or movements.

So movement and exercises are good but what helps one person may not another (as can already been seen in people’s experience in this thread.

Bret Contreras has got on board with this but it’s not easy for him and I still see some questionable stuff on his blog. This interview is EXCELLENT:

Here is a one on one interaction which illustrates this very well:

I know this can be challenging, but if what you’re doing has helped then keep doing it -Just it will probably serve you better to let go of any ideas of slipped disks and ‘bad posture’ etc and relax a bit too.

52

here’s another one about chronic pain

53

Thanks for the advice on the first post.

I have sore lowback for four weeks now but the lower back warm up has helped a lot.
I was wondering when I dare to do lower body workout again? Should I wait until the problem is wholly dissapeared?

Any advice or experience would be good.

54

Another idea for a glute excercise… Bulgarian Split Squats. I recently started doing them and they really hit my glutes.

55

If you have a desk job, see if you can get an adjustable workstation to allow you to stand for part of the work day. I had back pain for years and about 2-3 months after getting the adjustable workstation the pain was close to gone.

56

[quote]john2009 wrote:
If you have a desk job, see if you can get an adjustable workstation to allow you to stand for part of the work day. I had back pain for years and about 2-3 months after getting the adjustable workstation the pain was close to gone.[/quote]

Pretty much the best seating position is the one that’s constantly changing is what I learned from the ergonomics chapter of my osh textbook. I can testify to that too like you. I bet the standing is a nice additional option.

Has anyone tried those seats where the seat cushion is like half a swiss ball? I’ve seen them on elitefts and I’ve wondered if they actually work.

57

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

Pretty much the best seating position is the one that’s constantly changing is what I learned from the ergonomics chapter of my osh textbook. I can testify to that too like you. I bet the standing is a nice additional option.

Has anyone tried those seats where the seat cushion is like half a swiss ball? I’ve seen them on elitefts and I’ve wondered if they actually work.[/quote]

The best seating position is one that constantly changes makes you want to beat your 2nd grade teacher about the head for bitching about the kids fidgeting in their seats. They were ahead of the curve, working on good ergonomics.

I’ve tried sitting on a regular swiss ball while working at home a bit. Not bad. At work we have pretty high end Steelcase office chairs, but standing beats them for me.

58

Anyone else having problems with the first video?

59

^ yes

60

The video for the warmup isn’t working. Is there any way to reload it, or describe what’s in it? I’d love to give this a try. Thanks.