Low Back Pain

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

I hurt my back in 2 different ways that I remember. The first was a stance in football we did with 1 leg to help explosively. I landed in a complete rounded over spine on accident. I felt fine a week later.

2 weeks after that I got talked into doing a Crossfit style workout with a buddy of mine’s father. It was 7 rounds of power cleans but this is how it was executed.

1 rep= pull from floor: front squat: push press: dead lift.
There were 10 “reps” per round and 7 rounds total. 90 seconds rest between each round.

I used 135lbs for the workouts, which doing power cleans that is light weight for me.

I wore a belt the whole time and never took it off. Towards the end of the workout I guess I forgot about my form subconsciously (form didn’t break down from fatigue. Idiotic mistake I know) and I began to pull it up off the ground with a complete extreme rounded back. Within an hour my lower back hurt badly around the L4 to L5 area.

This was the last weekend in April and my symptoms haven’t improved. Some days I feel 100% but I still don’t attempt the stuff that hurts it.

What hurts it: Back Squats, Conventional Deadlifts, Mountain Climbers, Burpees, Bodyweight squats of any form. Lying leg raises, toe touch stretches or butterfly stretches. And certain prowler pushes.

What doesn’t hurt it: Extreme arch range of motion on Bench Press. Any pressing of any sort even overhead presses. Goodmornings feel amazing.
Barbell back lunges, Reverse or forward. Front Squats Overhead Squats. Supermans or any other back extension of any sort.

And one other side note. I have gotten massages and used icy hot but to no relief. And one of the days i felt amazing with no pain i thought i would foam roll it and possibly it would go away. Nope that causes the absolute worst pain. Foam rolling felt horrible.

And now i have lost the mobility to squat properly( makes 3 point stance harder to get into) have poor hamstring flexibility now and ankle mobility is a downhill battle.

I will be seeing a sport therapist next weak that specializes in non surgical approach to injuries. It is not a chiropractor so nothing dumb going on.

Any suggestions or ideas and input would be appreciated.

(I should have never lost my focus and pulled with a rounded back. Don’t do it it will ruin you in so many ways. It was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.)

2

It could be a number of things. It sounds like you are flexion intolerant right now. Perhaps, a disc issue but who knows. As you discovered, DO NOT foam roll your spine when your back hurts. That only works if there is muscle soreness and you have a totally healthy spine. I would suggest avoiding exercises that put significant stress of any kind on your back until you see the doc, even the ones that don’t appear to hurt it. Just try to rest it and be as healthy as you can for football practice.

3

Thanks for the input. I’m not doing anything to hurt it. On another note I previously forgot to mention that regardless of how my back feels doing a simple task, such as bending over to pick up my phone or a keys that I dropped, hurts going down and up again. Doesn’t cause a flare up just hurts doing so.

4

Interested in seeing how this pans out for yo uas I am going through nearly exactly what you describe…seems any exercise where I can arch my back hard doesn’t bother it, but everything else does (espcially mundane bending over tasks). I can even squat to a certain point before the ROM begins to hurt it

Im seeing an ART guy who says my hip is out of alignment. I went to him on Friday and he adjusted the shit out of me and felt great for a couple days, but now its all fucked up again.

I also have a scapula issue on the opposite side to boot.

5

Any updates on this?