I know you probably saw the title if this thread and clicked on it intending to say something about how terrible of an idea this is. But hear me out. I injured my lower back, it’s been 4 months and I’m still not healed. No squats deads presses etc.
anyways Im getting restless and I was wondering if a 3 week period if strategic overreaching for my upper body would be a bad idea. All movements would be those that didnt stress the lower back. Basically lots of volume and high intensity. Would this hamper the healing process?
Honestly, what I think is hindering your healing process is the fact that you are avoiding squats, deads and presses. Whenever I have an injury, I heal it by training the movements still. The key is that I limit my ROM to whatever I can do comfortably, which in turn means I go much heavier than I could with a full ROM.
Example, when rehabbing a back injury, I made use of mat pulls, like this
Or chain suspended squats
I still train full ROM as well, but with very light weight or even reverse bands, so that there is minimal load where I am injured while still being able to place emphasis on the non-injured part.
If you have a back injury that lasts four months you are not rehabbing correctly or have an injury that requires a surgery. There are no upper-body movements (worth doing) that don’t stress the back. Take the effort you intended for your ‘overreaching’ program and conduct a proper rehab.
Bluecollar- with all due respect I have been putting so much effort into my rehab. I am obviously missing something but effort is not lacking. I just got a referral to a physical medicine doctor, but have yet to receive a diagnosis. I’m dying to start dead lifting and squatting again so if you have any suggestions I’m open to it.
@pwnisher, I was trying to let this heal through resting and I’m worried that by trying to work through it ill reinsure myself, which would kill me to know the past 4 months have been for nothing
I’ve taken 4 months off from anything lower back intensive and have worked on increasing hamstring/hip mobility as well as more recently trying to increase core stabilization through planks. The entire time I’ve done upper body training that’s not too stressful on the lower back. These include bench press, incline bench press, db flyes, pushdowns, curls, dips, chin ups, lat Pulldowns, and more recently inverted rows. Also tons and tons of foam rolling
[quote]bulkNcut wrote: @pwnisher, I was trying to let this heal through resting and I’m worried that by trying to work through it ill reinsure myself, which would kill me to know the past 4 months have been for nothing [/quote]
I understand the approach you are trying to use, but it’s clearly not working. As of now, those 4 months have already been for nothing from what I can see.
I’ve honestly never healed from resting. I took 3 years off of deadlifting due to a lower back injury that never got better. Once I started training the dead heavy and hard again with partial ROM stuff, my back got stronger.
I have a question for everyone here. At what point do you decide an injury can be trained through? I wish I had a diagnosis and could make that decision from there
Saw my chiro today. She thinks its something that can be fixed with more frequent visits so the adjustments hold. She also said she thinks that I can start dead lifting and squatting very light and work up slow with the frequent visits. She seems to know her stuff but its hard to tell. She also says she’s confident it isn’t a disc
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
Saw my chiro today. She thinks its something that can be fixed with more frequent visits so the adjustments hold. She also said she thinks that I can start dead lifting and squatting very light and work up slow with the frequent visits. She seems to know her stuff but its hard to tell. She also says she’s confident it isn’t a disc [/quote]
Above you said you had an appointment with a physical med doctor, are you still planning on that appointment? I’m a little weary of chiros, especially ones whose solution is more visits.
That said upper body work can stress the low back too, so overreaching is probably a bad idea. I’d personally wait until you see the doctor and try
To make a plan with them.
I am still planning on the appointment with the physical medicine doctor. I am unsure as to whether I should continue mobility work/core stabilization only, or start doing some unilateral training, or jump back into squatting/deadlifting like my chiro. says I could. The chiro. is a pretty down to earth women, very nice and personable and worked out a payment plan with me if I choose to take the more visits route.
Also I have had some health issues, but only 2 were training related. I had a pilonidal sinus surgery twice, im 9 months out from the second wound still with an open wound on my tailbone. I was extremely sick for 8 months up until a few months ago, like puking every morning unable to eat solid food go to hospital like twice a week sick and even got checked for stomach cancer sick. Neither of these was training related in anyway, although it def effected my training. This and tricep tendonitis are the only 2 training injuries I have gotten so far (knock on wood)
I guess Idk where to go from here. I’ve come up with a few options
take this entire week completely off from the gym (its my deload week anyways) and focus purely on mobility
Next week start with body weight unilateral training then progress into either loaded unilateral training or squats/deadlifts again (also upper boddy stuff as normal)
take this week off except for core training and also focus on mobility
same as above bw----> unilateral training or squats/deads (upper body as normal)
continue with deload this week and do unilateral bodyweight training at the same time
-progress next week to laoded unilateral training or deads/squats (upper body as normal)
I’m hesitant to take this week off cause I have taken a week off before and it hasn’t helped much.
Heres my primary concerns. I am transferring a year from now to a school and pursuing exercise science. I’m living at home right now so I can afford to eat well/sleep and make my training a priority. I want to become a strength and conditioning coach and I have a hell of a long way to go. However, before transferring I want my lifts to be quite good, 4 months ago my deadlift was 405, press 145, and I hadn’t squatted in like 5 months due to surgery so that was crap. I just want to get as strong as possible as quickly as possbile so I can be successful in my career and show people that I practice what I preach. I had goals in my head of a 500lb deadlift, 405 squat, and 315 bench press before I transferred. I know this seems stupid in a sense, but I felt that would give me a good base to work off of. I just need to get back to being strong and healthy ASAP.
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
On a random side note, mdgray is that you in the avitar? looking pretty beastly if it is [/quote]
It is, thanks been working with Shelby after getting sick of trying to convince my gf that my slowly growing love handles were huge obliques from squating.
Re your options: Deload + body weight only for BOTH upper and lower body. It sounds like you haven’t change your upper body work and our injury hasn’t healed. It’s not a stretch to think the two may be related. I personally wouldn’t deviate from a body weight template until talking to a doctor who can help you with an actual plan.
Thanks man I appreciate your help. Any of the rest of you if you have further insight let me know cause I appreciate your opinions as well.
Also mobility is my #1 priority, specifically hip/thoracic mobility. However, should I also be doing plank work still to develop core stability? And if that is a yes, how do you guys progress on planks. I moved from flat planks to feet on a med ball, but I’m wondering what you guys think of variations with valslides like Ben Bruno demonstrates. Stuff like the body saw that keeps things more interesting while youre focusing on something like core stability…
