I sustained a back injury when I began weight-training over a year ago. I was unable to bend forward; in fact, I would endure egregious amounts of pain unless I maintained an exaggerated upright posture. The pain disappeared completely after a few days of bed-rest. I believe the injury was caused by improper form during bent over rows. My form has gradually improved over the past year (though it’s still horrendous), and I’ve been fine… until yesterday. I did not train yesterday - yet when I woke up from my daily nap I felt the same kind of pain I felt a year ago. A cannot so much as bend a few inches forward.
I anticipate that the pain will go away as it did before - but I’d like to know what is causing it - what kind of injury this is - and how I can prevent it. Any help will be appreciated!
(Oh, and, I will see a doctor… eventually).
Seeing a doctor sooner than “eventually” would be much smarter. I got this condition once before I ever weight trained. Here is what happened: I was deployed to Kosovo during their little civil war and the 7 months of wearing body armor for hours on end daily, often while sitting in a HMMWV was hell on the spine. Eventually my back spasmed out on me and I couldn’t walk, sit, stand… basically couldn’t do shit while deployed. A week of bedrest and narcotics helped. I believe that a combination of muscle imbalance and forced bad posture from the armor caused this. I also now know that a couple vertebrae are all fucked up from that. Get help fast! Get it fixed.
See a chiropractor. Look for one well versed in strength training, who can advise you on muscle imbalances, exercises to avoid and exercises you can still do to regain, gain or maintain your muscle/strength balance and then make progress and prevent this from happening again. For now, you need to get it treated, get the CAUSE treated (by a chiropractor), get an adjustment, some physio-therapy and not get loaded up on pain meds, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories prescribed by a medical doctor with little experience or knowledge working with musculoskeletal conditions and especially no experience working with not only someone who ‘works out’ but someone who TRAINS like a T-Nation Man.
PM me if you want more.
You may have to address your weaknesses, if you are doing exercises with too much weight to maintain the proper posture you are going to be in trouble regardless…